The Rockies have signed catcher Austin Nola to a minor league deal, based on MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (X hyperlink). Nola will obtain an invite to the Rockies’ huge league spring camp.
After signing a cut up contract with the Royals final winter, Nola didn’t seem in a single sport within the Present, although he was briefly referred to as as much as Kansas Metropolis’s roster for just a few days in June. Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin have been each so sturdy that the Royals by no means had an actual want for an additional catcher on the roster, and Nola additionally didn’t do a lot to power the problem by hitting solely .174/.260/.298 over 191 plate appearances with Triple-A Omaha. The Royals outrighted Nola off their 40-man roster in September, and he grew to become a free agent after the season.
Coming into his age-35 season, the veteran backstop will search for a path again to the majors in Colorado, although a depth function at Triple-A can be a risk given the variety of catchers already readily available. Jacob Stallings was re-signed to a brand new contract just a few weeks in the past, Hunter Goodman is a multi-position utility participant who can catch, and high prospect Drew Romo made his MLB debut in 2024 and might be in line for extra enjoying time on the energetic roster.
There’s a little bit of a full-circle component to Nola’s signing, because the Rockies picked him within the forty eighth spherical of the 2008 draft when Nola was nonetheless a excessive schooler, however he as an alternative opted for faculty ball at LSU. Nola made his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2019 and seemed like a budding star, however his manufacturing progressively declined after a commerce to the Padres in 2020. He was nonetheless getting common at-bats behind the plate in San Diego as lately as 2022, but a pointy decline in 2023 resulted within the Padres non-tendering him a bit of over a 12 months in the past.