A's Sign Catcher Previously with Detroit Tigers

An underrated area of need for the A's this offseason has been backup catcher. Obviously, they still have Shea Langeliers locked into the starting role following his breakout season, and it's not like he takes many days off over the course of a season. He missed three weeks with an oblique strain and still managed to play in 123 games, including 108 starts behind the dish.

Langeliers also set a new career high in home runs, bashing 31, batted .277 with a .325 OBP, and dropped his strikeout rate from 27.2% in 2024 to 19.7% last year. The season he put up is why he could be the next player to sign an extension with the club.

While the expectation isn't for a huge swath of playing time to go to the backup catcher, the A's do try to protect their starter from catching too many day games that follow evening contests. Earlier this winter, the A's brought in another backup backstop option in Brian Serven, who will be entering his age 31 campaign in 2026.

Following his signing, Serven was assigned to the Las Vegas Aviators in Triple-A, and the expectation here is that he'll serve as a depth option for the A's. With Langeliers starting and Austin Wynns coming back on a $1.1 million deal, those two seem like the guys in Sacramento.

The A's also lost some of their depth from last season, with Willie MacIver being claimed off waivers by the Texas Rangers, and former first round pick Daniel Susac ending up with the San Francisco Giants in the Rule 5 Draft.

With those two losses, the A's needed some insurance behind the dish, and Serven provides that. He'll be 30 until early May, and he has played in a total of 101 games at the big-league level. He debuted in 2022 with the Colorado Rockies, and actually had his best stint in the bigs, putting up six homers while batting .203 with a .261 OBP.

Those numbers fell off a bit in his next stint with the Rockies in 2023, where he put up a -41 wRC+ (100 is league average) in 23 plate appearances. He then made it back to the majors with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2024, earning 71 plate appearances, but batting just .159 with a .243 OBP and a 37 wRC+.

Over these three stints, which have combined for 299 plate appearances, he's batting a cumulative .187 with a .247 OBP and a 43 wRC+. Those last two years in the bigs he also struck out 43.5% and 31% of the time, so his strikeout rate could be something to keep an eye on.

This past season in the Tigers system, he was a decent bat, putting up an 85 wRC+ with three home runs in 62 games.

But the reason that he has continued to get opportunities with teams is because of the defense that he's provided. During that 2022 campaign when he initially came up, he ranked in the 78th percentile in pitch framing, while being roughly league average at blocking and throwing runners out.

What's interesting is that heading into the 2026 campaign, framing's importance could go in one of two wildly different directions. On the one hand, framing may not matter, as batters will be able to challenge a limited number of balls and strikes per game through the ABS system. How a backstop receives a pitch may matter a little less, depending on how those challenges are used.

On the other hand, if teams and players are less forward with their challenges, then stealing strikes through framing could be even more important. Say you know the other team isn't letting player "X" challenge his own calls because he's a rookie or has a bad sense of the zone. That could be a great opportunity to get some borderline calls.

While Serven isn't guaranteed to see some playing time in Sacramento this year, he doesn't have the worst odds either. If Wynns gets injured or is ineffective in the playing time that he gets, then perhaps the A's will look to make a change at some point.

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