At the age of 38, A.J. Pierzynski inked a one-year, $2 million contract with the Atlanta Braves in December. That deal was signed with one assumption, at least from the outside, and that was that Pierzynski would simply serve as the backup to Christian Bethancourt, providing a left-handed hitter with "veteran know-how" to compliment the younger, more talented backstop.
This assumption was backed up in a recent Braves season preview from Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, who cited the addition of Pierzynski as his "under-the-radar offseason transaction" for Atlanta:
For myriad reasons, A.J. Pierzynski has a bad name when it comes to fans and media, but he's been around the block and been a solid backstop for many seasons. John Buck is a veteran catcher with over 1,000 games played in the bigs. Even Jesus Flores is a veteran catcher who has been around for a long time.....
The Braves are ready to hand the keys behind the plate to prospect Christian Bethancourt and they also put a fine support system in place for him. Remember, many former catchers go on to become managers. Despite the old "tools of ignorance" label slapped on catcher's gear, these guys know the game. And they can pass it along to the youngster.
With the Braves unlikely to carry more than two catchers, the mentions of Buck and Flores are basically in passing, but the investment of Pierzynski is very real. The 15-year veteran is, by all accounts, a negative defender at this stage in his career, and it must be stated that Pierzynski produced an ugly .251/.288/.337 slash line across two stops in 2014.
However, A.J. Pierzynski is just one season removed from a .425 slugging percentage and 17 home runs with the Rangers in 2013, and he is a more than respectable .286/.328/.434 career hitter against right-handed pitching. Still, the Braves would almost assuredly prefer that the 38-year-old be deployed only in spot duty.
That preference, though, is directly tied to Christian Bethancourt.
By now, you likely know that Bethancourt has one of the best throwing arms of any catcher alive, but he is far from a finished product defensively. There are receiving issues, which is unsurprising for a 23-year-old, but given that his bat is far from established, Atlanta actually needs Bethancourt to be elite in all facets defensively to extract value.
Just how shaky is his offense? Well, Bethancourt has posted a career .679 OPS in the minor leagues and his batting practice power has not translated, as evidenced by a .379 slugging. The 2014 campaign in Gwinnett was one of his better performances at the plate, which provides optimism, but there is certainly some reason to think that he will struggle with the bat.
Fredi Gonzalez, John Hart and company may simply assume that Bethancourt will struggle at the plate. Because of the "re-tooling" effort, there should be a longer leash for their young catcher offensively, and as long as the team accepts that prior to the season, there should be no cause for alarm. Still, there is definitely a scenario when the Braves look up in August to see Christian Bethancourt with a .280 on-base percentage and little power, and at that point, things may have flown off the rails.
A.J. Pierzynski isn't a fantastic option at this stage in his career, and by all accounts, he is an "interesting" character in the clubhouse. However, he is almost certainly the best hitting catcher on the roster right now, and having an established MLB starter around can only serve as support for Bethancourt.