Back before the Double-A season began for the Tennessee Smokies, I asked new manager Mark Johnson who he thought would be the break-out player of this new crew of Chicago Cubs farm hands. He didn’t hesitate in his selection and so far, with nearly half the season over, his prediction has panned out. Smokies catcher and Cubs No. 15 prospect Victor Caratini, in just his second season as a catcher in the sport is already a mid-season Southern League All-Star.
“He (Caratini) has played up to expectations. He continues to get better every day, especially behind the plate. He’s got a tremendous aptitude for game-calling. He usually can take it in and process it. Right now he can’t apply it all the time because it’s only his second full season catching.”
BREAKING: Victor Caratini leads off the ninth with a single, ending @mbraves' no-hit bid. https://t.co/0A0H4uNluR pic.twitter.com/Jog5MWUo58
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 8, 2016
Caratini was drafted in the second round out of Miami-Dade College in 2013 by the Atlanta Braves as a position player. In his final year with the Braves he began making the move to catcher and that’s all the Cubs needed to see. They shipped two major leaguers, infielder Emilio Bonifacio an former Smokies pitcher James Russell to Atlanta in exchange for Caratini, who was still in Low-A baseball.
Caratini can understand English and speak it, but was more comfortable using an interpreter when I interviewed him last week.
“You feel great (after a trade like that),” Caratini said through an interpreter. “When an organization is willing to trade a major league player for you, you know you’re wanted pretty bad. On a personal level it made me feel good because of the caliber of players that were traded.”
6 Tennessee Smokies named All Stars:
P Paul Blackburn
P Brad Markey
C Victor Caratini
3B Jeimer Candelario
2B Chesny Young
OF Mark Zagunis— Pipeline Wrigleyville (@pipelinewrigley) June 8, 2016
The 22-year-old catcher is from Puerto Rico and though he went to the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy in Gurabo, he somehow missed all the scouts and ended up at Miami-Dade College, a junior college in Miami, Fla. The scouts didn’t make the same mistake and after just one season of JuCo baseball, Caratini was heading to the pros.
“It’s a dream to just get drafted, but going so high like that it was even more of a great feeling,” Caratini said. “I was with my family and knew my life would be different. It’s twice as good.”
And Caratini is twice as dangerous with a bat in his hands. He’s a rare switch-hitter and coming into Thursday night’s game against the Jackson Generals, Caratini is batting .297 with 13 doubles, one triple, one home run and 19 RBIs.
“It’s a lot on his plate and it’s overwhelming to be in Double-A in your second season catching and trying to run a staff, remembering pitch sequences and things like that,” Johnson said. He (Caratini) has done a tremendous job and still swinging the bat on top of it.”
https://twitter.com/BravesOptions/status/740370535515717633
Caratini continually works with Johnson and the coaching staff to pick up the nuances of the position. The young catcher isn’t letting his opportunity to learn from a former major league catcher go to waste.
“It’s an incredible luxury,” Caratini said. “I have a manager that got to that highest level, but he was also a catcher. That daily conversation with a guy like that, it’s really helped me.”
Braves get a leadoff single, but @VictorCaratini catches him stealing in a scoreless first.
E1: TNS 0 – MIS 0
— Smokies on Radio (@SmokiesOnRadio) June 7, 2016
Like pretty much every catcher in the Cubs minor league system, Caratini is a converted player. In recent years the Cubs have converted catchers like Kyle Schwarber and Mark Zagunis to other positions. For Caratini, who also plays first base, it’s the other way around. Johnson says there’s a reason for that.
“Catching is so hard to find,” Johnson said. “You talk to the scouts out and about and they see everybody in this country and foreign countries. They all say the same thing, there’s zero catching out there. I think any time you have a guy that may be a little bit slow-footed or looks the part, you give it a shot. You can see how he squats, how he sees the ball, how he moves around. You can tell right away if a guy can take to it. When something is hard to find, sometimes you’ve got to make it.”
