Diego Cartaya devoured a sandwich as he walked into the suite at ONEOK Field and noticed the high school baseball game happening below. He was told one of the teams was from Commerce, Mickey Mantle’s hometown. The Dodgers’ top prospect nodded. He continued eating. The factoid didn’t quite resonate.
Cartaya comes from a place far from this stop in Oklahoma, where tornadoes loom every spring and the Dodgers’ double-A affiliate serves as a downtown entertainment hub. Maracay is a Venezuelan city near the country’s Caribbean coast with a population of nearly 1 million. It is home to several prominent baseball players. Future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera is its most famous export. Cartaya aspires to join the list.
“My goal is to be healthy and continue learning,” Cartaya said in Spanish. “Let them or God decide when it's my opportunity to get there — whether it's this year or next year or in two years or tomorrow.”
The 21-year-old catcher entered the season as a consensus top-15 prospect across the minors. He was an offensive dynamo touted for his makeup and work ethic since the Dodgers signed him for $2.5 million in 2018, quickly learning English while winning over decision-makers within the organization. The combination, especially for a catcher, has produced intoxicating projections.
“We've had some really good players and good human beings come through here and he's one of the best,” double-A Tulsa manager Scott Hennessey said. “Just a great human being.”
As with nearly every prospect at this stage of development, though, questions about Cartaya’s professional baseball future linger. Will he hold up defensively as a catcher? Will he continue hitting as he rises the ranks? Is his injury history a bad omen? Not every talent evaluator is sold on future stardom.
Back and hamstring injuries hindered Cartaya in 2021. Last season, as a result, the Dodgers wanted to limit him to four games per week while he played in single A. The Dodgers eventually budged in letting him play five games per week even though one or two were as the DH.
This season, Cartaya has played in 37 of Tulsa’s 53 games. He’s started 28 games as the catcher and nine as the designated hitter. He’s stayed healthy, but his offensive production hasn’t translated to the higher level.
Cartaya is batting .210 with seven home runs and a .712 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for Tulsa. A recent hot stretch — he’s batting .333 with a 1.056 OPS, four home runs and hits in seven of his last eight games — has bolstered the overall numbers going into the season’s third month.
“I'm really not that worried,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when asked about Cartaya’s back injury history. “I've been around a lot of players that have had it and the maintenance part of it, and working out in smarter ways, I haven't seen recurrences of it with most position players I've been around. I'm really not worried about it. I'm really not. … His makeup is in my Mount Rushmore of young players I've been around.”
The first question when Cartaya reported to big league camp for the first time in February was seemingly when, not if, he’ll reach the majors. The next question was whether that would come with the Dodgers. Cartaya is a valuable asset the Dodgers could use as a cornerstone in Los Angeles. He also could be a trade chip to sooner upgrade the big league roster for a playoff push this season.
The Dodgers already have Will Smith, one of the top catchers in the majors, behind the plate. Smith is just 28 years old and isn’t slated to become a free agent until after the 2025 season. The Dodgers’ trove of high-end catching talent doesn’t end there.
Dalton Rushing, the organization’s 2022 second-round pick, is rising on prospect lists. In 42 games for single-A Great Lakes, Rushing is batting .261 with seven home runs and a .938 OPS — an output comparable to Cartaya’s 62-game stint with the affiliate last year.
Then there’s Thayron Liranzo, a 19-year-old switch-hitting catcher the Dodgers signed in 2021 out of the Dominican Republic for… $30,000.
Liranzo, whose tool kit includes an explosive arm, is hitting .253 with 14 home runs and a .929 OPS in 44 games for single-A Rancho Cucamonga in his first full-season test. One rival talent evaluator said he believes Liranzo will have a better big league career than Cartaya or Keibert Ruiz, the top prospect the Dodgers included in the trade package for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in 2021.
Liranzo’s emergence is a testament to the Dodgers’ renowned ability to develop minor leaguers; Liranzo isn’t even ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects on either MLB.com or Baseball America’s lists.
With a farm system as deep as the Dodgers’ cache, speculation will undoubtedly bubble before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. The Dodgers are in a battle for first place in the National League West with Arizona but could be in the market for help in the middle infield, outfield, bullpen, and starting rotation for their playoff push. Cartaya will be someone other clubs inquire about. His name will surface in rumors — as they did last summer when superstar Juan Soto was available.
“At this moment, the Dodgers name is on my chest and that's the team that I'm going to represent and play with everything,” Cartaya said. “And when the moment comes that God decides — be it with another team or this team — I'd be grateful and give it 100%. There are always going to be rumors.”
Cartaya said he was a third baseman until he converted to catcher when he was 14 years old to become more attractive to scouts. He signed as a catcher two years later and hasn’t played any other position in the field in a minor league game. Friedman, however, said Cartaya played some infield during the Dodgers’ summer camp in 2020.
Have the Dodgers considered moving Cartaya to another position with Smith seemingly blocking the path to being the everyday catcher for the Dodgers?
“Not right now,” Friedman said. “Having catching depth is a really good thing to have with the scarcity at that position. He’s played infield. The hands work, but, for us, it's something that we're continuing to develop there behind the plate. And then when he's ready, we'll assess where we're at and what makes sense.”
In April, before the Drillers’ series opener against the Wichita Wind Surge, Cartaya attended the customary pre-series pitcher’s meeting where coaches, pitchers, and catchers discussed how to attack Wichita’s hitters over the next five games.
The strategy session went longer than usual. He was the team’s designated hitter that night — a scheduled game off from the catching grind — but would return behind the plate the next night to catch a staff that ranks first in the Southern League in earned-run average (3.00) by more than a run through Tuesday.
“Last year, I won't say I didn't pay a lot of attention because I was trying to learn, but it was a little easier because of the lineups,” Cartaya said. “Here, at this level, you'll encounter much more experience and better hitters in the lineup so you have to dedicate more time to that. It's one of the things that I've tried to focus on. Improve my game-calling, work with the resources we have. And I know that's important in the higher levels.”
Cartaya went on to double in his first plate appearance that night. He struck out in each of his final three. As scheduled, he started at catcher the next day. He ended the game with a walk-off sacrifice fly. It was one of his few offensive highlights in April, which included just two multi-hit games and one home run in 14 games.
Friedman contended Cartaya’s early struggles stemmed from pressing. He said Cartaya created bad habits and his mechanics “got out of whack.” The recent results are cause for optimism that he’s turned the corner in a league where he’s more than three years younger than the average age.
Cartaya doesn’t turn 22 until September. Plenty, in and out of his control, can happen before then. For now, he’s a double-A catcher with a bright future — wherever it is.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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