The Braves have reached a one year agreement with catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who will likely serve as their backup catcher in 2015.
That’s not terribly surprising -- Pierzynski has been a rumored Braves target for some time -- but the manner in which the news broke today is all kinds of fun.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com was the first to confirm it. But he heard about it the same way I did. He heard it from Aaron Lunsford. Aaron is not a reporter. But his dad got the scoop:@craigcalcaterra braves signed pierzynski today. No joke. Dad just talked to fredi Gonzalez in honey baked ham.
— Aaron Lunsford (@darrenstains) December 24, 2014
In addition to me, Aaron also tweeted it at Bowman, David O’Brien and a bunch of other scoopsters. While I decided the best use of my time was to make jokes about ham rumors on Twitter, Bowman checked it out. In other news, I can confirm that the Gonzalez family will be eating ham on Christmas.
Pierzynski hit .251/.288/.337 in 102 games in Boston and St. Louis. He still has at least some cartilage left in his knees and owns a catcher’s mitt, however, which means that he is still employable as a backup catcher.
