Yankees Add Bobby Wilson to the Catcher Merry-Go-Round

The Yankees expected Eli Whiteside to possibly play a major part in their catching situation next season. Having already determined to let Russell Martin walk, Whiteside was expected to compete for part of a catching platoon with Austin Romine, Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart or whomever else the Yankees might sign in the meantime.

But in that meantime Whiteside got grabbed off waivers by the Blue Jays, and then again on Wednesday by the Rangers. But there's always a non-hitting veteran out there and the Yankees grabbed up another one in Bobby Wilson, formerly of the LA Angels.

Wilson was signed to a minor league deal after hitting .211 last year and has just a .593 career OPS. He is considered a decent defensive catcher.

One good thing Wilson did last year was quit Twitter - a very smart move before possibly playing in NYC for sure.

“I’m done with twitter. Try to be fan friendly and all I get is criticism. I wasn’t blessed with 5 tools. I worked hard to get here.”

Yankees Get Themselves Another Crappy Catcher

The great tradition continues...

Kevin Cash
Alberto Castillo
Bobby Estelella
Sal Fasano
John Flaherty
Todd Greene
Chad Moeller
Gustavo Molina
Jose Molina *
Wil Nieves
Joe Oliver
Chris Stewart
Kelly Stinnett
Chris Turner
Chris Widger

and now Eli Whiteside, acquired off waivers today from the San Francisco Giants. What do they all have in common? They are all catchers that couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag (*Jose Molina doesn't really belong on this list since he defense with the Yankees more than made up for his lack of hitting. He did hit .316 in a brief stint after being acquired from the Angels in 2007.) Some weren't very good defensively either.

Whiteside was a 6th round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 2001 and made it to the Major Leagues with them in 2005. He spent the next three seasons in the minors before making it back to the bigs with the San Francisco Giants in 2009.

His career splits for 537 career plate appearances is .215/.273/.335. That's a .608 OPS. Now, obviously the move is likely to just add some veteran depth to the Yankees Triple-A squad, but all of the aforementioned catchers played with the Yankees since 2000. Nothing personal against Eli Whiteside, but hopefully he's not added to that list.