San Juan's Locker Room Star

[MikeB]

Except for his rookie year, 11 season’s ago, Ju-Chan Park has been a backup catcher in the PEBA; a journeyman career that has taken him from Florida to San Juan to West Virginia to Duluth and back to San Juan.

But for the third consecutive year he has emerged as the Coqui’s best option at catcher. In 2030, he outplayed three-time all star Jesús Negrete and for the last two seasons has been better than Dan Collins, who the Coqui dealt a first rounder and two prospects for.

Behind the scenes, not well known to most fans, the South Korean native has also been the captain of the defending champions. “Teammates gravitate toward him,” says bench coach Tae-gun Kim. “He has the respect of veteran and younger players alike.”

It is a trait that was a factor for three previous championship teams as well, Mexicali (A) in 2018, Beaufort (AA) in 2019 and Chesapeake Bay (AAA) in 2022. Which raises a trivia question: How many players have won titles at all four of those levels?

“I took him a little longer to get that trophy in the big leagues,” says General Manager Mike Best. “He was a big factor for us in the clubhouse last season and clearly he was integral to those teams winning as well. The catcher being a field general is an ideal position to have a team leader.”

Park’s defense has never been in question. He possesses one of the strongest arms in baseball, which has served as a deterrent to would-be base stealers. There has been just 300 successful steals on him in 5,000 innings of work. For comparison sake, the Coqui stole more than that as a team in less than 1,500 innings last season.

His bat, however, has been an equal deterrent to general managers; a reason he went undrafted and all four teams he has played for either released or waived him at one point. And also why the Coqui got him back on initially on a minor league contract.

But this year the 34-year old is hitting a career-high .262, which leads all backstoppers with at least 10 at bats in the catcher-challenged Imperial League. And for the second year in a row he is slugging over .400.


“He hasn’t really hurt us at the plate. We’ve been pretty comfortable with him. He can drop a bunt with the best of them but he is also hitting .320 with men in scoring position,” says Best. “And isn’t without a power stroke.”

Park, in fact, in an average of 500 at bats, would hit 32 doubles and 12 homers a year.

The consensus from scouts is that he has always been too eager to take a hack at the plate but more and more those swings are finding space in the field.