Catcher Brett Sullivan went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated for assignment on Sunday, the Padres announced. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A El Paso to begin the season, meaning he’ll stick with the organization as a depth option but won’t occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Sullivan has neither the requisite service time nor the prior outright needed to reject today’s assignment in favor of free agency.
Sullivan, 31, has appeared in 40 games and taken 103 plate appearances with San Diego over the past two seasons. He’s a .206/.243/.299 hitter with a pair of homers, a 22.3% strikeout rate and a 4.9% walk rate in that time. He’s delivered solid offense in Triple-A, however, hitting .287/.367/.497 with 24 homers, 47 doubles and nearly as many walks (11.1%) as strikeouts (11.9%) over the course of 732 plate appearances there.
Defensively, Sullivan has received shaky grades for both his framing and throwing. He’s shown some defensive versatility though, logging 723 career innings in left field, 694 at third base and 35 at first base in the minors (all in addition to 4547 innings behind the plate).
Now that Sullivan has cleared waivers, he’ll be in El Paso alongside the recently optioned Luis Campusano. They’ll be first up in the event of injuries or changes to the big league catching tandem of Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado.
Higashioka was their only C with at least half a season of games to post better than a league average slash line since Rene Rivera did it in 2014
I know Salas has been way young for his levels, but if he doesn’t take a step forward this year, they should seriously consider including a high-value catching prospect in any returns if they end up moving Cease or any other big assets
Gary Sanchez?
Preller has papered over their C woes with some surprisingly good C seasons the past 2 years. They also had Caratini, who was awful in 2021 but has gone on to have three straight solid years.
I doubt the Padres would target C prospects, Preller seems more of a best-package type guy. What’s more frustrating is losing Higashioka for a very modest price.
Straight – I think the 2nd year was more the problem with Higgy and also to be reasonable, no reason to think Higgy will perform back to back as he did in 24. Sanchez for example (younger) failed to come close in 24 to his 23 rebound.
$13.5 million over 2 seasons makes Higgy one of the top 10 paid catchers in baseball not including Raleigh who signed that extension yesterday.
Diaz is the highest paid catcher in Padres history.
Damn, that’s a bit sobering re: Diaz’s record contract.
That’s an interesting factoid Pads. Even HOFer Mike Piazza only make $1.,250,000 in 2006
Catchers: The running backs of MLB
Most backup catchers don’t play in 82 games. The average number of games played per season by all catchers since 2021, not just backup catchers like Higgy, is 69. Catchers are typically not compared to other positions with the bat since average for a catcher the last 4 seasons has been 89 OPS+.
Sanchez had a 113 OPS+ in 72 games with the Padres. 13% above league average and 25% better than the average catcher in 2023.
Nola and Alfaro were both better than the average catcher in 2022.
Higashioka started 77 games at catcher and 1 at DH. 78 games started.
At least there’s still some catching depth now to allow Campusano to stay at AAA and improve if Diaz and/or Maldonado get hurt.
Would be nice if Eguy slipped through waivers as well, but I doubt it.
I’m hoping that Eguy, Gonzalez and Wade are guys that get through waivers and can resign with San Diego…Gurriel and Heyward won’t make it to June before a DFA if not sooner…I would rather have Connor Joe and the other three at Petco before Gurriel and Heyward…they will be this years Nelson Cruz and Matt Carpenter.
Gonzalez doesn’t have to go through waivers. He does eventually have an opt out clause if he’s not on the MLB roster, but I haven’t seen anything about the timing on that.
I think Wade will probably make it through but I’d be pretty surprised if Eguy wasn’t taken on waivers. There was an article in SDUT where they said the Padres expect to lose Eguy
Thank you for the clarification in regard to the Gonzalez, Wade and Eugy Rosario. In previous years Eugy Rosario, Gonzalez and Wade all break camp with the MLB team and as much as I would hate to see Rosario get claimed by another team, if it meant he actually got an opportunity to have a season in the show, I would be very happy for him. Wade is one that does all of the little things right that don’t show in the box score but his teammates know and Gonzalez can play and I hope he chooses to stick around because as I said…Heyward and Gurriel are destined for a DFA sooner than later.
I have a little more hope for Heyward, but I agree with you that Gurriel likely isn’t going to make it to summer. It’s been years since he has been a productive hitter
Gonzalez has an opt out on May 1st.
At least 2 of those 3 are gone. Hoping it is in a trade or two. I agree about Heyward and Gurriel.
YOU SUCK!
I love that only a handful of readers of this comment, a thin slice of a venn diagram, will understand that this is not an insult or derogatory comment.
It’s true, it’s true.
Thanks
Just stating an opinion as are you
Glad to see Brett sticking in the organization. Would have rather seen him on the opening day roster than Maldonado who was horrible with the bat, at pitch framing, and on defense in spring training. not sure what exactly he did well enough to force the Padres to DFA someone who is on the 40 man to keep him.
Sullivan’s strong numbers in Triple-A, where he’s played a lot, should matter more than his weaker numbers in the majors, where he’s barely played. But teams seem stuck on judging him by that tiny MLB sample instead of the bigger picture.
A sports psychologist and a normal psychologist need to talk to Campusano. I think they’re getting to the point where they need to poop or get off the pot with him.
I don’t think it’s in his head. Just happens that an extremely high % of guys in sports either don’t make it or end up borderline. His defense will keep him borderline I’m afraid. Not that I’m arguing Maldonado as a viable replacement, I’d rather have Campy.