Royals Reveal Plans For Catching Position After Padres-Freddy Fermin Trade

The Kansas City Royals mostly added major leaguers at the trade deadline, but there was one notable exception.

On Thursday, the Royals traded backup catcher Freddy Fermin, who was really more like a second starter to complement Salvador Perez, to the San Diego Padres. They got two big-league-ready pitchers in the trade in Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek.

The logic behind the Fermin trade made sense, as Kris Bubic's injury left Kansas City alarmingly short on starting pitchers. But it's still tough to lose a reliable backstop, who had 51 starts at the position through 109 team games.

Now, the Royals will be forced to try something different behind the plate. Perez is likely going to have to catch more, but Kansas City still needs a backup. And their initial plan might raise some eyebrows.

According to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the Royals are opting to call up journeyman Luke Maile from Triple-A to take Fermin's spot, rather than promoting top prospect Carter Jensen, who ranks as the number-two player in the Kansas City farm system, per MLB Pipeline.

"(General manager) J.J. Picollo said the plan is to have Luke Maile be the backup catcher moving forward," Rogers wrote on X. "Calls a good game, pitchers like throwing to him, is a great veteran presence to have in the clubhouse and on the field."

Maile, 34, has only 11 big-league at-bats this season, though they included four hits and a home run. He's played for six major league teams in a 10-year career, but he's never been much of a hitter for any of them (.599 career OPS).

Maile also has only 24 games played at Triple-A this year, posting a .770 OPS that's built mainly on his 18 walks in 101 plate appearances.

If the Royals don't believe Jensen is ready, that's understandable. But they're going to have to let Maile take more at-bats than they'd like, so hopefully, the veteran has a little more in the tank than he lets on.

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