Kevan Smith

Smith is a large catcher with poor framing skills, a below-average arm and slow feet. At the plate, he is a surprisingly high-contact hitter with decent patience and gap power. At age 31, there is not another level coming for him, so he is what he is -- a third-string catcher. The Angels did not tender Smith a contract for 2020, and with front offices putting a stronger emphasis on framing and defense, it seems unlikely that Smith will be able to land a major-league contract. He would be a poor fit for your fantasy squad because Smith is simply not a productive hitter. He has a good OBP for a catcher, but that's the extent of his fantasy value. There is no late-career catcher bounce coming here, and there was little skill to begin with.

Smith handles the bat OK compared to his contemporaries at the position. He was the third wheel on the South Side of Chicago last season behind Welington Castillo and Omar Narvaez, logging only 187 plate appearances, but in that limited sample he showed improved bat-to-ball skills (9.6 K%, 15.6% in 2017). Most of his contact was on the ground, with Smith posting a 63% groundball rate compared to a 16.2% line-drive rate and 20.8% flyball rate. Even without the line drives, he still had a respectable .270 xBA according to Statcast. The Angels scooped Smith up off waivers in October, and as the roster stands now, he appears in line to open 2019 as Jonathan Lucroy's backup. He's an adequate framer and defender. The batted-ball numbers bode poorly for power growth, but Smith at least looks like a player who won't sink your batting average and that's something.

The White Sox brought in Welington Castillo in the offseason, leaving Smith as the likely odd-man out of the catching picture in Chicago. Omar Narvaez is a lefty bat and has displayed superior on-base skills, so he seems like the better complement to Castillo. Smith walked at just a 3.1 percent clip last season and hit for minimal power, with his 22.6 percent hard-hit rate ranking as the fourth-worst among semi-regular catchers (min. 250 plate appearances). The 29-year-old drives the ball into the ground at a high rate (57.3 percent career groundball rate) and he's a wash in terms of defense behind the plate. Unless the team opts to carry three catchers out of camp, Smith will likely be relegated to the minors to begin the year. An injury to either Castillo or Narvaez would open up time, but even then, he'd only be deserving of a $1 FAAB bid in two-catcher leagues.

The White Sox added Smith to their 40-man roster last offseason, but he spent all of 2015 at the Triple-A level. Smith, a former college quarterback, has a strong arm behind the plate and a strong rapport with pitchers, but it is difficult to judge his minor league numbers when he has progressed through the system slowly and has perpetually been much older than his competition. He has traditionally shown modest power and good contact rates, but the power fell off in his Triple-A debut. He should start 2016 at Triple-A once again, but could be in line for a big league debut if injury befalls the big league backstops.