Don’t get me wrong, if we’re calling for Carlos Perez to be on the team at any point in 2025, then something disastrous happened. However, you know that when spring training rolls around and the newest Cubs catcher starts hammering baseballs in Arizona, fans are going to fall in love with him.
The Cubs needed to add veteran depth at catcher after the team traded Matt Thaiss to the White Sox earlier this month and 34-year-old Carlos Perez was the answer. He’s played in a total of 278 games in parts of five MLB seasons, but Perez has hung around in the pros for 16 years, playing for eight different organizations since signing as an international free agent back in 2008.
Last week, the Cubs signed the veteran catcher to a minor league deal.
Carlos Perez Cubs minor league deal per the transaction wire.
— RushingBaseball (@RushingBaseball) December 22, 2024
34 year old catcher. 27 HR .544 SLG at Oakland AAA last year. Void they needed to fill after trading Thaiss.
I’m not saying Perez is going to contribute much of anything if he’s ever needed, but looking at those Triple-A numbers from his 2024 season, I just know he’s gonna hit a couple moonshots in spring training and I’ll get too excited about them. He’ll probably put up good numbers at Triple-A Iowa as well.
Perez’s last appearance in the big leagues came in 2023, when he played in 66 games with the Oakland A’s. As you’d expect, he put up backup catcher numbers. Perez posted an 83 wRC+, slashing .226/.293/.357, with 6 home runs in 189 plate appearances.
It’s good that the Cubs have made other moves this offseason because there’s no doubt fans would be having a field day at the expense of Jed Hoyer over signing another backup catcher. But these are the moves that organizations have to make. Sometimes you simply need bodies in the minor leagues to get through a season and all things considered Perez seems like a fine pickup. Hard to imagine a guy sticks around for 16 years if he’s not a good teammate and doesn’t work well with his pitching staff.
Taking a look at the Cubs catching situation for 2025, you have Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly in a timeshare behind the plate. Meanwhile at Triple-A, there’s top catching prospect Moises Ballesteros and fellow prospect Pablo Aliendo. Now they have a mentor in Carlos Perez.
