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The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was first with a report tonight that the Washington Nationals and Cleveland Indians were discussing a potential deal for catcher Yan Gomes.
There are now several reports confirming Rosenthal’s report.
The chatter comes less than two weeks after the Nationals signed veteran backstop Kurt Suzuki to a 2-year/$10M deal.
Suzuki, in a conference call with reporters after signing, and Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo, in an interview with 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier this week, both were open about the possibility of the Nats adding more catching existed even after signing the 35-year-old backstop.
Suzuki said he was told that he would play significant games behind the plate, but added that he was willing to do whatever the Nationals wanted if they made additional moves to shore up their catching corps.
“Whether I’m a guy that catches 120 games or 90 games or whatever they want me to do you know,” Suzuki explained, “I just told them I’ll be ready to do whatever you want and [Rizzo] said I’m going to play, obviously, but I just said whatever you need me to do. So whether that’s 80-90-100-120, it really doesn’t matter to me, so I’m just trying to help the team win and see how it goes.”
“We’re certainly are going to get our feelers out there and see if we can upgrade if it’s possible to do that and have more depth in the organization,” Rizzo told Grant and Danny when asked if signing Suzuki ended their catcher search, “but Zuk was a good acquisition for us.”
Gomes, 31, is set to make $7M in 2019 in the sixth year of a 6-year/$23M contract he signed with the Indians in 2014, which includes club options for $9M in 2020 and $11M in 2021 or a $1M buyout in each of those seasons.
Gomes is coming off a .266/.313/.449, 26 double, 16 home run, 2.2 fWAR campaign which saw him finish third among qualified major league catchers in Defensive Runs Saved (+4 DRS).
#Nationals in serious discussions with #Indians about a trade for catcher Yan Gomes, sources tell The Athletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 30, 2018
37 catchers had 250+ PA last season.
— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) November 30, 2018
Gomes and Suzuki were two of just 14 who were at least league average offensively (100 wRC+). https://t.co/JpxLCjbXFt
Sources confirm the @Ken_Rosenthal report that the Nationals and Indians are deep into discussions on a trade expected to send catcher Yan Gomes to Washington.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 30, 2018
More info when it’s available....