Long gone are the days of Benito Santiago, who excelled at the plate as well as behind it. Such a catcher, if they’re even in the system, is still a ways off.

Thus, the San Diego Padres have tried to piece together a catching tandem that will help the team make a push for NL West title or a postseason berth. Freddy Fermin begins his first full season with the Friars and will be the No. 1 catcher for the first time in his brief MLB career. Will he be able to handle the rigors? Can Luis Campusano be good enough defensively to get his bat into the lineup?

Padres Catchers At A Glance

Starter: Freddy Fermin

Backup: Luis Campusano

Depth: Blake Hunt, Rodolfo Duran, Anthony Vilar

Prospects: Ethan Salas, Ty Harvey, Lamar King Jr., Truit Madonna

Padres fWAR ranking last year: 28th out of 30.

Padres fWAR projection this year: 19th out of 30.

The Good

Whether it was a desperation move or the Padres actually thought so highly of him, Fermin was acquired at the trade deadline for two starting pitchers, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek. At the time, the Friars were in need of offense from the position without losing much defensively; prior to the trade, the Padres had the worst fWAR at the position of any team in MLB as they tried to stay afloat with Martin Maldonado and Elias Diaz.

While he won’t be confused for his Royals mentor, 2015 World Series MVP and five-time Silver Slugger Salvador Perez, as an offensive weapon, Fermin is certainly not the black hole that Maldonado and Diaz were. Fermin had a career .268/.314/.383 slash line in K.C. with a high of nine homers in 235 plate appearances in 2023. Those numbers slipped to .244/.278/.339 in 42 games as the Friars’ regular catcher following the deal, though that drop in performance can at least be partially attributed to Fermin focusing on getting to know a whole new set of pitchers.

But now in 2026, Fermin is firmly the No. 1 catcher, with Campusano as the backup. Campusano is the more accomplished hitter, but not the defender that Fermin is. Fermin has a terrific pop time of 1.90 seconds, which is in the 88th percentile, and led to a caught-stealing above average that was in the 76th percentile. His blocks also ranked in the 72nd percentile. His framing is certainly his weakest skill behind the plate, but with the introduction of the ABS system this year, the team should be able to mitigate some of that.

The 27-year-old Campusano spent all but 10 games of 2025 at Triple-A El Paso, where he tore it up. In 105 games and 472 plate appearances, he had a slash line of .336/.441/.595 with 25 homers and 95 RBIs, yet did not get a call to the majors when the Padres needed offense from the catching position. In the majors, Campusano has a career slash line of .240/.294/.372 over 178 games with inconsistent playing time.

The Bad

Picking up on that last note, why wasn’t Campusano brought up? Campusano’s pop time from 2024 at the MLB level was 1.97 seconds, which was in the 38th percentile, while his framing, caught-sealing above average and blocks above average were all in the bottom nine percentiles. In other words, he’s bad behind the plate. How much did that catching improve at Triple-A last year or over the winter, as he played 13 games in the Dominican Winter League?

The Padres appear convinced it will be good enough to at least spell Fermin once or twice a week. Campusano is out of minor-league options, so it would require putting him through waivers to send him back to the minors, perhaps a reason why A.J. Preller, the Friars’ president of baseball operations, decided to stick with Campusano this spring. After all, he was a fairly highly touted prospect just a few years ago.

As for the 30-year-old Fermin, while his offense is solid enough, he doesn’t bring much in the way of productivity besides a rather routine batting average. His average exit velocity last year of 89.1 mph ranked in the 39th percentile of all MLB hitters. And other than a strikeout percentage of 18.7% that ranked in the 66th percentile, everything other notable metric was worse than his exit velocity numbers.

The Bottom Line

The Royals were willing to part with Fermin for two reasons. First, they got two young starting pitchers in return. Second, Fermin was going to start getting expensive, as he was arbitration-eligible for the first time this past offseason. How this experiment works out with Fermin, a defense-first catcher who provides a little bit of offense, and Campusano, an offense-first catcher who struggles defensively, will be interesting to watch. As long as Fermin can hit in the .250 range in his first season as an everyday catcher, you would think the Friars would be happy with that and the defense he brings. How much rope Campusano is given is another question. There were thoughts early in spring training of carrying three catchers, with Hunt being the backup and Campusano getting time at designated hitter and perhaps first base in addition to pinch-hitting. But with other moves made to create a logjam at first base and DH, that is no longer an option.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t better days coming for the Padres at catcher. Salas, arguably the top prospect in the organization, should be starting the season at Double-A, where he played just 10 games last year due to a stress reaction in his back. Salas is elite defensively and has 20-homer potential. A healthy 2026 could put him in the mix for the starting job as early as next spring.

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