St. Louis Cardinals sign backup catcher in Francisco Pena

The St. Louis Cardinals appear to have added their backup catcher in Francisco Pena.

Being the backup catcher to St. Louis Cardinals star Yadier Molina is a thankless task. Molina has been a rock behind the plate for the Cardinals, averaging over 133 games in the past four years at catcher. Unless he is taking a turn at first, his backups might get a chance to play once or twice a week.

While backup catcher may not be a priority for the Cardinals, it does not hurt to have a player who is solid defensively and has a bit of pop for those days Molina cannot play. St. Louis has signed exactly that as they have brought Francisco Pena back on a minor league deal.

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Pena received a career high 142 plate appearances last season, accounting for over 70% of his major league plate appearances to this point. He did not exactly perform well in that time, with just a .203/.239/.271 batting line, hitting two homers and striking out 43 times with only six walks. Pena was not exactly Molina behind the plate either, throwing out just one of 15 attempted base stealers and costing the Cardinals four runs defensively.

Yet, Pena has a much different track record in the minors. In five seasons at the AAA level, Pena has a respectable .252/.296/.452 batting line, hitting 59 homers. He has been much better defensively as well, throwing out 32% of would be base stealers in his minor league career.

Retaining Pena also has a domino effect on the rest of the Cardinals catching situation. With Carson Kelly now in Arizona, Andrew Knizner is the new heir apparent for whenever Molina retires. The problem is, the 2016 draft pick has just 17 games of experience at AAA. Bringing Pena back allows Knizner to have more time to develop, potentially to make his debut in 2020.

The St. Louis Cardinals may not have made the most exciting move by bringing Francisco Pena back on board. However, it is a move that could pay dividends in the future, especially when it comes to the development of the Cardinals catcher of the future.