Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
On Wednesday, it was announced that the Chicago White Sox had agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal with free agent catcher Alex Avila. The left-handed hitting Avila figures to share time with the right-handed hitting Tyler Flowers.
Having spent the first seven years of his career with the Detroit Tigers, Avila is obviously very familiar with the AL Central. His best year by far came back in 2011 when he slashed .295/.389/.506 with 19 home runs and 82 RBIs, earning a Silver Slugger award and a 12th-place finish in the AL MVP voting. He was also the AL’s starting catcher in the All-Star game that year.
In the four seasons since then, Avila’s health has certainly been an issue, especially when it comes to the fact that he has suffered multiple concussions. He has been able to remain a solid defender behind the plate, but his performance at the plate has been a bit of a concern as of late.
This past season, although it is indeed worth noting that he had an impressive 18.3 percent walk rate, Avila batted only .191/.339/.287 with four home runs and 13 RBIs through 67 games. After going on the DL with a knee injury in May, he essentially lost his starting catching job to James McCann.
For his career, though, Avila is still batting a very solid .251/.358/.423 against right-handed pitching. Furthermore, 59 of his 66 career home runs have also come against RHP. When it comes to Flowers, he still has pretty even splits against LHP and RHP for his career, but he did fare a little bit better against southpaws over this past season. Although the sample size was smaller (73 plate appearances against LHP vs. 288 against RHP), he ended up hitting .270/.370/.381 against lefties and only .231/.276/.351 against righties.
Avila and Flowers should form a solid catching duo for the South Siders in 2016. Avila will still only be 29 years old by the beginning of next season, it appears that he is slated for the perfect role, and perhaps a change of scenery could go a long way for him. Overall, it appears to be a very good signing for the White Sox.
Brad Faber is a Senior Writer and Sabermetrics Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Faber, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google
