Cody Snavely
The Los Angeles Dodgers, fresh off their 2024 World Series Championship parade, have taken their first step in the 2024/2025 Major League Baseball offseason by reportedly exercising veteran catcher Austin Barnes‘s $3.5 million club option for the 2025 season.
While in my club option prediction article, I thought that Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers front office would make the tough but logical choice and move on from the veteran backstop as the offensive production is practically nonexistent, and the defense has steeply declined in recent years, they chose to continue the relationship.
However, I am not surprised that the Dodgers decided to pick up the option. Believe it or not, Austin Barnes is currently the longest-tenured position player on the Dodgers, and that means something, as 2025 will be the 11th season of Barnes’s career, all with the Los Angeles Dodgers after being traded to the team when he was in the minor leagues with the Miami Marlins.
While the production may not be there on the back of the baseball card, behind the scenes, Barnes has been invaluable, and with all signs pointing to veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw coming back for the 2025 season, it is a no-brainer that he’d want Barnes back behind the dish.
Overall, Barnes’s numbers were about what you’d expect a backup catcher to be. The veteran righty hit .264/.331/.307 with a .638 OPS and 86 wRC+, which are not headline-grabbing numbers.
While Barnes’s $3.5 million salary is minuscule compared to what the Los Angeles Dodgers spend on their payroll, it is almost four times as much for Barnes’s current market value, which is estimated at one million dollars according to Spotrac.
As a backup catcher, your main priority should be defense, and that is where we have seen a drop-off in production for Barnes. While he ranked above average in blocking (82nd percentile), he was below average in Caught Stealing Above Average (6th percentile), Framing (53rd percentile), and Pop Time (20th percentile).
With Barnes returning and Will Smith in the starting role, it remains to be seen what the Dodgers do with their other minor league catchers, as they currently have three minor league catchers who are more than ready for their chance on the roster.
Two of those catchers, Diego Cartaya and Hunter Feduccia, are on the Dodgers 40-man roster, and top prospect Dalton Rushing is waiting in the wings.
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