Chris Snyder is better than you think. He's a career .231/.333/.394 hitter, which isn't bad for a catcher. He's not exactly a defensive wunderkind, but catchers who can take a walk and hit a home run every so often are rare. And with the Houston Astros making some sort of recent bizarre commitment to players who might actually hit a little, they've scooped Snyder up:

The Houston Astros have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with free agent catcher Chris Snyder, General Manager Jeff Luhnow announced today.

The deal also includes a mutual option for 2013.

Snyder will start, and he'll likely share time when Jason Castro returns from his knee injury. The 30-year-old Snyder was born and raised in Houston, graduating from high school there and attending the University of Houston. So in some ways, we probably should have seen this coming.

Snyder came up in the Diamondbacks' system before he was traded to the Pirates for Bobby Crosby, Ryan Church, and D.J. Carrasco, which is an amazing collection of Pirates-related names.