From pregame warmups to postgame analysis, MLB teams rely on bullpen catchers to prepare pitchers, assist coaches and track analytics. (Photo by Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Baseball celebrates its stars — ace pitchers throwing balls at blistering speeds and with spell-binding movement, sluggers who send fastballs towering away into night skies and defensive stalwarts in between the bases who turn sure hits into outs.
Their names fill the box scores, their highlights loop on television, their jerseys hang on the backs of fans. The best of those names can live on forever, in casual conversation or emblazoned across their photo on a trading card.
Ohtani, Judge, Bonds, Ruth, and the rest of the greats.
Then there are baseball’s unsung heroes.
Behind every clutch strikeout, every towering home run, every seamless double play, an unseen force is at work. The fans may never see them, or if they do, they might never know their name. But they’re always present in everything those fans know and love about the game.
They’re the bullpen catchers.
Officially listed as members of the coaching staff, their work begins long before fans fill the stands. It starts in the bowels of major league baseball stadiums, in the quiet hours when baseball is still waking up.
Even during spring training, in Arizona’s Cactus League, the duties of an MLB bullpen catcher shift constantly, a near-endless task list that includes throwing batting practice, rubbing down baseballs, setting up machines, warming up pitchers, among other tasks.
Considering they will never enter a game, in contrast to their more famous co-workers, their work will go largely unnoticed.
“We’re the ones that set up all the machines on the field and make sure all the baseballs and everything the coaches need is out there,” said Dustin Hughes, the A’s bullpen catcher. “We set up about four machines, set up the cages, and make sure all the balls are in there. We set up the fields for pitchers to throw. It just keeps on going and going, making sure that the stadium is set up for batting practice, and if there are any last-minute changes that the coaches need us to change.”
Their presence is not as commonly acknowledged outside of clubhouses, but within the game, bullpen catchers are indispensable.
Their job description is ever-changing, molded to fit whatever is needed at any given moment. They warm up the league’s best arms, track analytics, assist coaches, and act as an unshakable support system for pitchers who might have only minutes to get game-ready.
“They help us build confidence quickly,” said A’s reliever Tyler Ferguson. “Help us find that groove as quickly as possible. Sometimes you don’t have much time down there (in the bullpen to warm up), so they’re great. They’re the backbone of the bullpen.”
Hughes understands the responsibility. It’s not exclusive to one position group or group of players but to the entire organization. In general, baseball players report as early as six hours before the first pitch, and preparations begin during that time. The bullpen catchers owe their services to the pitchers during the game, but also to the coaching staff in preparing the team daily to perform.
While they’re responsibilities are numerous and they’re in high demand everywhere, bullpen catchers’ most important connection remains with the group most reliant upon them.
Pitchers.
The job demands instinct, adaptability, and an intimate knowledge of the arms they work with every day. Bullpen catchers learn their pitchers’ habits, routines, and quirks. Baseball is known to be one of the most superstitious sports, with players having precise needs in their warm-up period to feel mentally ready to retire a slate of the league’s most dominant batters. Some want a certain number of practice pitches, others a specific sequence.
The bullpen catcher has to have each pitcher’s process on short-term memory recall to help most effectively.
“I’m very specific about how I want (bullpen catchers) to set up,” Ferguson said. “(Hughes) does a good job of remembering, ‘He set up here for this pitch or here for this pitch,’ and just remembers all those little things and takes care of us.”
The MLB player’s annual average salary is $4.66 million. Managers, on average, make between $1.2 million to $3.3 million. Hitting and pitching coaches hover around $150,000 to $350,000.
In contrast, bullpen catchers pull in, on average, $90,000 a year. It’s a respectable wage, but far from the millions thrown at the players and managers they assist. The money doesn’t matter. Staying in the sport is their fulfillment.
Bullpen catchers, who arrive hours before the game, prepare baseballs and equipment before batting practice for players and coaches. (Photo by Devon Henderson/Cronkite News)
Hughes didn’t play major league baseball. He never made it out of the minors; only a few others in the same role across the league did.
Of 51 total bullpen catchers across the league, five previously played in the majors. The Kansas City Royals have three, Most MLB teams have two, six teams have one, and two have none. Many topped out in the minors, some played professionally internationally, or simply coached through the ranks.
No matter how high they ascended within the sport, they all eventually faced the same realization of nearing the end of their playing capabilities. However, their lifelong obsession with baseball didn’t deteriorate at the same rate as their on-field abilities. Therefore, they had to find a new path to continue to be involved with “America’s Pastime.”
“I got into this just because I love the game,” Hughes said. “I love to watch the process of getting people better. And there’s a point when you realize that you’re not good enough to make it at this level. So I want to turn it into a coaching and this was a step for me to get in.”
There are similarities in the lives of bullpen catchers and big leaguers other than the mental, emotional and physical toll of the 162-game season. Also similar is the personal physical upkeep. If the league’s best players must maintain top playing shape, then it’s only right that the men who prepare them keep the same level of fitness – but on their own time, not concurrent to the players’ daily schedule.
“If you want to work out, you want to stay out of the player’s way,” Colorado Rockies bullpen catcher Aaron Muñoz said. “You want to go to the gym early. So for a 6:40 (p.m.) game, you’re there at noon to work out. You have to throw batting practice, it’s part of the gig, too. You got to be ready to throw, so it’s a lot of maintenance for the arm. You got to keep in shape. You want to make sure that you’re durable throughout the season, and make sure that arm is taken care of.”
The role has evolved. Once strictly about warming up pitchers, bullpen catchers now play a part in nearly every aspect of a team’s daily operations. Some are leaned on for advanced scouting and analytics, others help refine mechanics or run drills with young arms. The job is no longer just about catching – it’s about keeping the entire machine running smoothly.
“Nowadays, you’re starting to see teams shift to using them for all sorts of things,” said Muñoz, whose listed role on the Rockies website now includes Major League Operations Assistant. “Whether it’s for the analytics side of things or to help out with certain other areas. You show up, and you’re ready for everything.”
As the role has grown, so too has the weight of the opinions of bullpen catchers, in the eyes of managers. Rockies manager Bud Black pitched 15 seasons in the MLB from 1981 to 1995. He has been a manager since 2007 when he started with the San Diego Padres, before taking command in Colorado in 2017, where he’s been since.
Collectively, Black has over 30 years of up-close experience with bullpen catchers. In his coaching years he’s seen the job expand, and with it so has his trust in the baseball opinions of the men working with his pitchers.
“For me, he’s an adjunct to the pitching coaches,” Black said. “He’s another voice, another evaluator. He truly sees the stuff. He catches the stuff. So I can tell that he knows if the stuff is real. I’ve used those guys as a sounding board for me about what they see from pitchers.”
The nature of baseball means bullpen catchers rarely receive recognition. Their names won’t appear on rosters of players, but instead are hidden within the coaching staff. And their contributions won’t show up in a box score, either.
But they are there, always, working in the margins, making sure that when a closer jogs in from the bullpen or a star hitter steps into the batter’s box, they are as prepared as possible.
Before Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge hits a moonshot home run, a bullpen catcher helps get him loose. Whenever Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes posts a dominant start in which he seems unhittable, a bullpen catcher plays a role in that, too.
Their mitts are on every aspect of the game, hidden in the background but vital all the same.
The work is endless, the credit fleeting. But for those who know, for those inside the game, there’s no doubt about their value.
Bullpen catchers are baseball’s silent architects, yet grateful all the same.
“I feel lucky,” Muñoz said. “Privileged and lucky. There are only so many of us, and if you put it in perspective, you’re very fortunate to be in that role. It’s not a lot of pressure. We’re not players right?
“We don’t feel that pressure, but we still take pride in that and understand that it is a privilege and we are lucky to do this job.”