Earlier this month, the White Sox were among several teams reportedly inquiring about Martín Maldonado. A week later, they acquired catcher Max Stassi from the Atlanta Braves, which seemingly gave them the veteran catcher they were likely to pair with Korey Lee or Carlos Pérez.
Instead, it seems like it gave them the veteran catcher to pair with another veteran catcher, because the White Sox are going ahead and signing Maldonado, too. Robert Murray reported the deal was near, and Jon Heyman says it's for one year along with a team option for 2025.
As we discussed at the time of the initial rumor, Maldonado had a typical season at the plate, hitting .191/.258/.348. Behind the plate, however, his receiving fell off a cliff. He still blocks and throws well, and his reputation is such that he remained Dusty Baker's preferred candidate behind the plate despite the emergence of Yainer Diaz but he's 37 years old and coming off three consecutive 100-game seasons, so time will likely continue to take its toll.
Given that Stassi missed all of 2023 due to injury and an ongoing family health crisis, Maldonado's edge in durability makes him feel like a more certain option.
But Maldonado also adds a lot more of the same in other respects. He joins Stassi, Paul DeJong and Nicky Lopez as the latest glove-first option who doesn't figure to contribute anything at the plate, making the 2024 White Sox still a team that is determined to get through all 54 outs as quickly as possible.
He also creates a rare logjam of talent on the organizational depth chart, which could create some opportunities to improve the roster elsewhere. Maldonado doesn't have any entertainment value for the 2024 White Sox by himself, but maybe he can assist the 26-man roster with help from a third party.
In a world where Stassi is the lone veteran catcher added, the tandems at the three highest levels of the White Sox system would look something like:
- White Sox: Max Stassi, Korey Lee
- Charlotte: Carlos Pérez, Adam Hackenberg
- Birmingham: Edgar Quero, Michael Turner
That arrangement creates some playing time issues, because both Hackenberg and Quero look worthy of playing time at Triple-A at the onset of the season, but all it takes is one injury for all of those mild concerns to be resolved.
But with Maldonado joining the roster, the majority of those names get shoved down a peg:
- White Sox: Max Stassi, Martín Maldonado
- Charlotte: Carlos Pérez, Korey Lee
- Birmingham: Edgar Quero, Adam Hackenberg
So I suppose it wouldn't be a shocker to see Lee, Pérez or Hackenberg dealt at some point before the regular season rolls around.
Lee doesn't seem likely to move, if only because he hasn't done anything to improve his value since the Sox acquired him for Kendall Graveman at the trade deadline. Pérez needs to find a team that likes him enough to give him a good couple months as either a starter, or a regularly played backup, but maybe most of the league sees him the way the White Sox do.
That leaves Hackenberg, whose career year at the plate (.277/.366/.388 over 101 games between Birmingham and Charlotte) and true-catcher skill set could appeal to teams that see a way for him to get more loft in his swing. The White Sox haven't had areas of depth to deal from, which is one of the things that's prevented them from being able to reshape their collection of talent in any significant way. As they set to acquire their fourth catcher since the deadline, they've created a manmade lake behind the plate, and maybe other teams will want to go fishing there.
