In news first broken by MLB.com’s Alyson Footer, the Astros have re-signed catcher Humberto Quintero to a one year deal that will pay him one million dollars.
Quintero was arbitration eligible for the third consecutive offseason, and is a career .232 hitter to go along with a saddening .271 on-base percentage, but the Astros valued him highly enough to keep him in the fold anyway. To Quintero’s credit, he has gunned down 35% or more of runners attempting to steal on him in each of the last five seasons.
If the Astros will be entrusting the starting catcher job to Jason Castro again, this move can be viewed as a stamp of disapproval for J.R. Towles, who has mashed in the minor leagues but has looked bad in limited plate appearances with the big club.
On it’s own, re-signing Quintero to this contract is relatively harmless. But given the fact that the Astros dealt Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman while talking about youth movements, and have instead recommitted to a 31-year-old catcher rather than giving the 27-year-old Towles a chance, it smacks of more years spent chasing 75 wins rather than seeing if there’s anyone on this team that has value to someone not in the Astros’ GM chair.
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