Jays sign Catcher Rafael Lopez

The Blue Jays dumped one Minor League catcher and now have signed another.

The Blue Jays signed Rafael Lopez to a Minor League contract. Raffy is a 29 year old, left-handed hitting catcher. He has had 7 hitless at bats, total, in the majors.

In six Minor League seasons, Raffy has hit .272/.355/.381 with 23 home runs in 442 games. It looks like he has a decent arm, as he’s thrown out 30% of base stealers in his Minor League career. He’s played in the Cubs, Angels and Reds system. It looks like a fair bit of his value is that he is a left-handed hitting catcher, a fairly rare thing but it also sounds like he is a pretty good defensive catcher.

I wouldn’t expect we’ll see much of him in Toronto, unless there are injuries, but he adds to the depth at the position. He’s likely as good a backup catcher as any we are likely to have.