Charlie Culberson Takes the Mound

Charlie Culberson had fairly the attention-grabbing 2023 season. Like many mid-30s journeyman infielders, he began the 12 months within the minors, unable to safe an enormous league assure. After six weeks enjoying for the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers (with a .489 OPS), a spot on the Braves roster opened up when Ehire Adrianza hit the injured checklist, bringing Culberson again to his hometown group. As an onmipositional bench participant, you could possibly usually image him as a large bag full of different-sized gloves, giving starters relaxation late in video games for a group that was kicking the snot out of their opponents each night time. However surprisingly, he performed precisely zero innings within the area, letting his arsenal of leather-based accumulate mud within the dugout for a month. I can’t even say for sure whether or not he introduced a bat with him from Gwinnett; he took only one journey to the plate (hitting a single) and will very properly have borrowed a teammate’s.

Such rare utilization of a bench participant is unorthodox, to say the least. Roster spots are precious for platoons, relaxation days, and stuffing the bullpen with arms, so it’s not precisely nice worth to commit a 26-man slot to somebody who appeared in simply one of many 263 group innings he was round for. However the Braves have a manner of doing issues that works for them. They completed useless final in place gamers used per sport, with practically their whole beginning lineup enjoying each sport they had been wholesome for. Culberson stays in Atlanta’s group on a minor league contract, and I’m positive he’d like his subsequent huge league alternative to encompass greater than a single at-bat. With a profession wRC+ of 76 and unfavourable defensive worth regardless of enjoying each place, he won’t get one other probability to make a roster as a hitter. As a substitute, Culberson has determined to make a late-career change – to the mound.

The difficult factor about speaking about Culberson the pitcher is that we don’t have all that a lot data to work with. He hasn’t been an everyday pitcher at any level in his 17-year professional profession. He might have pitched in highschool, however many sources, together with his county sports activities Corridor of Fame induction web page, make no point out of it. Culberson did throw off a mound at a Good Sport occasion, though most place gamers achieve this on the showcase circuit; his PG scouting report makes no point out of pitching. He definitely has a gifted arm, although, profitable a Baseball America award for greatest infield arm as a prospect whereas boasting 78th-percentile infield throwing pace within the Statcast period.

Pitching is a comparatively new endeavor for Culberson, however baseball has seen a number of gamers at the same stage of their careers make the transition earlier than. Brooks Kieschnick is probably going essentially the most notable such participant this century – after a number of unsuccessful stints as a fifth outfielder, he put collectively two league-average seasons as a center reliever for the Brewers. Extra not too long ago, former Blue Jays and Tigers outfielder Anthony Gose leveraged his cannon arm into a brand new profession as a pitcher, touching 101 mph from the left facet. Traditionally, we’ve seen a number of frivolously used two-way gamers who usually caught to at least one facet as their careers progressed. Culberson suits the overall mould of a transformed place participant, a dwell arm with a stagnating profession at his main place.

So let’s see what occurs when Culberson takes the mound. He was first summoned to shut out a blowout loss again in 2018, and his first pitch seemed like this:

For those who’ve watched place gamers pitch up to now few years, that providing from Culberson might have been a shock. You is likely to be used to seeing pitches extra like these thrown by fan favourite utilityman Willians Astudillo, who usually lobbed meatballs that wouldn’t even break the pace restrict on close by streets and whose on-mound exploits have been featured in 4 separate movies on MLB’s YouTube channel. Place participant pitching was as soon as way more rare and brought way more significantly, however these days are lengthy behind us:

Look, it is sensible why place participant pitchers aren’t throwing wherever close to max effort anymore. In a blowout, there’s actually no distinction in win chance between dropping by seven or 9, and Astudillo doesn’t have a baseball DeLorean that rewinds time again to the primary inning if he throws 88 mph (although if he did, I’d think about it would seem like this). However it may well nonetheless be irritating to look at beer league softball in the midst of a significant league sport, particularly since we all know the gamers may throw quite a bit more durable in the event that they needed to.

That is all to say that should you turned on the sport to see Culberson throwing within the low-90s, it will be straightforward to mistake him for an precise pitcher. Even the batter, Chris Iannetta, didn’t see that coming, as he lazily half-swung for strike one. Culberson completed that inning having allowed one run and has had seven scoreless appearances as a pitcher since, persevering with to throw with all his would possibly. Every of his 98 fastballs have registered above 87.5 mph, and his quickest pitch clocked in at 93.7 mph, only a hair shy of the typical heater thrown in 2023.

Throwing like a traditional pitcher instantly places Culberson on the Mount Rushmore of place participant pitchers, however the fastball isn’t his solely providing. He’s thrown a handful of breaking balls of indeterminate classification (Statcast calls a number of sliders and some curveballs), together with this one which netted him his first (and, thus far, solely) profession strikeout:

That pitch had some severe bend to it, breaking 13 inches to the left because it nailed the underside nook of the strike zone. Culberson has a pure really feel for spin, averaging 2,400 rpm on fastballs and a couple of,550 with breaking balls, and as soon as hitting 2,672 rpm in an at-bat that coaxed a fly out from Juan Soto. Does that make his breaking ball nice? Effectively, probably not. Whereas his restricted pattern of curveballs had spectacular sweep, they had been severely missing in the kind of downward motion you’d anticipate, as much as eight inches under league common in response to Statcast.

From this eight-game pattern, Culberson doesn’t seem like an enormous league reliever – however that’s a fairly foolish factor to say about somebody who’s by no means been a pitcher till now. After all the second baseman who in all probability discovered a curveball grip from the primary man he may discover within the dugout isn’t the following coming of Trevor Hoffman; he was by no means presupposed to be. However even on this restricted set of appearances, Culberson has a a lot stronger pitching basis than your common 35-year-old place participant, even once they do let it fly for an inning. He finds the strike zone with first rate accuracy, and his potential to spin the ball evokes confidence that his curveball is usually a professional huge league weapon if it may be re-shaped to have extra downward chew. From purely a stuff perspective, Culberson would possibly already be a greater pitcher than a number of precise relievers.

If Culberson efficiently reinvents himself as a hurler – say, getting each his pitches as much as league common in high quality – he received’t be assured a spot in Atlanta’s bullpen for the season. ZiPS tasks the group to have 10 relievers at or above the league common by ERA, and whereas I don’t have a pitching projection for Culberson, it’s not precisely controversial to forecast him with some huge query marks. However accidents occur, and roster churn is inevitable because the season goes alongside. Excluding place gamers, the 2023 Braves had 31 totally different gamers take the mound in some unspecified time in the future. And if he doesn’t make it with Atlanta, Culberson may find yourself on a group with a much less glamorous bullpen projection in a small commerce or waiver declare.

Within the grand scheme of issues, Culberson’s conversion isn’t all that vital. This isn’t Mike Trout waking up someday and deciding to develop into Gerrit Cole, or Shohei Ohtani waking up someday and deciding to be, properly, Shohei Ohtani. None of Gose, Kieschnick, or the opposite hitters-turned-pitchers all through historical past had been ever huge names in both position, however their pitching allowed them to increase careers that had been hanging on by a thread. Culberson is not any stranger to choosing up new positions on the fly, being shuttled to and from the minors, and never figuring out what group he’ll be on in just some months’ time. In that sense, he exemplifies the true journeyman, doing something to stay round. Culberson’s time on the skilled baseball grind is sufficiently old to drive a automotive (and a airplane, apparently), and he doesn’t intend on it ending simply but.