6:50pm: Miami is releasing Bethancourt, tweets Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. He’ll head again to free company and will search for a minor league alternative elsewhere.
4:50pm: Marlins catcher Christian Bethancourt went unclaimed on waivers following his latest DFA and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the workforce’s transaction log at MLB.com. As a participant with greater than three years of massive league service, he has the best to reject the project in favor of free company. Nevertheless, Bethancourt is at 4.129 years of service, putting him 43 days shy of the 5 full years he’d have to elect free company and retain the rest of this season’s $2.05MM wage. Since he’d should forfeit the rest of that wage so as to elect free company, he’ll absolutely settle for it and report back to Jacksonville.
First-year Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix was the Rays’ basic supervisor when Tampa Bay acquired Bethancourt from the A’s, and in one in every of his first strikes after being employed as Miami’s president of baseball ops, he introduced Bethancourt to the Marlins in a money swap with the Guardians, who’d beforehand claimed the catcher off waivers from the Rays.
The commerce didn’t go as hoped, clearly. Bethancourt opened the season mired in a disastrous droop because the Fish obtained staggeringly poor manufacturing from their catching corps early on. By the point he was designated for project in favor of journeyman Ali Sanchez, he’d solely managed to tug his batting line as much as .159/.198/.268 in 88 plate appearances.
At one level, Bethancourt ranked among the many recreation’s prime catching prospects, however he’s fallen into journeyman standing and at one level solely moved on from catching in favor of outfield/infield work and even (extra briefly) aid pitching. He spent the 2019 season within the KBO, didn’t play through the 2020 season, and bounced across the league in a extra conventional catcher/first baseman position since 2021. That features a 2022 season cut up between Oakland and Tampa Bay the place he slashed a good .252/.283/.409 with a career-high 11 homers, however Bethancourt has been unable to copy even that modest manufacturing since that point.
A profession .292/.329/.468 hitter in elements of seven Triple-A seasons, Bethancourt will follow the Marlins group and supply some further depth behind Nick Fortes and Sanchez. If both is injured and/or if Bethancourt will get his bat entering into Jacksonville, he might get a glance later this season. If not, he’ll be eligible for minor league free company at season’s finish, as is the case for all gamers with three-plus years of service who’re outrighted off a 40-man roster, settle for the project, and usually are not added again to the 40-man earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
