Popular former Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola has signed a major league contract with the resurgent Kansas City Royals.
Per Ken Rosenthal of 'The Athletic' on social media:
Austin Nola will be joining the Royals on a minor-league deal, source says.
Correction: Nola is signing a major-league deal.
Nola was non-tendered by the Padres at the outset of the offseason and actually signed a minor league deal in January with the Milwaukee Brewers, but ended up back on the market again.
Nola has played parts of five years in the big leagues with the Mariners and the Padres, helping San Diego get to the playoffs in the COVID 2020 season and to the NLCS in 2022.
He made his major league debut with Seattle in 2019 and became a fan-favorite until he was traded during that 2020 season. Lifetime, he's a .249 hitter with 24 homers and 136 RBI. He's known as a better hitter than a defender, so perhaps he could see time at designated hitter or as a right-handed option off the bench. He can play the infield a little bit in addition to catcher.
The 34-year-old is coming off a massive down year in San Diego, leading to questions about where his skillset is at at this point in his career. He hit just .146 in 52 games during the 2023 season. He had only one home run and eight RBI. That led to the Padres non-tendering him.
The Royals are looking to bounce back from a 56-106 season last year. They've brought in tons of major league players including Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier, Will Smith and Chris Stratton.
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