Oh Yeah This Guy

Cubs signed a 3rd person today, Henry Blanco.

The Cubs capped off a busy day by signing Henry Blanco, perhaps the most coveted backup catcher on the free-agent market, Sporting News has learned.

Blanco, who agreed to a two-year contract, will replace Paul Bako as the backup to Michael Barrett. One of the game's finest throwing catchers, he worked with Cubs right-hander Greg Maddux previously when the two were together with the Braves.

Blanco, 33, batted just .206 for the Twins last season, but had 10 homers in 315 at-bats.

His defense is considered stellar behind the plate and will make an awesome backup catcher for the Cubs. I especially like his 49% rate of throwing out runners last season. Interesting to note is that Blanco's lowest years of throwing out runners was with Atlanta whose philosphy is to ignore base runners. He will probably end up catching Maddux on a regular basis.

But is 2 years $2.7 million too much for him? I like the addition. He is 10 times better than Bako.