NEWSLETTER
In another bit of news dropping on the transactions page, the Chicago Cubs have traded catcher Joe Hudson to the New York Mets. Nothing is listed on the Cubs page or the Mets page as the trade return, so I assume the trade is for a very modest cash return. You’re not going to get much for a Triple-A depth catcher, but maybe I’ll dream on something like a small amount of IFA bonus pool space!
Hudson, 32, essentially won the third-ish catcher job out of Spring Training, pairing him with Bryce Windham as the Cubs’ two depth options at Triple-A. Given Yan Gomes’ age and Miguel Amaya’s injury history, it seemed a pretty important job, relatively speaking, and Hudson had a long history of being a AAA/MLB border depth catcher, and a perfectly acceptable one at that.
OK, so then why are the Cubs trading him?
Well, two things happened after Hudson won that job: Curt Casali and Ali Sanchez became available, the Cubs clearly preferred them to Hudson.
Casali, you know, is a long-time big league catcher and the Cubs were likely very happy to get him in the door as the number three on a minor league deal. Even still, the Cubs might’ve kept Hudson around if not for Ali Sanchez getting outrighted by the Pirates, electing free agency, and then signing with the Cubs last week.
Sanchez, who just turned 27, was a borderline prospect as recently as last year, and is considered a very good defender who simply ran out of option years. He actually started hitting pretty well at Triple-A the last couple years, too, which does happen sometimes for catching prospects (the bat develops much later). With all due respect to Hudson, and maybe even Casali, Sanchez is probably the most interesting of the Cubs’ third catcher options now. (That’s not to ignore Windham, 27, but he’s becoming more of a utility guy who catches, and there are questions about whether the bat will be playable at the big league level.)
