Luis Campusano's Defensive Growth Goes Beyond His Arm

[Randy Holt]

If Luis Campusano's weekend was a coming-out party, it couldn't have come at a better time for the San Diego Padres.

While the loudest things to hit the stat sheet were a walk-off home run on Friday night and a solo jack on Sunday that would turn out to be the game (and series) winner over the New York Yankees, it's what Campusano did behind the plate that made it a marquee weekend for the team's No. 2 backstop. 

That work started on Friday, when Campusano threw out three Yankee baserunners in an extra-inning affair: 

He did it in a scoreless game in the second inning, in a 1-1 game in the fifth, and, most crucially, in the 10th inning with the Padres trailing 2-1. That allowed the team to keep it close before he did the rest of the work in the bottom half of the inning. 

On Sunday, he was at it again. As Adrian Morejon struggled to preserve the lead in his outing, Campusano's heave to second base in the bottom of the eighth put a second out on the board and cleared the bases for the team to finish off the last four outs of a 4-3 win: 

The throwing element represents the most obvious area of growth for a player whose long-term status at the catcher spot was thrown into some doubt following a tough 2024 season and absence of legitimate opportunity in 2025. As the Padres built their 2026 roster under new manager Craig Stammen, no true backup was brought in behind Freddy Fermin. That left Campusano with his first real opportunity in two seasons. 

His arm has certainly latched onto the chance. Campusano's caught-stealing-above-average figure (+2) ranks in the 72nd percentile league-wide. That ranks 21st in the league, with his actual rate of runners thrown out (32 percent) sitting eighth among the league's backstops. That's eight percent higher than his estimated CS%. 

What's important to note about Campusano is that while that is the only element of his defensive game that ranks above average, there's been real growth in the other areas. The last time we saw him behind the plate with any kind of regularity, his framing (measured in Framing Runs) drew a grade of -8. This year, he's at -5. His blocking (Blocking Above Average) was at -3; now it's at -1. His overall Catching Runs has graduated from -13 in 2024 to -4 this season. Again, those are still below-average figures, but they represent significant growth in each respect. 

That Campusano has such marked defensive growth is important for a couple of different reasons.  The first is that his offensive upside far exceeds that of the incumbent starter Freddy Fermin. Fermin has excelled virtually everywhere on the defensive side, but carries a career-worst 61 wRC+ this year. He's been "better" in the second half, but is still a massive step down with the bat. Campusano becoming competent behind the dish, even if that simply means just being average, allows Stammen to make the offensive play on his daily lineup card without comprising on defense.

The other piece of significance is what it means for Campusano's long-term future with the Padres. The bat plays. The bat always played, even without a legitimate run to prove it. With two more years of team control, it's entirely possible that his blend of offense from behind the plate and improving defense has locked him into a role in a way that may not have been perceived before. Could the team explore a move of Fermin this winter with top prospect Ethan Salas now arriving at the top level? That would give the Padres a younger 1-2 punch behind the plate with a much higher offensive upside than the current shape of the roster.

Even if changes to the roster aren't quite so drastic, it really is a crucial development for the organization. That Campusano has grown to play even remotely competent defense and compensate for the shortcomings with his arm helps to provide some stability for a position that has featured a great deal of turnover in recent years. Whether it's Fermin or Salas as his running mate next year, the defensive development of Luis Campusano has to have the Padres feeling quite good about what the catcher position looks like beyond 2026.

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