Once a Pirate, now Kevin Plawecki is a Chihuahua. For most in Major League Baseball, finding steady employment with one of the 30 franchises is a rarity, and the competition for one of the 26 spots on a roster is fierce.
With a minimum league-wide salary of $720,000 this season and the average player salary of $4.9 million, the battle to reach and maintain such a financial grab can be addicting. For Plawecki, a star receiver at Purdue University, keeping his dream alive of remaining on an MLB roster and enjoying all the perks that accompany such pleasure, is an ongoing struggle.
After splitting the 2022 season with Boston and Texas, this past off-season, Plawecki found himself looking for work. As the start of spring training approached this past February it was the Pittsburgh Pirates who offered an olive branch, signing the eight-year veteran to a minor league deal.
Pittsburgh s offer was straightforward. The deal called for an invitation to training camp, and if manager Derek Shelton decided to take Plawecki north with the Pirates at the start of the season, the catcher s base salary would be $1.4 million.
Even the most optimistic veteran like Plawecki, with 449 MLB games under his belt, knew his odds were long, at best, in being starting catcher Austin Hedges backup.
The Pirates, along with Plawecki, brought four other catchers to Pirate City in Bradenton. They all were looking to be the guy working behind home plate, on the days Hedges rested.
As the Pirates were one week away from beginning their regular season in Cincinnati, reality dashed Plawecki s dreams of extending his streak on an MLB roster to nine consecutive seasons.
When the Pirates filtered out of their clubhouse at LECOM Park for an exhibition game with the visiting Boston Red Sox in late March, Plawecki s locker was emptied out. Within days, baseball life, one which has seen Plawecki suit up for 11 clubs (minors and majors) in 12 seasons since signing with the New York Mets in 2012, kicked into action again.
On April 1, Plawecki agreed to a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals. This was the best offer out there. Off to Rochester, New York, and to be a member of the club s Triple-A affiliate Red Wings. This career stop lasted all but 24 games.
With no commitment to join the Nationals, combined with a .256 batting average, Plawecki exercised the opt-out clause in his contract. Although seen in the game as a decent defensive-minded backup, the low batting average couldn t nudge scouts to suggest elevating him to the MLB roster.
Next up, the Pacific Coast League, and signing with the San Diego Padres Triple-A club. The El Paso Chihuahuas is where Plawecki currently is working. One of three catchers on the squad, Plawecki is by far the most experienced.
However, since being signed by San Diego on May 20, and dispatched to El Paso, Plawecki has been inserted in manager Phil Wellman s lineup for half a dozen games. Registering five hits in 21 at-bats, Plawecki isn t performing to a level where he could force the Padres organization to bring him up for National League play.
Now, tagged by some in the game as organizational depth, Plawecki could be facing the reality that his time has run out as an MLB player.
Instead of playing in Pittsburgh or any of the other MLB cities this week, Plawecki and his fellow Chihuahuas are on a six-game road trip in Las Vegas taking on the Aviators, Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland A s.
The minimum salary for Triple-A players in 2023 is $38,500.
In looking back to the opening of Pirates camp in late February, I remember Plawecki as always among the first to arrive in the clubhouse, and onto the field to work with pitchers.
""You get used to it, said Plawecki of the constant moving from city to city, and job insecurity.
When arriving at camp, Plawecki s family didn t tag along to Bradenton. With his two sons and wife remaining at their home in Arizona, when working to land a job with Pittsburgh, Plawecki s total concentration was on his game.
""I wanted to stay consistent. My focus is what can I do that best works for my family, Plawecki explained.
From collecting a National League Championship ring in 2015 as a member of the New York Mets that were in the World Series to being named a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award in 2012 as the nation s top collegiate catcher and earning a reported $7.5 million during his eight MLB seasons, now, Plawecki is fighting for playing time in the minors.
Giving up on a dream is physically and emotionally difficult for a professional athlete. Such a decision ends their youth. The real world comes knocking. Playing for a living will cease. Riding the bench in the minor leagues is a step away from punching a time clock.
Plawecki s baseball future may very well have been forecast this past spring in Bradenton. Only time, and the ability to hit a curve ball, may tell just when Plawecki packs away his catcher s gear for good.
His professional career, for now, is centered less than 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, and where baseball fans refer to Plawecki as a Chihuahua.
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