Padres To Sign Martín Maldonado To Minor League Deal

The Padres and catcher Martín Maldonado have agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic. The backstop is a client of MVP Sports Group.

Maldonado, 38, has carved out a lengthy career as a glove-first catcher. Teams have generally been willing to tolerate his subpar offense in exchange for his strong glovework and reputation as a guy who can work well with pitchers and provide leadership in the clubhouse.

However, the 2024 season saw him push that to new extremes. He secured a $4.25MM deal with the White Sox but hit just .119/.174/.230 in 48 games. Even by his own low standards for offense, that was a dismal showing. He was released by July and didn’t sign with another club over the final few months of the season.

Despite his age and that awful season, it was reported in December that he wanted to keep his career going in 2025. He has recently been playing winter ball, perhaps due to the long layoff he just had, but without improved results. He slashed .114/.184/.314 in 10 games for Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League and then .135/.195/.216 in 12 games for Indios de Mayaguez of Puerto Rico’s Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente.

Though the numbers have been rough lately, there’s little harm for the Padres to take a flier on a minor league deal. Maldonado’s career batting line of .203/.278/.344 only amounts to a wRC+ of 70, indicating he’s been 30% below league average, but is far better than his recent results.

Even with that tepid offense, he’s been able to be a useful player thanks to his contributions on the other side of the ball. He has 59 Defensive Runs Saved in his career, with that tally being one of the ten best in baseball from 2012 to the present. Outlets like Statcast and Baseball Prospectus have also given him strong marks for his work while donning the tools of ignorance.

The Padres have a fairly wide open catching situation and little money to address it. Reporting throughout the winter has suggested they need to lower their commitments in 2025, which has led to guys like Dylan Cease, Luis Arráez and Robert Suarez appearing in trade rumors.

Last year, Luis Campusano opened the year as the club’s primary catcher but he gradually ceded time to Kyle Higashioka as the year wore on. Campusano had long been a top prospect and hit .319/.356/.491 in 49 games in 2023, his age-24 season. The Padres were surely hoping that he could keep some of that going in 2024 but he went on to hit .227/.281/.361 for a wRC+ of 83. Thanks to some poor grades for his defense, he was considered to be below replacement level.

He only got three starts in the final month of the season as the Friars leaned on Higashioka and Elias Díaz. That duo carried onto the postseason, with Campusano not cracking the roster, though both became free agents at season’s end. Higashioka went on to sign with the Rangers.

The only two backstops on San Diego’s 40-man roster at present are Campusano and Brett Sullivan. The former is a former top prospect with some flashes of brilliance, though he’s coming off an awful season, as mentioned. The latter is about to turn 31 years old and has a .206/.243/.299 batting line in just 40 games at the major league level.

In short, it’s a sensible matchup for several reasons. Maldonado lands in a spot with perhaps his best chance of getting back to the big leagues. The Padres get a skilled veteran without having to give up a roster spot. It hasn’t been reported what salary Maldonado would make if he cracks the roster but it surely won’t be a huge number.