After 6-time All-Star and 7-time Gold Glove award winning catcher Yadier Molina was placed on the 15-day DL on July 10th with a torn ligament in his right hand that he sustained sliding into third base, the Cardinals had been rumored to be looking for a catcher to help fill Molina's void. St. Louis did claim catcher George Kottaras off waivers from the Indians on July 11th after he hit .286 with 3 HR and 4 RBI with Cleveland in only 21 at-bats, but Kottaras' has never had more than 212 career at-bats. In addition, he has been only a backup throughout his career while St. Louis still felt some need to acquire another catcher and designated Kottaras for assignment to make room for Pierzynski.
With the trade market for catchers fairly slim, St. Louis was going to have a tough time looking for a rental catcher. St. Louis had only been rumored to be looking at two catchers in the previous two weeks. Those two were the Twins' Kurt Suzuki and Rays' Jose Molina, Yadier's older brother. St. Louis probably did not want to part with any decent minor leaguers for a guy they would only have for 3 months in the form of Suzuki or Molina. Inn addition, with the Rays sudden resurgence post all-star break, and now only 3 1/2 games back of the 2nd AL Wild Card, St. Louis kept looking.
As St. Louis waited, they caught a break. On July 9th, the Boston Red Sox designated 37 year-old veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski for assignment to make way for Christian Vasquez as the everyday catcher. While Pierzynski was in the midst of arguably his worst season in his 17 season career, he was not doing awful on the other hand. In 274 at-bats for Boston this season, Pierzynski batted .254/.286/.348 with 4 HR and 31 RBI while allowing only 5 passed balls in 540 innings and throwing out 19% of base stealers. Also, with the high unlikely scenario that Pierzynski would accept a minor league assignment and also unlikely that would he get claimed on waivers with $3.6 Million left on his contract for 2014, all St. Louis had to do now was wait until he was released and hope to get a deal done with the veteran backstop.
On July 16th, Boston released Pierzynski and he was costless to sign with any team for the veteran's minimum while Boston would pay the remaining $3.6 Million owed to him in 2014. On July 26th, St. Louis signed Pierzynski and designated fellow catcher George Kottaras for assignment. Kottaras had only five plate-appearances after being claimed off waivers from the Indians on July 11th. For the foreseeable future, it appears the Cardinals plan is to go with Pierzynski as the starter and Tony Cruz as the back up in Yadier's absence. Pierzynski could help the Cardinals out with providing a veteran clubhouse presence, as he was part of the 2005 World Series winning Chicago White Sox. He has also been on four teams that have made it to the playoffs in his time with the White Sox and Minnesota Twins. In his debut for the Cardinals on Saturday, July 26 Pierzynski hit sixth in the lineup and went 3 for 4 with an RBI against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.