June 21: The Marlins have now made it official, announcing they have selected Sánchez and designated Bethancourt for assignment.
June 20: The Marlins are designating catcher Christian Bethancourt for assignment, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com (X link). De Nicola adds that the recently-acquired Ali Sánchez is likely to be selected onto the MLB roster in his place.
Miami acquired Bethancourt from the Guardians in a cash transaction over the offseason. It was one of the first moves of note for new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, who had been the general manager in Tampa Bay during Bethancourt’s two-year run with the Rays. The move didn’t go as the front office hoped.
Bethancourt appeared in 38 games for the Fish and hit .159/.198/.268 over 88 plate appearances. He struck out 22 times while drawing three walks and collecting 13 hits. Miami has gotten even less offense out of starting catcher Nick Fortes, who owns a .159/.194/.225 line over 145 trips. Between that duo and a handful of reps from Jhonny Pereda, Miami has gotten an MLB-worst .155/.192/.237 slash out of its catchers.
That’s not tenable production even for a noncompetitive team. Fortes is younger than Bethancourt and still has minor league options remaining, so the Marlins will move on from the more experienced backstop as their first change behind the plate.
There’s a decent chance Miami will end up keeping Bethancourt in the organization at Triple-A Jacksonville. The Panamanian catcher is playing on a $2.05MM arbitration salary, a little over half of which remains to be paid. That’ll diminish any trade interest and could get Bethancourt through waivers unclaimed. As a player with between three and five years of major league service, he would need to forfeit what remains of that salary to elect free agency. If he clears waivers, he’d likely accept an outright assignment to Jacksonville. Even if he sticks in the organization for the time being, he’d be a straightforward non-tender candidate at the end of the season.
Sánchez, assuming he’s indeed the corresponding call-up, will get to the big leagues for the first time since 2021. The 27-year-old only has seven games of MLB experience. He has played parts of five seasons in Triple-A, where he’s a .270/.344/.400 hitter in more than 1000 plate appearances. Sánchez was hitting .240/.338/.388 for the Cubs’ top affiliate when Miami acquired him for cash considerations last night.
A Venezuela native, Sánchez is a contact-oriented offensive player who has gotten decent reviews from scouts for his receiving skills. He cut down 34.3% of attempted basestealers in Triple-A last season. That dropped sharply to a 13% rate over 268 1/3 innings there this year. Sánchez is out of options, so the Marlins would need to put him on waivers to take him off the MLB roster once they select his contract.
Cubs will sign him. They sign any catcher or reliever that becomes available.
Nah, Andy Seminick, Clint Courtney, Hobie Landrith, and Cuno Barragan are still out there.
Dudes been around forever. Caught Tim Hudson and Freddie Garcia back in the day.
He didn’t catch them at all actually. He had 1 AB and never got played the field in 2013. Freddy Garcia never pitched in MLB after that season and Tim Hudson went to the Giants. I get your point though he’s been in the league since 2013 so he has been around for a while.
Ok, so he caught them in the bullpen.
There must be something in the water in Miami because it seems the majority of veterans that go there immediately lose the ability to hit
It’s a pitchers park.
Its not lack of power but all ability to hit.
They sunk the value of every catcher who went there after JTR was traded.
Well, you can’t bash them for trading JT. He demanded a trade after refusing an extension that actually would’ve paid him more than the contract he re-signed with the Phillies.
Now, unfortunately, that trade hasn’t worked out either and the catchers since have been the wrong choices – especially the ones on the wrong side of 30 (Stallings and Bethancourt).
He will have a new team within a few days
Cubs will take him.. if you have a glove the cubs will take them I still think they should sign voggy to play catcher he would block everything and he’s probably better then what they have….. if anything it would be cheap entertainment for the rest of us
Eh, defense has never been Bethancourt’s calling card. Neither has hitting really. When he came up with ATL he was horrific defensively and didn’t show much with the bat. I’m not sure how much cash CLE got for him, but even if it was something like $25k that they blew on booze and hookers, they still won that deal.
The least the cubs could do is supply some entertainment when they play
Maybe he should try pitching again.
Back to rays
Isn’t he the guy that spit on Joc Pederson?
What was Bendix looking at the past couple of years? Dude wasn’t exactly Aaron Judge with the Rays…
While it didn’t work out, what Bendix was looking at was an upgrade from Stallings.
Orioles trade catcher and prospect for Luzardo and Scott?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh wait…you meant Adley Rutschman, right? I’ll do that and will throw in some more pieces for him.
Sorry for my laughter. I thought you meant the other catching garbage in the O’s system.
Back to the Rays, and cut Jackson…
And I commented about this the second we acquired Ali. The right move at this point.
Next up, trade Bell and Tanner Scott for whatever we can get. Scott is looking to be more valuable to acquire pieces than he is pitching for us.
I would’ve said to DFA Tim Anderson too, but he’s been hitting lately, so he might get his value to tradeable status. If he continues, let’s move him as soon as he reaches his peak value.