Diamondbacks claim former Rays catcher Rene Pinto

The Arizona Diamondbacks claimed catcher Rene Pinto off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, the club announced.

Arizona’s 40-man roster is at 39 players, and Pinto is the fourth catcher along with Gabriel Moreno, Adrian Del Castillo and Jose Herrera.

Pinto, 28, has spent the past 12 years in the Tampa Bay Rays’ organization with 82 MLB games played over the past three years. The Orioles claimed him off waivers from Tampa Bay earlier this offseason.

In 154 plate appearances over the past two years, Pinto produced a batting line of .241/.275/.448 with eight home runs and six doubles. In 53 games for Triple-A Durham last year, he slashed .191/.257/.373.

René Pinto spent eight seasons in the Rays farm system.

The 25-year-old hit a home run in his MLB debut Tuesday night.

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When he makes contact, Pinto hits the ball hard with a career 90.6 mph exit velocity, 45% hard hit rate and 12.9% barrel rate, all of which are well above league average. However, Pinto has a career 36.7% strikeout percentage, way above the MLB average of 22.2%.

That is the 10th highest K rate among players with at least 200 plate appearances over the past three years, a list of 578 hitters.

His defensive metrics don’t jump off the page with a career -3 defensive runs saved and -3 run value via Statcast.

Where does Rene Pinto fit into Diamondbacks’ depth chart

Moreno has established himself as the franchise’s starting catcher, but his backup come Opening Day will be a competition in spring training.

Veteran non-roster invitee Tucker Barnhart won the job last over incumbent backup Herrera, but the D-backs gave the job back to Herrera in July. Del Castillo made his MLB debut on Aug. 7 when Moreno went on the injured list and hit .313 with an .893 OPS in 25 games, although his defense remains a work in progress.

Arizona also signed catcher Aramis Garcia to a minor league deal this offseason.

Pinto will join the group at spring training as the club figures out its plan behind Moreno.

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