Angels make a catching swap for Milwaukee’s Martin Maldonado

The Angels acquired veteran catcher Martin Maldonado from Milwaukee on Tuesday in exchange for a younger player at the same position, Jett Bandy, who broke out this summer before fading in September.

The Angels also received a right-handed relief prospect, Long Beach State product Drew Gagnon, who has stalled in triple-A in recent years.

Maldonado, 30, figures to be the club’s primary catcher next season. The Puerto Rico native caught 304 games over parts of six seasons with the Brewers but never started on a full-time basis because of Jonathan Lucroy.

For his career, he has hit .217 with a .299 on-base percentage and .342 slugging percentage. Last season, he hit just .202 but got on base at a better-than-average .332 mark.

Metrics measure him better defensively, where he’s been one of baseball’s best pitch framers on a per-game basis and thrown out 35% of potential base-stealers. The major league average is 28%.

“We see him as above-average across the board,” Angels General Manager Billy Eppler said of his defense.

In adding Maldonado, shortstop Andrelton Simmons and second baseman Danny Espinosa in a 13-month span to join center fielder Mike Trout, all superior defenders, Eppler said the Angels felt they were “honoring the very traditional blueprint in baseball,” of a potent diamond of defense up the middle.

Maldonado is eligible for arbitration the next two years before entering free agency. MLBtraderumors.com projects him to earn $1.6 million in 2017, up almost a half-million from his last-season salary.

Bandy will not become a free agent for five years, but the Angels have another 26-year-old catcher on a similar timeline: Carlos Perez, who will likely back up Maldonado.

A 31st-round pick five years ago, Bandy progressed from organizational fodder into a prospect and a clubhouse leader in 2016. He began the season in the minors, then earned an early call-up due to injury. Through 48 games, he hit .279 with a .325 on-base percentage and .490 slugging clip. But he entered an awful slump and finished with more pedestrian numbers: .234, .281 and .392.

Gagnon, picked 28 rounds ahead of Bandy in 2011, tore through the low minors but struggled with triple-A Colorado Springs, where he had a 5.56 earned-run average in 55 innings last season.

The Angels and Brewers began regular conversations regarding a trade late last week, at the baseball winter meetings, according to Eppler. He had said since the season ended that adding a catcher was a lower priority than adding a second baseman, but with Espinosa in house he moved on to Maldonado.

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