Austin

Nola

It appears that Nola will stick around and continue to collect his big league salary at Triple-A Omaha following his removal from Kansas City’s 40-man roster over the weekend. The 34-year-old veteran backstop hasn’t appeared in the majors this season after signing with the Royals back in February.

Nola was removed from Kansas City’s 40-man roster to make room for veteran outfielders Tommy Pham and Robbie Grossman. The 34-year-old veteran backstop signed a one-year deal with the Royals back in February and didn’t end up getting into a game this season at the highest level.

Nola was the corresponding move for the activation of Hunter Renfroe from the injured list. The Royals were temporarily carrying three catchers with Salvador Perez a little banged up and Nola could be an option in the future if that situation arises once again. The 34-year-old veteran catcher is hitting .109 with one home run and five RBI in 64 minor league at-bats this year.

With Salvador Perez banged up, the Royals wanted to have some extra catching depth on hand for the remainder of their weekend series against the Dodgers. The 34-year-old backstop had been hitting just .100/.167/.167 with a homer, five RBI and a 15/4 K/BB ratio in 20 games at Triple-A Omaha.

There simply isn’t a spot for Waters with Kyle Isbel, Nelson Velázquez and MJ Melendez occupying Kansas City’s outfield spots in addition to Adam Frazier, Garrett Hampson and Dairon Blanco on the bench as reserves. Nola will open the season back in the minors as emergency catching depth.

As expected, Nola lands in Kansas City shortly after his release from Milwaukee. The 34-year-old backstop figures to spent time spelling Salvador Perez, but it’s a bit unclear whether he’s ahead of Freddy Fermin on the Royals’ catching depth chart at the moment. His days as a fantasy-relevant backstop are pretty much over at this point, but he still represents quality organizational depth.

It seems Nola requested the move after the Gary Sánchez signing left him fourth on the Brewers’ catching depth chart. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal says Nola will be signing a major league deal with Kansas City, where he’d presumably be third on the depth chart ahead of Sandy León.

The 34-year-old backstop struggled in his limited big league action with the Padres in 2023 — slashing a cringe-inducing .146/.260/.192 with only one homer and eight RBI in 154 plate appearances while battling vision problems. He has proven to be quality catching depth in the past though and will function in that role behind William Contreras and Eric Haase.

With Gary Sánchez gone, the Padres could have restored Nola to at least a backup gig. However, the team decided to move on after a season in which he dealt with vision problems and hit just .146/.260/.192 in 154 plate appearances. They’ll look for someone else to pair with Luis Campusano, unless they want to go with Brett Sullivan.

Nola, who was optioned to Triple-A El Paso back in mid-July, hasn’t played since August 2 to undergo a series of neurological tests to determine why he wasn’t seeing the ball clearly. Now that he has some answers, he can begin the journey back to the majors, but he’s most likely finished for the rest of the year. We’re all hoping for a speedy recovery.