Miami Marlins have a new option at catcher available for "free"

I speculated about this before, but it's starting to look like a reality now. It's some positive news after the Miami Marlins just lost four straight games. Especially now that certain things don't look as advantages anymore. The Fish have a potential issue at catcher, with Nick Fortes and Christian Bethancourt at the position so far this season.

It's possible that the Miami Marlins may reinvigorate a catcher's career and fix the position.

Nick Fortes can't really be trusted at catcher. The 27 year old is a career .218/.284/.356 hitter, who was really only good in 2021. That season, he batted .290/.353/.677 in 14 games and 31 AB. He hasn't lived up to that prformance...to say the least. He batted .230/.304/.392 in 72 games and 217 AB in 2022. Last season, he batted .204/.263/.299 in 108 games and 294 AB.

Christian Bethancourt doesn't seem too much better. The 32 year old is a career .230/.260/.359 hitter. He batted .219/.245/.283, in 80 games and 269 AB with the Atlanta Braves in 2013-2015. He moved on to the San Diego Padres for 2016-2017, when he batted .225/.261/.360 in 81 games and 200 AB. It was then on to the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays. Let's just say that it wasn't much better, as he batted .239/.269/.395, in 204 games and 633 AB.

It's obviously hard to see much optimism with both Fortes and Bethancourt. The San Francisco Giants have waived former top prospect catcher Joey Bart. Does it make sense to pick him up? The 27 year old batted .219/.288/.335 from 2020-2023. Bart was interestingly originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 27'th round of the 2015 draft. He ended up going to college instead, being drafted by San Francisco as the 2'nd pick of the 2018 draft. You can clearly see how high his stock once was.

Could the Miami Marlins turn Joey Bart's career around? His Exit Velocity was a terrible 84.9 last season. It actually went down every season, from his career-best 89.0 in 2020. I guess his strikeout percentage is a good sign, as it was 24.2% in 2023. He did however have a terrible walk rate of 3.2%.

I won't lie and pretend that I expect Joey Bart to be "good" with the Miami Marlins, I do however think that he's worth a shot. It certainly wouldn't hurt with the options available and who knows what might actually happen.