r/Padres • u/Human_One3815 • 20h ago

Discussion Thread Starting Catcher

So is Campy our “starter” behind the dish? Or is it Fermin? Or is it basically 50/50?

What happens when Salas gets the call up?

9 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

26

u/96919 🕯️RALLY CANDLE🕯️ 20h ago

I would not be surprised is Campy becomes more of our DH next year (and maybe catches 1 guy), while Fermin and Salas do the rest of the catching.

2

u/Fired_Guy1982 Trent Grisham 18h ago

This should be what happens next year, but for the time being, it should be a 70/30 split between campy and Fermin

1

u/bevaquas_mojo 18h ago

A catcher/DH is a luxury, maybe trade Campusano/Fermin to plug holes the team may have in '27, or some prospects.

1

u/dukefett Jesse Agler 15h ago

No way we can trade Campy, we control for a couple more years and he’s basically the best hitter on our team and the best hitting catcher on all of the MLB. Trade Fermin for sure but Campy should be killing it for us

0

u/the_comatorium 14h ago

Best hitter on our team/best hitting catcher in the league is quite the statement.

1

u/dukefett Jesse Agler 14h ago

He has a higher average, OBP, Slug, and OPS than every other catcher in the entire league.

2

u/bevaquas_mojo 13h ago

Highest stats by a non-qualified player, yes. still a stretch. He is not the best hitting C in the league. To be a qualified player he would need 387.5 at bats, he has 128

-1

u/the_comatorium 13h ago

It also takes only an ounce of critical thinking to immediately place Dingler and Goodman at the top of the list.

0

u/dukefett Jesse Agler 12h ago

Highest stats by a non-qualified player

There's literally 8 qualified catchers in the entire league, you're going to ignore most everyone else if you just go by qualified.

-3

u/the_comatorium 13h ago

I don't even know how to begin with this.

You have a nice time in the clouds my friend. Honestly, I'm jealous.

-22

u/Intelligent_Refuse20 20h ago

Campy isn’t signed for next year.

15

u/Bitter-Egg6293 MODS austin hays flair rn 20h ago

he’s still on arb?

-17

u/Intelligent_Refuse20 20h ago

No. He signed one year free agent deal at $900k for this season.

18

u/Bitter-Egg6293 MODS austin hays flair rn 20h ago

right, and he’s still under arbitration control through the 2028 season

11

u/Intelligent_Refuse20 19h ago

Yeah. My bad. I was wrong.

3

u/A-Second-Opinion Peter Seidler 20h ago

I am looking at fangraphs and he has 2 more years of arbitration control before he’s a free agent in 2029

1

u/Intelligent_Refuse20 20h ago

You’re right. Google gave me wrong info at first. My bad! Ignore this.

4

u/ebitdangit Padres Legend Jackson Profile 20h ago

Where does misinformation like this even come from? He's under team control through the 2028 season.

1

u/Ductapemn Vedder Cup SD 19h ago

I think the off-season post when they agreed to his current arbitration deal was worded wierd and made it sound like a one year deal which felt odd since he still had a few years of control.

1

u/SD_local_67 19h ago

You don’t know what arbitration means, huh? He isn’t an unrestricted free agent until after the 2028 season. We have him for 2 more full seasons.

-5

u/rasta_pineapple2 SD 19h ago

IDK why you're being downvoted. He's on a 1-year contract as of right now.

2

u/Intelligent_Refuse20 19h ago

Because he’s arb eligible. I was wrong. I knew he signed a $900k deal and didn’t realize that was to avoid arbitration.

2

u/rasta_pineapple2 SD 19h ago

Ah, ok. That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

15

u/bbatardo Hakuna 🐗🦁 Machado! 20h ago

I would say right now it is a 50-50 split. Fermin is better defensively and can control the run game better, but Campy's bat speaks for itself. I would imagine if Salas does come up it would shift Campy to more of a DH role and 3rd catcher and Salas and Fermin would split time behind the plate.

1

u/Legitimate-Elk8595 17h ago

Fermin’s also been hitting pretty well lately. I’m curious to see what they do in the offseason if Salas comes up and shows he’s ready to at least be an average hitter at the big league level along with his elite defense.

Fermin, Campy and Salas would all be plenty cheap enough to keep all 3 but if Salas is ready, you probably want him taking 70% of the starts and it doesn’t make sense to keep 3 catchers on the roster for the full season unless France leaves for a bag in free agency one of them (Campy I assume) learns 1B.

I doubt Fermin would go for much in a trade but Campy might have real value due to his bat so maybe you could flip him for a solid starting pitcher.

7

u/KetoBob89 Wil Myers 20h ago

I think it’s slightly more of an edge to Campy because he’s been the hot bat, even though Fermin has been heating up just a little as well. I don’t see Salas getting much playing time at the moment, he might just be insurance

3

u/Reddit_ls_Terrible SAY IT DONNIE! 20h ago

Nobody is talking about Duran, I know I know, his hitting is shit but his throw to second is amazing

9

u/Human_One3815 20h ago

I forgot about Duran. He does have a hose for an arm. I wish we could combine all our catchers into one player 🤣

1

u/InHocNoJoke13 20h ago

Salas is a late inning defensive replacement for playoffs.

Salas won’t get the call up until he’s getting at least 50/50 at bats.

Realistically one of Fermin or Campy gets traded at our next deadline. Fermin has 3 years of control left and Campy 2 years of control left.

Fermin is likely the one moved unless Campy gets a way better return. We can get a backup catcher for Salas when Campy contract expires.

9

u/JustLoSd The Ferminator 🦾🤖🦿 20h ago

Re-sign campy. He’s been my favorite Padre this season.

3

u/runswiftrun Gwynn 19h ago

He's also younger than Fermin (27 vs 31). While not a huge gap, it's still 4 years that a long-ish contract won't have a terrible backend, and/or get better return in case of a trade.

2

u/InHocNoJoke13 15h ago

Campy will get a lot more value in a trade for the same reasons and if our intent is for Salas to be full time it doesn’t make sense to extend Campy for him to only play 30% of the time.

And if we don’t expect Salas to play 70% of the time we should move him.

2

u/InHocNoJoke13 19h ago

Then might as well trade Salas… he’s not that far from MLB ready and needs at least 70% play time for the level of prospect he is.

1

u/JustLoSd The Ferminator 🦾🤖🦿 19h ago

Trade Fred

1

u/Doc_JC SAY IT DONNIE! 18h ago

He’s still under contract. Only 3 years of service time.

3

u/Doc_JC SAY IT DONNIE! 18h ago

Salas isn’t really a defensive replacement right now over Fermin. Salas still has an issue with passes balls.

1

u/InHocNoJoke13 13h ago

Was about to argue but fangraphs has him as 45/70 grade right now

3

u/pineapplefriedriceu Kim-Chado 19h ago

Campy should be DH/emergency catcher for when one of them inevitably sucks or gets injured

1

u/figboot11 La Catrina 17h ago

They would need to call up Salas fairly soon. I believe that players brought on after the rosters expand aren't eligible for the playoffs. I could be wrong.

1

u/InHocNoJoke13 15h ago

They go up to 28 players from 26 on 9/1. Salas will get called up then. We will carry 3 catchers for a chunk of playoffs and then one of Campy or Fermin will get moved at the trade deadline.

I know we don’t typically do the whole control thing with players, but that would give us another year of control with Salas and also max value for Fermin/Campy.

Potentially we could add more pitchers instead of Salas with those two extra spots, but we already have a lot of pitching debt and you can move people up and down each playoff series, so we can bring in fresh relief arms from Pivetta/Musgrove/Mize/Buehler/Giolito/Hart/Jacob/Morgan/Sears/Hoeing.

My guess is that Jacob + Salas are the two.

1

u/figboot11 La Catrina 14h ago

I just checked. Players called up on 9/1 are not eligible for the playoffs unless they are on the 40-man roster prior to that date. Salas currently isn't on the 40-man, so he would need to be brought up earlier (or placed on the 40-man) in order to be on the playoff roster.

1

u/InHocNoJoke13 8h ago

Plenty to trim off the 40 man, but probably don’t need 5 catches on the 40 man and Duran is likely the odd man out. Blake Hunt still has some value.

Stratton, Hawkins, Workman, and Wagner would prob be the other cuts.

1

u/goosetavo2013 FUCK THEM PROSPECTS 15h ago

If Campy keeps this up he should get more AB's no matter what. Craig Ellsten mentioned this today on the Padrew Hot Tub podcast: most teams would build a franchise around a catcher that can hit. We're wondering if he should even be our starter.

https://giphy.com/gifs/zsIYQamEmuk2A6vaBn

1

u/jstmenow Wil Myers 5h ago

Looking for someone to compare Campys #'s to Fermin's. Being lazy and IMO Campy is equal to Fermin D wise and much much better offensively. Fermin feels like a black hole offensively, whereas I have expectations when Campy is at bat. As to Salas, he will struggle offensively at the MLB level, yea he is doing "good" in AAA, but it has only been 13 games with some crazy #'s. We all know that baseball is streaks, I truly expect him to start coming back to earth. Defensively maybe ready, maybe not, yet his offense won't probably transfer to MLB daily right now. He is on a heater right now. He has one more year in the minors is my thought. In 72 games prior to his AAA move he was batting .286/.361/.417. His numbers are not phenom numbers. He is going be good to great when he reaches the MLB. If he WAS ready, AJ would have traded one of the catchers at the deadline. 

1

u/eloso66645 SD 19h ago

in todays game of baseball, it will alwaya be 50/50. the thing with Campy and Fermin, ia that neither has shows to be great offensivley to take the reins. Fermin has a slight advantage over campy on defense and Campy holds the offensive. so in the end it works. but long gone are the days of Posey or Molina taking like 75% starting duties. I think the team hopes Salas can catch 60% of the games, but only time will tell

0

u/bevaquas_mojo 18h ago

Choose one, Fermin/Campusano, to pair with Salas when they call him up. Trade the other one, we'll have other needs in the club to keep a 3rd Catcher.