Oakland Ballers Sign Catcher

The B's have added a solid backstop to the roster

The announcements keep coming! The Oakland Ballers (a.k.a. B's) have signed their second player for the team's inaugural season in catcher Coleton Horner. 

Horner, 26, is a Turlock native that spent the 2022 season in the Diamondbacks' system in the Arizona Complex League and also got into four games in the Pioneer League with the Ogden Raptors. Horner re-upped with the Raptors for the 2023 campaign and hit .283 with a .351 OBP and one home run. 

One interesting stat for the catcher is that he only struck out in 12.9% of his plate appearances last season while also hitting 15 doubles. 33% of his hits went for extra bases last season. When Jed Lowrie collected 45 doubles in 2013, 35% of his hits were for extra bases. That's not a comparison between the players, but a note on the frequency of two-base hits. 

B's manager Micah Franklin said of Horner, "Coleton is the kind of player that we’ll be really confident in any night he is behind the plate. I’ve heard a lot of good things about his catching ability and his leadership and he’ll be a good guy for us this year. He’s from Turlock too so I’m sure we’ll get to see some family and friends out at the games this season, having guys who are from Northern California is important to us.”

Last season Horner caught 18 of 70 base stealers for a caught stealing percentage of 25.7%. He caught the fifth-most would-be base stealers, and his 52 stolen bases allowed ranked eighth. He may not have the best arm in the league, but he can help limit the running game. 

The Ballers have signed a total of ten players, and Horner is just the second one to be announced, in addition to the reigning Pioneer League batting champion, Dondrei Hubbard yesterday. The team plans to announce one player each day for roughly the next week.