SURPRISE, Ariz.—When this winter’s hotly anticipated baseball free-agent class officially hit the open market, offers immediately started rolling in for one particular player—and it wasn’t Manny Machado or Bryce Harper. No, the phones were ringing off the hook for a career backup who could realistically be described as the worst hitter in more than a century.

Jeff Mathis, a catcher who will celebrate his 36th birthday next month, owns a batting average of .198 since debuting with the Los Angeles Angels in 2005. Among all players with at least 2,500 career plate appearances dating back to 1876, only one has fared worse: Bill Bergen, a backstop who hit .170 from 1901 through 1911.

But Bergen survived only 11 seasons before his ineptitude with the bat prompted the Brooklyn Dodgers to release him at age 33. With a freshly inked two-year, $6.25 million contract with the Texas Rangers, Mathis is set to last at least 16 seasons, with no plans to stop then.

“I’d like to have better numbers on the back of my card and do a little more at the plate, there’s no doubt. Obviously, that shit bothers me,” Mathis said. “But just being able to still be here in this game is a tribute to the hard work I’ve put in elsewhere.”

In fact, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said that, as time has passed, “seemingly his value has gone up” in an industry that is better equipped than ever to understand Mathis’s worth. While Harper, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel continue to wait for jobs, Mathis had multiple suitors and a deal wrapped up before Thanksgiving.