Better Know a Brewer: Yorvit Torrealba

Ladies and gentleman, your newest Milwaukee Brewer (as of literally minutes ago) is catcher Yorvit Torrealba.

He will be in uniform starting tomorrow, donning the number three.

But who is he, and why should we care?

Number three in your programs, and number one in your hearts: Yorvit Torrealba is a Milwaukee Brewer. (Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE)

Yorvit is a 34 year-old veteran catcher with 12 years of Major League service to attend to. He is a native of Venezuela and was drafted by the San Fransisco Giants in 1994, and made his debut seven years later in 2001 with the club.

He has since been on a Major League roster ever since, spending time as a back-up catcher with the Giants, Mariners, Rockies, Padres, Rangers, and most recently the Toronto Blue Jays where the Milwaukee Brewers acquired him in exchange for cash. [Ed.’s note: there is some talk from Jon Morosi of Fox Sports that it may be a Player to be named later. We’ll keep you posted.]

As a player, Torreabla has been passable at best. He has a career line of .258/.316/.386. Though his numbers show he sees an increase in performance – slight though it may be – when he plays in the Senior Circuit. But honestly, I don’t think that Roenicke and company will be looking for him to provide any spark with his bat.

Quite the contrary, in fact. Though his defense is also right around league averages for the bulk of his career, don’t expect him to be the same caliber backstop that we currently have in Martin Maldonado or Jonathan Lucroy, either. So why, exactly, did the Brewers pick up a third catcher? Didn’t we just go through this with George Kottaras a few months ago? Why would the team need to carry three catchers right now?

The name of the game, at this point in the Milwaukee Brewers campaign, is options.

Yorvit Torrealba gives you those options. He provides an opportunity to use Maldonado and Lucroy more effectively off the bench and with more regularity as pinch-hitters. This, in theory, would provide more opportunities for the pair of ‘regular’ Brewers backstops to build on rallies and make good on very productive years. Torreabla is not a bad player, per se, but he is better served on this team as a stand-in to allow others to make good things happen.

It takes all kinds, Brewers fans.

So welcome to the club, Yorvit. Here’s hoping for good things down the road for you in Milwaukee as the team makes it’s push into the post-season.