The D-backs have designated catcher Jose Herrera for assignment, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. His spot on the roster will go to fellow catcher Gabriel Moreno, who is being reinstated from the injured list.
Herrera, 28, has been a backup behind the plate for the Snakes dating back to 2022. He’s never provided much with the bat, hitting only .200/.280/.259 (53 wRC+) in 562 plate appearances over the course of 190 big league games. He was outstanding at thwarting opposing runners on the basepaths in his first two seasons but has slipped in that regard over the past two years and now has a league-average 21.8% caught-stealing rate in his career. Herrera typically hasn’t drawn plus framing grades but does have solid blocking skills, per Statcast.
This year’s 204 plate appearances are a career-high at the MLB level for Herrera — due primarily to the aforementioned Moreno injury. Moreno, the 2023 NL Gold Glove winner, suffered a broken finger earlier this summer and has been out for more than two months. He’s hitting .187/.285/.259 in that time with a pair of home runs (the only multi-homer season of his big league career thus far).
Shortly after Moreno hit the injured list, the D-backs signed veteran catcher James McCann, who’d been on a minor league deal with the Braves. McCann has hit the ground running with the Diamondbacks, hitting .247/.337/.403 with three home runs. That performance has been enough to earn him the backup job to Moreno for the remainder of the season, it seems. McCann will be a free agent at the end of the year, so he’s not a long-term backup partner unless the D-backs choose to re-sign him, but he’s clearly leapfrogged Herrera on the depth chart at this point.