Former Royals catcher Martin Maldonado on the move again
Former Royals catcher Martin Maldonado will play for his third team since the start of July.
The Chicago Cubs traded Maldonado, a Gold Glove winner, to the Houston Astros in exchange for major-league outfielder Tony Kemp before Wednesday’s MLB trade deadline.
The Cubs acquired Maldonado, 32, from the Royals in exchange for pitcher Mike Montgomery in a trade on July 15. Montgomery, who’d pitched out of their bullpen, made his third start for the Royals on Tuesday night.
Maldonado signed a one-year deal worth $2.5 million (plus up to another $1.4 million in performance bonuses) with the Royals in March after Salvador Perez suffered a season-ending elbow surgery during spring training.
In his final 21 games leading up to the trade, Maldonado batted .288 with a .303 OBP and a .575 slugging percentage. He’d hit four home runs, nine doubles, collected 10 RBIs and scored 13 runs in that span.
Following the trade, Royals general manager Dayton Moore said of Maldonado, “We can’t say enough about how he competed, the tone he set for our pitching staff, the way he studies, the way he prepares, and he’s playing some of his best baseball here this last month. … He’s a guy that we wouldn’t close the door on returning at some point in time. We think that much of him.”
In 2017, Maldonado was the only player other than Perez to win the American League Gold Glove at catcher since Perez won five of six starting in 2013.
The Astros acquired Maldonado from the Los Angels Angels last July for their stretch run and playoff push. Maldonado played 41 games with the Astros to finish the regular season, and he started six of their eight playoff games.
Behind the plate, Maldonado ranked second among major-league catchers in caught stealing rate (45.5%) and trailed only Perez (47.1%).
Maldonado spoke fondly of his time with the Astros when the Royals played in Houston in May.
“I was very impressed,” Maldonado said of the Astros. “I think they’ve got a pretty good idea of what they believe, the analytics, the scouting reports, all that. Great people, great players, I really enjoyed my time there.”
Maldonado admitted he had thought of the Astros as a long-term destination after the 2018 season. He and Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow talked at the end of last season about keeping the conversation open, but ultimately “it didn’t work out.”
While Maldonado wouldn’t go into detail about why he didn’t reach an agreement with the Astros — he reportedly turned down a two-year deal with Houston during the offseason — but he changed agents in the middle of negotiations with the Royals.
He’d previously been represented by Scott Boras, and is now with MVP Sports Group.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 1:23 PM.
