Elephant Rumblings: A’s Ink Pair of Catchers, Outfielder to Minor League Deals

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Morning all!

A bit of a late update as these signings happened a couple of days ago. The Athletics have continued to beef up their depth, this time on the position-player side of things. After spending lots of the offseason adding relief depth to the upper minors (and hopefully a hidden gem or two), the A’s inked a pair of position players, signing outfielder Cade Marlowe

and catcher Brian Serven to minor league deals:

Serven is the more well-known player between those two. The catcher has made it into 101 big league contests over the past three seasons, two with Colorado and one with Toronto. The light-hitting backstop has just a .187/.247/.293 with six long balls in 299 plate appearances, which is not all that much worse than his minor-league numbers. Serven is a glove-first catcher though so any offensive output is a bonus.

The hope is that the A’s won’t have to bring Serven up to the big leagues at all this coming year but that’s more or less a pipe dream. There will always be a massive need for a quality #3 catcher, even if that player isn’t on a team’s active roster at any given moment. The A’s have an All-Star quality starter in Shea Langeliers and a veteran backup in Austin Wynns but an injury to either one of those, who are the only two catchers on the 40-man roster, suddenly puts the A’s in a bind. The A’s have a Plan C now.

Serven is now essentially the default third catcher, especially after former first-round pick Daniel Susac was claimed during the Rule 5 draft. The Athletics didn’t elect to protect him and lost him, and now they’ll turn to Serven to be the emergency backup. The A’s could do worse but this definitely feels similar in mold to the acquisition of Jhonny Pereda last year, which did not ultimately work out for either side. Plus, Serven can be optioned so the A’s can shuttle him back-and-forth from the big leagues to Triple-A without stressing about losing him.

And while they beefed up their depth at the catcher position they’ve now done the same in the outfield with the addition of Marlowe. The 28-year-old was once considered a solid prospect in the Mariners’ farm system, ranking as high as #18 in 2022. The left-handed hitter has shown promise with the bat at times but has been held back by an inability to avoid the strikeout. His prospect stock has fallen hard and an injury ruined the start of his 2025 campaign, not helping matters.

On the plus side for the A’s, they add a center field capable young outfielder that has shown potential in the past. The A’s already have a couple of starters that bat left-handed so that doesn’t help his cause, but he ended last year on a high note and should at the very least provide some additional outfield depth for the A’s, and one that’s capable of handling center. He’s now the only left-handed outfielder on the Aviators roster as of this posting as well, helping balance out their outfield.

And that’s not the only new addition either. Not happy with just Serven, the club also inked another catcher in Bryan Lavastida:

As said above, Lavastida actually joined the Athletics’ system last year to wrap up the season and was a monster in the batter’s box. Lavastida, who has six big league games under his belt but all the way back in 2022, has never been a force as a hitter so his 100 at-bat sample with the Aviators is almost certainly not going to continue next year. That said the A’s were clearly impressed with him enough to give him another contract. Now it seems that Serven might actually have some competition for the #3 catcher’s spot. Not the biggest or most exciting Spring Training battle to look forward to, but one to look forward to nonetheless.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

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