On Saturday afternoon, the Rays officially announced the signing of former Nationals catcher Derek Norris. The deal is for $1.2MM with up to $800,000 in incentives.
Norris will break camp as the starting catcher. The backup spot is still unknown. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Jesus Sucre is in line to be first off the bench. Curt Casali and Luke Maile are in the running as well.
The Rays will have to trade a catcher or option two of them to the minors. Casali has 152 games played in the majors. The younger Maile has just 57 games at the big-league level.
In 2014, Norris made the all-star team as a member of the Oakland Athletics. His numbers have declined over the past two seasons. In 2016, he posted a .186/.255/.328 slash line.
On December 2, 2016 the Nationals made a trade with the San Diego Padres to acquire Norris. After the Rays signed Wilson Ramos away from them, the Nats planned to use Norris as their starting catcher.
That all changed when the Nationals signed free-agent catcher Matt Wieters.
Norris was set to make $4.2M with the Nationals in 2017. With only $688k guaranteed on that deal, the Nationals were willing to release him.
