Written by Ted Berg at FTW.com
There, out on the pitcher’s mound in the middle innings of a sparsely attended, sun-baked Cactus League game between a couple of clubs that finished dead last in the standings last season, stood one of the coolest things imaginable in Major League Baseball: A potential two-way player, vying to become the first man since World War II to see semi-regular work for a big-league team as both a pitcher and a catcher.
Christian Bethancourt’s transition from working behind the plate to working 60’6″ away from it, as detailed by Jorge L. Ortiz earlier this spring, began after he flashed a mid-90s fastball in 1 2/3 innings of mop-up work in two blowouts last season. A 25-year-old with a reputation for good defense behind the plate but without the offensive numbers to support regular playing time, Bethancourt worked on his pitching mechanics in the offseason and threw seven innings’ worth of winter ball in Panama. He did not entirely eschew catching this spring, but focused on honing his delivery and developing his secondary pitches to compete for a job in the San Diego bullpen.
Plenty of live-armed players transition to pitching in the minors and find success. But unlike most of them, Bethancourt actually reached the Majors as a position player first. And while guys like the A’s Sean Doolittle (a former first baseman), the Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen (catcher), and the Rangers’ Matt Bush (infielder) gave up on their old gigs when moving to the mound, the Padres intend to maximize Bethancourt’s unusual versatility by using him at catcher and in the outfield — where he made 12 appearances last season — around his pitching duties.
If all goes to plan, Bethancourt will become the first two-way player since Brooks Kieschnick made 42 appearances out of the Brewers’ bullpen and started three games in left field and four more at DH in 2004. The last player to appear in at least three games as both a pitcher and a catcher in the same season was Mike Ryba for the Red Sox in 1942.
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