On November 30, 2012 the Pittsburgh Pirates inked Russell Martin to their largest free agent contract in franchise history, signing the catcher to a two-year deal worth $17 million. That contract remains the largest free agent signing of a player who didn’t play for them (Francisco Liriano and Ivan Nova).
The Pirates signed Martin because of his pitch framing ability, a hidden value discovered by Dan Fox and Mike Fitzgerald, the latter now working for the Arizona Diamondbacks. About signing Martin and what Fox and Fitzgerald uncovered, Travis Sawchik wrote in Big Data Baseball,
“We said, ‘Okay, we have to get this guy,’” Fitzgerald said.