Christian

Bethancourt

The Cubs declined to keep an out-of-options Reese McGuire as a third catcher, so Bethancourt will fill that role from Triple-A Iowa. The 34-year-old hit .173/.219/.332 for the Jays’ Triple-A club last season. He’s a lifetime .229/.259/.362 hitter in 1,301 plate appearances.

No real surprises here as the biggest shockwave from Toronto came earlier on Sunday when the club announced that prospect Alan Roden made the season-opening roster over Addison Barger, who was subsequently shipped to Triple-A Buffalo.

It wasn’t a great 2024 season for Bethancourt, who hit .209/.241/.367 in 147 plate appearances for the Cubs and Marlins. The 33-year-old was productive in 2022 and 2023 so he has a chance to earn the backup role in Toronto, but he will need to beat out Tyler Heineman in spring training.

The quartet cleared waivers and have all elected free agency. Almonte is was an effective high-leverage reliever in the recent past and figures to get another shot somewhere else. With top catching prospect Moises Ballesteros on the doorstep of the majors there was no reason for the club to keep Bethancourt around any longer.

The Cubs got absolutely nothing from the catcher spot for four months, but now Bethancourt is hitting .407 with three homers in 11 games since replacing an injured Tomás Nido, and Miguel Amaya has gone 14-for-22 with two homers in his last six games to raise his OPS by nearly 100 points. This is the same Bethancourt who hit .159 in 82 at-bats for the Marlins this year. Before driving in seven, including the tying and go-ahead runs in the ninth today, his career high for RBI had been three through 413 major league games.

Bethancourt brought the only two runs of the game in to score for the Cubs on Wednesday, taking Brant Hurter deep for a two-run blast. The 32-year-old backstop has gotten sporadic playing time behind starter Miguel Amaya. He’s slashing .196/.241/.373 with four homers and 14 RBI across 110 plate appearances.

Bethancourt was just 13-for-82 with two homers this season before the Marlins let him go, but he’s gone 4-for-11 in three games for the Cubs since replacing the injured Tomás Nido. He’ll continue to share time with Miguel Amaya until Nido returns.

With Tomas Nido (knee) landing on the 10-day injured list on Friday, the Cubs needed to add some depth behind the plate at the big-league level and Bethancourt was the obvious call. The 32-year-old hit just .159/.198/.268 with two homers in 88 plate appearances before getting cut by the Marlins in early July.

The 32-year-old backstop was cut loose by the Marlins at the end of June after hitting just .159/.198/.268 with two long balls in 88 plate appearances. He’ll report to Triple-A Iowa where he’ll function as organizational catching depth for the Cubs.

So much for sticking around as emergency organizational depth. Bethancourt went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week by the Marlins. The 32-year-old veteran backstop batted just .159/.198/.268 with two homers in 88 plate appearances over 38 games this season before being cut loose.