Charlie Culberson Takes the Mound

Charlie Culberson had fairly the fascinating 2023 season. Like many mid-30s journeyman infielders, he began the 12 months within the minors, unable to safe a giant 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 workforce. As an onmipositional bench participant, you possibly can usually image him as a large bag full of different-sized gloves, giving starters relaxation late in video games for a workforce that was kicking the snot out of their opponents each evening. However surprisingly, he performed precisely zero innings within the discipline, 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 should very nicely have borrowed a teammate’s.

Such rare utilization of a bench participant is unorthodox, to say the least. Roster spots are beneficial 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 workforce innings he was round for. However the Braves have a approach of doing issues that works for them. They completed lifeless final in place gamers used per sport, with almost their total 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 large league alternative to encompass greater than a single at-bat. With a profession wRC+ of 76 and unfavorable defensive worth regardless of enjoying each place, he may not get one other likelihood to make a roster as a hitter. As a substitute, Culberson has determined to make a late-career change – to the mound.

The tough 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 accomplish that on the showcase circuit; his PG scouting report makes no point out of pitching. He actually has a gifted arm, although, profitable a Baseball America award for finest 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 couple of gamers at an analogous stage of their careers make the transition earlier than. Brooks Kieschnick is probably going probably the most notable such participant this century – after a couple of unsuccessful stints as a fifth outfielder, he put collectively two league-average seasons as a center reliever for the Brewers. Extra lately, 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 couple 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 stay arm with a stagnating profession at his major 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 regarded like this:

If you happen to’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 much more rare and brought much more severely, 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 likelihood between shedding 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 appear to be this). However it will possibly nonetheless be irritating to observe beer league softball in the course of a serious 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 if you happen to turned on the sport to see Culberson throwing within the low-90s, it could be simple 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 common heater thrown in 2023.

Throwing like a standard 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 couple of sliders and some curveballs), together with this one which netted him his first (and, up to now, 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? Nicely, probably not. Whereas his restricted pattern of curveballs had spectacular sweep, they had been severely missing in the kind of downward motion you’d count on, as much as eight inches beneath league common in line with Statcast.

From this eight-game pattern, Culberson doesn’t appear to be a giant league reliever – however that’s a somewhat 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 subsequent coming of Trevor Hoffman; he was by no means alleged 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 respectable accuracy, and his capability to spin the ball conjures up confidence that his curveball could be a authentic large league weapon if it may be re-shaped to have extra downward chunk. From purely a stuff perspective, Culberson would possibly already be a greater pitcher than a couple 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 gained’t be assured a spot in Atlanta’s bullpen for the season. ZiPS tasks the workforce 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 large query marks. However accidents occur, and roster churn is inevitable because the season goes alongside. Excluding place gamers, the 2023 Braves had 31 completely 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 workforce 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 important. This isn’t Mike Trout waking up in the future and deciding to turn out to be Gerrit Cole, or Shohei Ohtani waking up in the future and deciding to be, nicely, Shohei Ohtani. None of Gose, Kieschnick, or the opposite hitters-turned-pitchers all through historical past had been ever large 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 selecting up new positions on the fly, being shuttled to and from the minors, and never realizing what workforce 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 automobile (and a aircraft, apparently), and he doesn’t intend on it ending simply but.