Manny Piña Set to Return to Games

The Oakland A's have two catchers on their 40-man roster: Shea Langeliers and Manny Piña. Langeliers became the team's everyday catcher after the Sean Murphy trade, which also happened to bring the 35-year-old backstop, Piña, to Oakland.

After missing most of last season due to a wrist injury that required surgery in May, Piña has amassed two plate appearances this spring, walking once, before missing the last two weeks with calf soreness. 

Matt Kawahara of the Chronicle is reporting that the veteran backstop will return to game action on Tuesday against the White Sox after running the bases on Sunday. 

Piña is set to be a veteran presence to help Langeliers through his first full season in the big leagues, while also hopefully providing a little production with the bat. Back in 2021 when he was fully healthy, Piña hit just .189 with a .293 OBP, but smashed 13 home runs and held a 96 wRC+ (100 being league average) in 208 plate appearances. He also walked at a 10.6% clip, and struck out 18.3% of the time. 

Not bad numbers for a backup catcher, and it led to a 1.5 fWAR season. 

Baseball Savant has a new metric for catchers that rates their blocking abilities, and in that 2021 season Piña, in just 2,259 blocking opportunities, pulled +7 blocks above average, ranking 12th among the 70 catchers with at least 1,000 blocking opportunities. On a per opportunity basis, Piña held up with the best blockers in the game, and with a fairly inexperienced pitching staff, that ability could be very useful for Oakland in 2023. 

For reference, J.T. Realmuto also put up a +7 in 2021 in double the opportunities. If Piña held at his block rate that season but had gotten the same number of opportunities as Sean Murphy, he would have been right there with the former A's backstop, or even a touch ahead. 

Needless to say, Piña will be an important piece to this club if he's producing like he did in 2021. That's no guarantee however with his recent injury history. So what happens if Piña goes down, or isn't ready to start the regular season? 

Well, there's non-roster invitee Yohel Pozo, whom the A's just reassigned on Sunday, who would likely be the first option for the A's in a pinch. The former Texas catcher played 21 games with the Rangers in 2021 and hit .284 with a .312 OBP. This spring he was 3-for-14 (.214) with a pair of doubles. He's the A's only option in the minors that has big league experience behind the dish. 

A little later in the season, Tyler Soderstrom could also become an option once he has conquered Triple-A, but whether the A's would want to bring him to Oakland to have him sit on the bench behind Langeliers is another question to consider. Soderstrom could spend time at designated hitter like Langeliers did last season behind Murphy, but that could eat into the playing time of either Ryan Noda or Jesús Aguilar. That is why the timing is important for a Soderstrom call. He needs time in Triple-A, and the team would need to find a trade partner for Aguilar's services. 

Soderstrom is not yet on the A's 40-man roster.

Kyle McCann, another catcher not on the 40-man roster, was the A's 4th round selection in the 2019 Draft. After a tough 2021 season, he turned things around in Double-A last season, launching 20 homers in Midland, and one more in Vegas following a late-season promotion. If McCann were to get hot, he could become an option for the A's to consider as well, given that he'll be Rule 5 eligible following the season unless he's on the 40-man roster in December. The club may want to get a look at him in the big leagues to help them make that roster decision. 

McCann went 1-for-8 with a double and three strikeouts this spring. 

The plan for Oakland behind the dish is certainly Langeliers and Piña, but if one of them goes down, the A's have three options to choose from in Las Vegas, and the timing of when they're needed could play a big role in determining which one of Pozo, Soderstrom, or McCann gets the call, if needed.