San Diego Padres: Christian Bethancourt Proves to be MLB’s Ultimate Yes-Man

After the Atlanta Braves gave Christian Bethancourt every opportunity to be an everyday catcher, they lost interest and shipped him off to the San Diego Padres. The move ultimately served Bethancourt well.

A once highly-touted catcher, Christian Bethancourt has reportedly made the San Diego Padres Opening Day roster. The twist here is that he’s not on the 25 man as just a catcher. In fact, he’ll mostly be a reliever. Baseball is never short on surprises.

This has been in the works for some time. It all started last season, when San Diego was having a bad time and ran out of arms.

In what originally appeared to be a typical position player pitching appearance, it quickly turned out to be an idea the organization was willing to explore. Why not make a catcher a pitcher? And an outfielder too? He certainly has the arm for it. Bethancourt obliged.

As the season progressed, the Padres stuck him in at various positions aside from catcher and pitcher. They asked him to patrol the outfield, both left and right. He said yes. Second base? He nodded and said yes. He didn’t do a terrible job either. As of now, he’s gotten a lot of work in the bullpen.

Christian Bethancourt, A History

Born and raised in Panama, the Atlanta Braves swiped Bethancourt as an international free agent in 2008. He was a very promising prospect as he rose through the minor leagues. He was incredibly athletic, and was praised for his defensive work. Some even compared his arm and glove-work to the legendary Yadier Molina.

Bethancourt was a preseason 2014 top-100 prospect on MLB.com, coming in as baseball’s 82^nd ranked prospect. With Atlanta in 2014, Bethancourt slashed a disappointing .248/.274/.274 and was a wreck defensively. He allowed six passed balls and three errors. He was often cited as unmotivated and was lacking in hustle.

The 2015 season didn’t prove much better for the former catcher. Atlanta brought in controversial, but forever awesome A.J. Pierzynski as a mentor and a fallback to any struggle Bethancourt may have. What ended up happening instead was Pierzynski went on to hit .300/.339/.430 as a 38 year old and stole the starting job. He was also a pretty good framer.

Bethancourt’s promise failed to show up. In 41 games, he had four errors and eight passed balls. He did throw out an impressive 45 percent of would-be base-stealers, though. With the flailing defense, the offense got worse. He managed a .200/.225/.290 slash line, with an OPS+ of just 42. After the conclusion of the 2015 season, Atlanta sent him packing.

For a comparison as to how bad he was defensively, look at Evan Gattis, a catcher who often catches heat for his defensive liability. In 2015, Gattis played 93 games behind the dish. In that span, he committed five errors and allowed five passed balls. He also only caught 20 percent of base-stealers.

What Lies Ahead

The San Diego Padres will reportedly use him mainly as an 8th reliever. He packs low-to-mid 90’s heat and a sharp slider. With his catching background, he’ll also be a solid third catching option behind Austin Hedges and Hector Sanchez. As he works on his outfield skills, he’ll also slot in as a spare left fielder behind Travis Jankowski and Rule-5 draftee Allen Cordoba.

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Bethancourt’s ultimate goal is to be the super-utility type that can also be a two-way player. The former top prospect has a fair shot at doing so successfully too. The now reliever was worth 0.1 WAR in just 1.2 innings last season. He’ll probably play second base again at some point, as well as anywhere else on the field the Padres ask him to. At this point, whatever the team asks of him, we can all bet he’ll just smile and say “yes.” Good luck to him, too.