Chris Hatcher’s off-season has been about as atypical as his baseball career.
Sure, he works out. But he also works.
The former Kinston High School and UNC Wilmington catcher hopes to play at the major league level for a fourth consecutive year in 2013.
That he made it there at all — twice — is unusual enough.
Hatcher, who turns 28 on Saturday, was selected by the then Florida Marlins in the fifth round of the 2006 draft. After he reached the major leagues as a catcher for five games in 2010 (he went hitless in six at-bats), the Marlins converted him to pitcher the following off-season. In 2011, after a quick education, Hatcher became the first player to make his big league debut as a catcher and return as a pitcher the following season since Art Doll pulled it off in 1935-36.
In 2012, Hatcher went 0-0 with a 4.30 ERA in 11 relief appearances for the newly named Miami Marlins, spending the bulk of the season at Triple-A New Orleans.
Playing for then manager Ozzie Guillen (who has since been replaced by Mike Redmond) in Miami, Hatcher struck out 10 and walked six in 14 2/3 innings.
He appeared in games at Tampa Bay, Boston, Washington, New York, Arizona, Los Angeles and Philadelphia last season to get a decent tour of the big leagues in a fairly small number of games.
Including his 11 appearances for the Marlins in 2011, Hatcher owns a career 5.40 ERA with no decisions and no saves. He has returned to the plate just once, when he was struck out by the Mets’ Josh Edgin on Aug. 8, 2012, in the ninth inning of a 13-0 Marlins win in New York.
As he’s done every winter as a professional, Hatcher is spending his off-season working for the City of Kinston as a general laborer.
David Hall of The Free Press caught up with Hatcher recently on, of all places, a Civil War battlefield off N.C. 258 South, where Hatcher was alone operating a bush hogger to clear brush for the City.
Dressed in brown work pants, a blue jacket and a camouflage skull cap on a chilly, Victorian afternoon, the thickly bearded right-hander spoke about life in the big leagues, candy in the bullpen and what in the world an active major leaguer was doing driving a bush hogger.
Kinston Free Press: You have a couple of seasons behind you now. How do you feel about the move from catcher to pitcher?
Chris Hatcher: I’m getting used to it. It’s a little different being on that side of it and getting to face hitters and look at that side of the scouting report and have to apply it. But I think I’ve adjusted well and I think I’m getting pretty used to it now.
KFP: Do you miss catching at all?
CH: I miss catching, yes.
KFP: Do you miss hitting?
CH: No, not in the least.
KFP: You were 0-for-6 as a big league catcher and you’re 0-for-1 as a pitcher. How bad do you want that first big league hit?
CH: If I get it, I get it. I got the big league strikeout, so that makes up for it. But everybody wants that big league hit, so if I get the opportunity I’m going to go up there and I’m going to try my best.
KFP: But that’s not what they’re paying you to do.
CH: Hey, it comes with it, though.
KFP: Did you have a welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment?
CH: We all did. Everybody that comes up gets a big league moment. As far as, like, hazing?
KFP: On the field, when you said, ‘Wow, this really is major league baseball.’
CH: Oh, yeah. The first day I stepped on the field and they played the national anthem. We were in Miami, so there weren’t many people there. But it’s still a big league field. And I would say striking out Chipper Jones at Turner Field (in 2011) was pretty up there, too.
KFP: What was your relationship like with Ozzie?
CH: Ozzie’s Ozzie. He’s going to straight-shoot you. He’s not going to beat around the bush. If you were bad that day, he’d let you know. But if you did a good job, he’d let you know. I think that’s how managers should be.
KFP: (Marlins reliever) Eddie Mujica played in Kinston (for the Kinston Indians) a while back. Did Kinston ever come up between you guys?
CH: I think it came up once. He was just talking about how he had played here. I think it was him who said he actually enjoyed it. I’ve played with a bunch of guys that have come through Kinston, and I’m pretty sure it was (Mujica) that said he actually liked playing here.
KFP: What is life like in a major league bullpen?
CH: Very similar to a minor league bullpen. The games are being played down there. You’re counting people in the crowd. It depends on the day. If you’re getting waxed, you’ve kind of got to focus a little bit. And if it’s a tight game, you’ve got to focus. But the first three or four innings, if the game’s rolling along like it should, you’re down there relaxed, mentally preparing or joking with the guys. There’s a lot of candy that gets eaten, and just a lot of games are being played down there.
KFP: Does it ever get boring?
CH: Oh, yeah. It’ll get boring. You’ve got a pitcher that’s throwing a nine-inning shutout, and it gets kind of boring. You’re just sitting there watching baseball. And of course, a 162-game season, that’s really long. So you’ve got to keep your mind focused.
KFP: What do you consider your best moment as a big leaguer so far?
CH: I think every day’s a big moment. But probably striking out Chipper Jones.
KFP: And your worst moment?
CH: Being 0-for-6. (Laughs)
KFP: What’s your favorite road city?
CH: I enjoy San Diego. It’s a good place to play. Maybe Atlanta. It’s closest to home. Or D.C. I get to see people that I don’t get to see very often. That’s just part of it.
KFP: Your favorite road stadium?
CH: I like Pittsburgh. The stadium’s absolutely gorgeous. It overlooks the river and downtown. I think it’s a really nice stadium.
KFP: What player, either on your team or another team, has made you say, ‘Wow,’ when you saw him?
CH: Oh, man that’s a tough one. (Long pause) I haven’t faced him, but I’ve got to say Mike Trout. Seeing his highlights on TV, that guy’s just incredible. As far as somebody I’ve played against, Ryan Zimmerman’s up there. He makes plays that you wouldn’t ever think should be made, and he hits pitches that he shouldn’t even swing at. And he hits them a long ways and he hits them hard.
KFP: What would surprise people about life in the major leagues?
CH: It gets old. A lot of people don’t realize you’re on the road 81 days out of the year, at least. We have 81 games on the road, and it’s monotonous. The days drag out. They don’t realize what time we get to the field and what time we leave. Most guys get to the field around 1:30 or 1, and we don’t leave until at least an hour after the game. Just the monotony of it, it wears down on you. At the end of the year, you need a break from it. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, these guys are getting paid millions and millions of dollars.’ Well, the majority of us aren’t. We make good money, but it wears you down just like every other job. It gets boring sometimes, and you’ve just got to switch it up and keep your routine.
KFP: Is there a non-baseball celebrity you’ve met as a result of playing in the major leagues?
CH: Some of the Miami Heat guys come out. Mike Miller’s been out, D-Wade’s been out. You just get random people that show up. Bill Murray when I was in the minor leagues. He owns the Charleston RiverDogs. He was at the stadium every time we played there.
KFP: What have you done since you got home?
CH: You’re looking at it. Work. I got engaged. I had to grow up a little bit. I’ve been working at the water park at the Woodmen (Community Center), trying to get it ready. And I’ve got to get this (grass) cut, so I had to take a break from that.
KFP: What’s your top goal this off-season, besides cutting grass?
CH: Stay healthy. Go into spring training in good shape and fight for a job.
KFP: How much working out are you doing?
CH: Every day. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Well, close enough to every day. (Laughs)
KFP: Do you have partners you work out with?
CH: I actually like working out, like lifting and conditioning, by myself. But I throw with my brother (Bobby Hatcher). Fortunately for me, he can get off and throw with me every day. That’s a blessing.
KFP: Have you met the new manager yet?
CH: I have not. He called me about two days after he got hired. He was just talking about getting ready for the season, put the past in the past and look forward and come in with a clear mind.
KFP: What are your expectations for this coming year?
CH: I have no idea. We’ve got a really young team, a young coach, a big ballpark that’s going to play a little bit different with our team we’ve got this year. It’s going to be a lot of guys fighting for jobs, and hopefully there’s not a lot of turnover this year like there was last year — guys getting hurt and all that. But being a younger team, I think we’re going to have to battle, really battle. That’s part of the business.
KFP: Do you have any reason to believe one way or the other whether you might make the roster out of camp?
CH: To be honest, I have no clue, no idea. I’m just going to go in and do the same thing I normally do: Battle it out. If it happens, it happens. If not, hopefully I’ll be up during the year at some point.
KFP: Have you had to learn on the job, so to speak, being a new pitcher?
CH: Oh, yeah. When they called me and told me two years ago, ‘We want you to convert,’ it was, ‘Hey, come to spring training. We’re not going to mess with you. We want to see you pitch. You’ve caught long enough to know how to set guys up and how to pitch. Just learn how to execute your pitches.’ And that’s what they did. They’ve never made me make an adjustment as far as mechanics-wise or anything out of the ordinary. But, ‘Here it is. Go get ’em,” is basically how it happened. To me, I like that. You learn by failure. If you don’t fail, you’re not going to learn how to succeed, to me. You have to learn from mistakes, basically. You know that real quick when you throw a ball down the middle that’s flat and 92 (mph), guys are going to hit it a long way. So you’ve got to learn to take something off and put some movement on it and hit spots. And sometimes you don’t need to throw a strike. I think I learned that this year: that you don’t have to go after every hitter. You can back off of one guy and go after the next. That’s part of learning.
KFP: You bush hog. What else do you do for the City?
CH: You name it. I do it all. I paint, I weld, I do plumbing. I’ve been working at the water park, putting in some fixtures, putting up slides. We do it all.
KFP: I would imagine you don’t do it for the money.
CH: No. Honestly, I just do it to have something to do. I’d go stir crazy. Anybody that knows me, they know I just can’t sit in the house all day and do nothing, so i just come out here and do it to kill time and help the City out.
KFP: I remember you telling me your signing bonus went very quickly to a boat. You toiled away in the minors for a few years and you finally made it up to the top. Are you comfortable now?
CH: I am. I’m living life, just like I did back then. I don’t regret spending it that quick. You know what? It’s just money. You can’t die with it. Not to say I’m loaded by any means, but I’m doing all right. We just keep going.
KFP: Do you ever get a text or a call from a teammate and they ask you what you’re doing and you say, ‘I’m sitting in a bush hogger?’
CH: Oh, yeah. I was actually just texting my (Double-A and Triple-A) catcher (Luke Montz). He said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m bush hogging.’ He said, ‘Me too.’ You’d be surprised what guys do in the off-season.