MESA, Ariz. — A slow free agent market seems to be working in favor of the A’s for a second consecutive season.
Nick Hundley, who spent the previous two seasons as the backup to Giants star Buster Posey, arrived at Hohokam Stadium Monday after agreeing to a minor league deal with the A’s.
Hundley, 35, put up numbers last season that appeared to be worthy of a major league deal, hitting .241 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs over 96 games with San Francisco, yet remained available as the A’s opened up spring training in a similar situation to Jonathan Lucroy last year.
After conversations with several clubs, Hundley decided the A’s were a good fit.
“Playing against them, I’ve always respected the way that their players play the game,” Hundley said. “Always from afar, there are organizations that you look at and say I’d like to play for them at some point in my career, and this is definitely one of them.”
The competition for the A’s catching job expands to three, with Chris Herrmann and Josh Phegley, who the A’s said they felt comfortable beginning the season in a platoon, as the chief competition.
“I’m coming in and competing,” Hundley said. “This is an organization that has done a lot of good things, had an unbelievable year last year. I’m excited to try to help build on it.”
In 11 big league seasons, Hundley brings some pop with 91 career home runs. But perhaps even more valuable than Hundley’s power bat is the experience he brings to the table.
A’s manager Bob Melvin understands how vital a role experience behind the plate plays in developing a winning ballclub. He lauded Jonathan Lucroy last season for his ability to nurture the A’s pitching staff and already saw similarities between the former A’s catcher and Hundley during the club’s first formal workout of the spring Monday.
“He’s a guy that gets it behind the plate,” Melvin said. “This is someone we’ve been talking about for a while and did some homework, actually got to see him last year and how instrumental he was (in San Francisco) and he’s one of those quarterbacks on the field. He’s a big pick up for us.”
The starting job isn’t Hundley’s just yet, but he figures to have the upper hand as spring begins. Regardless of who begins the season as the A’s catcher, the move at the very least gives them some much-needed depth.
“We like all three of these guys and we would have been fine going into the season with the other two,” Melvin said. “We’ll figure it out at the end.”
