The Chicago Cubs had a tough time at the catching position last season. Despite a degree of stability at the end of the campaign, the team still came into the offseason with catcher as a legitimate weak spot that needed addressing.
In December, overshadowed by the trade for Houston Astros star outfielder Kyle Tucker on the same day, the Cubs acquired free agent Carson Kelly on a two-year, $11.5 million deal.
Bringing Stability To The Catching Position
Bringing the 30-year-old Kelly aboard is seen as a further stabilizing factor to a catching corps headed by the 25-year-old Miguel Amaya, who has, almost literally, nobody major league-ready behind him.
Kelly, who made his major league debut in 2016 and has played with four different teams, is a glove-first catcher with a little pop, who, by all accounts, will be more of a co-starter with Amaya than a straight-up backup.
In essence, it should be the kind of platoon/mentor pairing that the Cubs had hoped for when they brought Amaya up in 2024 to play alongside Yan Gomes.
However, things didn’t go as planned last year and the team released Gomes in late June, with a feeble .154 batting average.
Gomes’ quick fade put Amaya in a tough spot, suddenly making him THE man behind the plate. Amaya wilted a bit under the pressure, before somewhat finding his legs in the last three months of the season.
Miguel Amaya Has Room For Growth
Still, the young prospect has shown some defensive flaws, notably when it comes to framing and throwing runners out. He’s also got some offensive proof to provide, as his .201 batting average over the first half of the season demonstrated (although, he DID hit .271 over the second half).
The Cubs, despite seeing him as the team’s long-term answer to the catching position, clearly feel that Amaya needs some seasoning. They wanted a veteran catching partner who could take some of the pressure off him, while helping him round out some rough edges. They also, most likely, wanted someone mature enough to know his place as a mentor and not try to win a starting gig by burying his inexperienced competition.
In that regard, they seem to have found the perfect man in Kelly.
Carson Kelly Is The Perfect Man For The Job
“I think back to when I was 25 playing in the big leagues and there’s a lot thrown at you as a player, so you’re juggling learning the staff, new guys being at the big-league level and then hitting as well,” Kelly said after the announcement of his signing.
“There’s a lot of attributes and a lot of things that you have to balance. So coming in I look forward to meeting him and talking with him and seeing how he operates. I look forward to picking his brain, maybe learning some things about his game that I can apply to mine and how we can be the best team to go out and win ballgames.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell believes that the lumps Amaya took– and mostly overcame– last season, will do him good in the long run.
“He’s gotten a lot of experience this year,” Counsell told media near the end of the season. “I don’t think there’s any other position where that matters as much. So, I’m really happy about that, and that he’s kind of gone through the season that he’s gone through. That’s a lot of learning.
“Miguel got off to a rough start, no question about it,” Counsell added. “But on both sides of the ball, he’s improved. If you really look back at Miguel, he needs experience. He caught [116 games] this year. That’s a great number for getting experience. That’s an important number.”
And if all goes according to Cubs plan, Amaya will grow even further alongside Carson Kelly. For now, there appears to be no Plan B.
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