The Brewers fortified their catching situation this afternoon, announcing the acquisition of Víctor Caratini and cash considerations from the Padres. San Diego picks up fellow catcher Brett Sullivan and outfield prospect Korry Howell in return. It’s a quick strike for Milwaukee to find a #2 backstop in the wake of an 80-game suspension to presumptive #2 Pedro Severino, who tested positive for the banned substance Clomiphene this week.
Caratini spent one season in San Diego after coming over from the Cubs alongside Yu Darvish last offseason. He functioned as Darvish’s personal catcher, lining up behind the dish in 29 of the righty’s 30 starts. The switch-hitting backstop also saw more action than anticipated in non-Darvish outings, as expected starter Austin Nola was limited to 56 games by injuries.
Ultimately, Caratini tallied a personal-high 356 plate appearances during his lone season in San Diego. He hit .227/.309/.323 with seven home runs, a fair bit worse than the .250/.327/.372 line he’d put up in the prior four seasons as a reserve option in Chicago. Last season’s 9.8% walk percentage and 23% strikeout rate were both in line with his respective career marks, but he managed just seven homers and nine doubles en route to a subpar .096 ISO (slugging minus batting average).
Caratini’s average exit velocity and hard contact rate were surprisingly strong, but he negated much of his extra-base potential by hitting the ball on the ground more than half the time. Even if he can’t add more offensive impact, he should offer some decent at-bats off the bench for skipper Craig Counsell. Caratini has been better from the right side of the dish over the course of his career, a trait that pairs well with lefty-hitting #1 catcher Omar Narváez.
The Caratini acquisition is clearly tied to Severino’s suspension, which had left Milwaukee without an obvious backup catcher. The Brewers are set to welcome Severino back in the second half of the year, but Caratini could have a path to securing the job with a strong start to the season. He’s making $2MM after avoiding arbitration this offseason, and he’ll be controllable once more through that process before hitting free agency after 2023.
From the Padres perspective, the trade would appear to be a vote of confidence in out-of-options backstop Jorge Alfaro. San Diego acquired Alfaro, with whom president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is quite familiar from their time in the Rangers organization, in a small trade with the Marlins before last November’s tender deadline. It was a mere cash transaction, but that the Friars affirmatively struck to add Alfaro rather than let Miami non-tender him into free agency (which it had become apparent the Fish were set to do) suggested the Friars had hopes of Alfaro breaking camp.
It would appear he’s in line to do just that after a fantastic showing in Spring Training. Alfaro had ten hits, including four homers, in 24 at-bats in Cactus League play. That’s far less meaningful than his more modest .258/.309/.399 career regular season showing, but Alfaro is a former top prospect whom many evaluators had projected as a possible regular thanks to his power at the plate and strong throwing arm. He’ll presumably make the club as Nola’s backup, with top prospect Luis Campusano also on the verge of the big leagues.
Sullivan, too, could find himself in that mix. The 28-year-old has never played in the majors, but he landed a major league deal with the Brewers this winter after qualifying for minor league free agency. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen writes that he’s a contact-oriented hitter who could be a depth option in the short-term, albeit without much power or a great arm.
The lefty-hitting Sullivan is only coming off a .223/.302/.375 line in Triple-A. The Brewers obviously preferred to go externally rather than turn the backup catching job over to him to start the season. Yet the fact that both Milwaukee and San Diego were willing to commit him a 40-man roster spot suggests he’s of appeal to multiple clubs.
Howell, meanwhile, is a former 12th-round selection out of an Iowa junior college. Baseball America slotted the right-handed hitting outfielder 29th in the Milwaukee farm system this offseason, praising his athleticism and plate discipline but noting concerns about his bat-to-ball skills. That’s borne out in his minor league numbers, as Howell punched out in 28.9% of his trips to the plate in High-A last season. That mark jumped to 39.6% upon a late-season promotion to Double-A. Even with the strikeouts, Howell was particularly productive at the former stop, though. He hit 12 homers and stole 20 bases in 69 games while walking at a strong 11.1% clip, showcasing the combination of athleticism and patience BA noted.
Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported the Padres were trading Caratini to the Brewers for a pair of minor leaguers. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the return of Sullivan and Howell.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
well, that solves a pair of catching situations
True. I think trading Nola would’ve been more beneficial to both though
Is it in the new CBA that every trade in MLB must include at least one of either the Padres or Mariners?
In fairness, that was also in the previous CBA
because 7 days without a mariners trade makes trader jerry weak.
Those 2 teams keep this website lively!
According to my sources the prospects are
Bucket O’ Balls
Washing Machin
and
Ham Samwich
2 barrels of oysters as well
One barrel or no deal
Howell is a decent prospect. Plus, Plus speed and a great arm. He showed good power in A+ and AA ball last season.
Sorry. Got ahead of myself. Plus, plus speed, great instincts in the field, and a good arm.
He’s a meh prospect at best. A 24-year old who just got promoted to AA with not much of a bat.
Wonder if Darvish is going with him…
Reports out of San Diego are that Darvish is livid. He was seen yelling while storming out of Bob Melvins office. Melvin asked “what’s the matter with Yu”! Mass confusion all around. More to come……
That’s racist!
How is that racist?
No, that’s comical.
Making a pun on someone’s name isn’t racist. We do it on this site -all- the time, regardless of nationality or whatever.
He probably doesn’t really think it’s racist either. He’s just being a culture warrior and mocking racism.
It’s what’s a matta wit YEW!!!!!
Eat your heart out cubbies. We got your guy
Enjoy.
He’s not our guy … He’s awful! You can have him.
If you traded with SD how is he “The Cubs Guy?”
FYI – The Cubs got him from the Braves
Better make him pee in a cup before you finalize that deal.
I wonder how Darvish feels about this. But I guess that solves the Padres catching “dilemma.” Does this mean Campusano stays put, and Alfaro made the club (obviously, after raking in ST)? Padres need another true outfielder….
Campy needs to start everyday. Most likely heading to EP, but could stick in SD due to 28 man roster, I guess.
One very valid argument brought up on their flagship radio station is that, if they use Alfaro as a DH, he could go into catch but the team would lose the DH for the rest of the game. Carrying three catchers is needed at that point.
Why are they going to use Alfaro as DH when they have Voit? I feel like thats not going to happen all that often.
Both Voit and Alfaro are RHB. Against LH starters the Padres could start Voit at 1B and Alfaro at DH to take advantage of the platoon split.
While Hosmer hits RHP well, he doesn’t against LHP.
Not saying they will do that, just that they could do that.
You would have to think that the Padres spoke to Darvish about this, not saying they needed his approval, but I am sure it was discussed with him. Plus, it made sense that he was the one to go.
Darvish threw to Austin Nola more this spring and I saw a quote from someone with the team earlier in spring training saying that they wanted everyone to be able to throw to all of the catchers, so I think they’ve been preparing for this since the Alfaro acquisition.
Beware doing ANTHING that takes Yu Darvish out of his “comfort zone”.
Melvin said that the Padres would break camp with 2 catchers. Campusano got zero starts in spring training and only 3 games where he caught at all so he is headed down.
This guy always turned into a stud in Out of the Park.
We knew something had to give with all these Catchers.
We have a Howell back on Gilligans Island again.
Love it. Go Brew Crew!
Is Hosmer coming too?
More to come
Only if he brings along Gore and someone else.
We wouldn’t/shouldn’t want Hosmer. If anything, we’d want a right handed hitter to platoon with Rowdy. Hosmer would just add payroll hampering other moves to improve the team at the deadline. In other words, the Padres current situation. “Shoot, we’d like to add him, but our payroll is already so high. Wonder if anyone will take Hosmer?”
Right handed bat to platoon with Rowdy is Keston Hiura. if they want to platoon him.
Sullivan was about to make his MLB debut, now his future is cloudy – poor guy
That was a longshot. I thought they might get Nottingham again
What will Darvish do…
Good haul for SD. This could go into the win column for AJ. A unneeded player for anything is good and this is better than anything.
Caratini’s 2022 salary is $2M. He is traded for two minor leaguers PLUS cash considerations? The Padres are slightly over the lowest salary threshold, yet they had to give money to the Brewers to take Caratini?
I think they are currently about $8 million under the new threshold (last time I checked anyway), so they should still have some room for an outfielder – though I get less confident by the day that they’ll move for anyway and more fearful they think Profar is the answer. That said, I too am surprised they had to kick in some cash.
@ukpadre. I think you’re quoting where they were at BEFORE Manaea? That trade put them at $233 million, so they had to shed $3 mil to get back under the threshold. With Caratini out, they should be around $231 mil
Ah yes, my bad. Totally forgot we added Manaea.
What’s the scoop on these 2 prospects?
Sullivan was in the Rays system forever, and never did anything; he’s 28. Howell’s numbers are meh, but you can’t always tell from that.
It was a salary dump. dressed up to make it look different.
A salary dump? Saving $2M minus the cash considerations they have to send to the Brewers in the trade?
That $2M is actually a pretty big deal for SD since the Padres are right at the CBT threshold. Every dollar counts for them in terms of getting under, so shedding that $2M for luxury tax purposes is is pretty helpful.
That said it’s not really a true “salary dump” because the Brewers were trying to acquire a backup catcher and they sent a prospect along as well so this isn’t entirely about money.
I have a feeling another deal is coming later today that will send them way over the threshold again
Looks like they got Crash from Bull Durham and an low-level OF prospect with speed/some power
Rays fans would know more than me regarding Sullivan, but Korry Howell is a really nice prospect. Power/speed guy with potentially plus CF defense. Brewers farm director said Howell was tearing it up in minor league camp. Nice trade by Preller. Did better on this one than the Grisham trade.
Sullivan is a defensive specialist that was set to be the backup catcher in Brewerland, but he has never been anything special. Career .271/.743 OPS hitter with very little power in 6 years in the minors.
Howell is now the Padres #16 prospect according to MLB.com. He was drafted as a SS out of community college and has plus, plus speed (70 rated), great instincts in the field, and a good arm. He broke out with 16 HR between A+ and AA ball last season. His issue is making enough contact.
Cue the low-brow theories and speculation:
-pirates acquired OF Marisnick today.
-padres sent away a MLB catcher, freeing a roster spot. Bob NightenTale to tweet soon, something, anything.
-must mean Reynolds is moving to Padres now.
Marisnick can stand at *any* position on the field. He was a “WTF?” pickup by the Padres… Underwhelming would be a compliment. I think he could get to the ball just couldn’t hit it. Pirates needed a warm body, I guess.
It’ll be interesting to see what impact this could have on Darvish. They could have conceivably carried Caratini, Nola and Alfaro and had Campusano in the minors to begin the year.
Pads needed to shed a little $ to get under $230 mil cap
Yu need not worry about that.
Howell was the #15 prospect. Seems like a heavy price for the return. I saw him as a T-Rat (A ball), he has some upside
If he puts on some muscle he could be good. Maybe he should try to “have a baby.”
Sullivan isn’t better than any of the Padres’ other 40-man roster catchers. Howell would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason had it not been cancelled and the Brewers didn’t protect him.
I was hoping the Yankees did a better job upgrading at catcher in the name of Contreras. I guess the Cubs demands are too high.
Yeah, the Cubbies asked for toothpaste and a bad of chips, and when Cashman told Hal, Hal’s response was, “I told you, I’m not paying one cent more of any tax,” so it couldn’t go forward because, ya know, taxes.
Padres are winning the early April off-season
Yes, am sure many like you think so.
This is why the Padres look great on paper to those that don’t understand how teams win in MLB…….especially A. J. Preller.
Stearns understands the necessity for multiple quality Catchers to call a game, handle his pitching staff and play D. Preller is delighted with a guy that can’t handle a staff, call a game or play D – but WOW!! the guy can serve as a part-time DH.
This is why the Brewers always outperform expectations and the Padres always underperform them.
At the end of the year Padre fans can complain about how bad a manager Melvin is – will write that he was overrated in Oakland.
challenged to detect cynicism, eh?
The Padres had 4 catchers on the 40 man roster and sent the worst of the 4 to the Brewers for a defensive specialist catcher that was expected to make the Brewers 28 man roster but was not yet on the 40 man roster. They also got a high upside/high risk CF prospect.
Caratini was 102 of 116 on the list of best defensive catchers in MLB last season according to Baseball Prospectus who put out the only catcher defense grading that includes pitch framing. He also had only a 78 OPS+, 22% below league average and 16% below league average for catchers.
Alfaro was 22nd. In 2019, the last full season, Alfaro was 31st. His problem is he has not hit for average.
Nola is about league average on defense in his limited tie behind the plate over the past 3 seasons. He is there for his bat and has a 114 career OPS+ as a catcher. In case you are wondering, that ranks 5th among catchers over 2019-2021. His wRC+ ranks 6th.
Not sure how this was a bad trade for the Padres in your mind.
I don’t care about who won the trade. Winning trades means nothing. As for pitch framing – the most worthless statistic available to the public. It’s all about how the Catcher makes his Pitchers better. The Padres pitching has underperformed since Preller got there.
A few years Preller brought in Francisco Mejia and the fans were ecstatic. Austin Allen was a can’t miss prospect. Where are those guys? Are the guys you’re telling me about as good as them?
I don’t think your comprehended a word I wrote. Don’t concern yourself, that happens here often.
Austin Allen was never a can’t miss prospect. This is the kind of isht that gets people to call you a troll. Which 90% of the time you aren’t.
Mejia is out catching in TB now so it’s not as if a highly intelligent organization didn’t see an opportunity there either. There’s real digs to take at SDP but you flail around and say some stupid stuff sometimes when there’s enough low hanging fruit to feed a village.
Jesus, how is this worse than Kurt Suzuki Perry?
Padres still need a corner OF, and first baseman. Maybe a closer, but who?
They already have a first baseman
Who?
Hosmer
Hosmer is a GQ guy. Talks the talk but walks with a limp. He’s twice overpaid. Can’t be traded because nobody wants him. Myers too. We just have to wait out Prellers mistakes and hope his successes play out of their heads. That’s what happened in 84 and 98. Remember?
Thanks for catching the no-no from Joe, bro-bro!
Missed the obvious Joe Joe.
With Sullivan, albeit he is just ok in minors, does this mean they will shop Campusano with Hosmer or trade him in another package?
Probably not. Even Preller cannot be dumb enough to trade a kid that tore up AAA at age 22. But then…
Sullivan doesn’t really have much upside. The Rays moved him because they had two more guys to move up to AAA and one they kept there (Rene Pinto).
Should be fun watching Alfaro and Campusano try and figure out how to play catcher at the big league level when Nola gets hurt.
Aj Preller “We need offense, even behind the dish”
Also AJ Preller “Let’s pencil in Profar for left field”
#yourdoingitwrong
#hiswhatisdoingitwrong?
Alfaro is a good defensive catcher. His problem has been making consistent contact. Campusano improved immensely behind the plate last season in AAA, but the Padres are in a win now mode so they went with the veteran who can also DH if needed vs LHP.
Lol. He’s a terrible catcher. Saw him a ton with the Phils and Marlins. There’s gotta be a Passed Balls stat out there somewhere with his name right near the top.
As a Phillies fan, I will agree that Alfaro was pretty terrible behind the plate for them when given a chance. Lots of passed balls. He lead the league in 2018 and 2021.
Should’ve been Cleveland grabbing Caratini, they need help behind the plate.