September 19, 2024

By Trevor Fitzpatrick

Canadian Baseball Network

Catchers often don’t get the credit they deserve. Sure, pitchers have to execute very well to throw a combined one-hitter, but the catcher plays a large role in calling the shots.

Kieran Cutler (Paradise, Nfld.) did exactly that as his Team Red dominated Team Navy 8-0 on Wednesday.

When asked about how he was able to command Aiden Taggart (Grimsby, Ont.), George Hobbins (Calgary, Alta.), and Jerome-Felix Lessard (St Joseph Du Lac, Que.) so well throughout the one-hitter, Cutler humbly replied:

“I just tried to get the guys as comfortable as possible during the warmups. I was putting down what I thought [in terms of pitch selection], but they knew what they wanted to do.”

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound signal caller is the only representative from Newfoundland at this year’s Canadian Futures Showcase.

He credits his AAA Paradise Phantoms team and the Premier Sports Academy for enabling him to make such a loud statement during the first two days of the showcase.

On scout day, Cutler reached a max exit velocity of 102 mph – enough to tie him for sixth on the event leaderboard. Multiple of those swings ended up over the right field fence and that was after he recorded a sub-seven second 60-yard dash time.

He followed that up by calling the aforementioned one-hitter for Team Red on Day 2 while also scoring three runs himself.

This showing is coming after his excellent 18U Nationals run this year when he won the home run derby.

“I got a lot of my conditioning and hand-eye coordination from hockey,” admitted Cutler, “I just stopped playing this year (for the Mount Pearl Huskies) to focus more on baseball.”

Cutler also shared that hockey had been taking a toll on his body.

“I’ve had a bad hip since a couple of months back. It was the hockey that was messing with it. It was tough, but I just kept working on my physio and now it’s feeling better.”

Now that he’s recovered, the path forward is clear for Cutler – get scouted.

The pressure of playing in front of scouts at a major league stadium can be daunting. It’s an experience that he described as both “a dream come true” and “not even comparable to back home.”

Getting recruited isn’t an overnight process though. When Cutler talked to reporter Nicholas Mercer a few months back, he mentioned that those college conversations had already started.

If his excellent performance at the showcase continues, expect those talks to speed up considerably.

“I just want the scouts to see that I can work behind the plate,” Cutler explained, “That’s my trait. I can call a game and block balls well, I hope they take that back with them.”

Team Red’s next game is Thursday at 12:30 p.m. eastern time against Team New Blue.