Meet the Unsigned Free Agents: Carlos Pena, Clint Barmes, Kelly Shoppach, Cezar Isturis

Carlos Pena:

Pena was more of a late bloomer but still has 285 home runs to his credit. However, overall production has slowed down over the last few years and he's coming off his second consecutive season with a below average OPS+. As he gets older, he can't exactly rely on his defense to save his career as he's historically been a defensive liability. Through age-35, his most similar player is Andre Thornton. He had one average season left in him before his career crashed out the next season. It appears he may be able to squeeze one more decent season out of him but even that is less than guaranteed.

Clint Barmes:

If you looked solely at offense, one would be befuddled on how Barmes continues to find work as he's combined lack of selection at the plate with a lack of power (he's never posted an OPS+ above 98 in his career). However, he is very strong on the defensive side of the game (where he passes both the eye & numbers test) which is his meal ticket and has prevented him from embarrassing himself (he's still managed to be at least 1 win above replacement the last couple years despite OPS+ totals of 64 and 58 respectively).

Through age 34, his most similar player is Eddie Bressoud. He had 76 plate appearances after that point at which point he retired. Barmes may have had his career survive on defense alone to this point but he's not getting any younger and even this skill may betray him sooner rather than later.

Kelly Shoppach:

Shoppach has a little pop in his bat but hasn't been a good enough player overall to be a full-time starter. While he is slightly above replacement defensively, he's not going to win any gold gloves (30% caught stealing rate in his career). The most similar player through 33 is Chris Widger. After this point, he had 261 career plate appearances of sub-replacement level play. Either way, Shoppach probably gets another chance as back up catcher careers seem to extend into the late 30s sometime early 40s.

Cezar Izturis:

Pretty similar to the career trajectory of Clint Barmes but as a part-time player instead of being in the starting lineup. His glove keeps him floating around from team to team but his bat is too weak to stick around in one place for too long.  He'll likely get a minor league deal and a spring training invite somewhere. His most similar player through 33 is Ivan de Jesus who had 31 plate appearances over two seasons after age 33. I wouldn't be surprised if Izturis is also pretty close to his career being finished.