Acquired just a few weeks ago in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles, new Cardinals catcher Michael Ohlman has already done his research. Jenifer Langosch of Cardinals.com reports that after learning of the trade, Ohlman spent time looking at video of now Cardinals manager Mike Matheny during his time as a catcher for the club, and that the 24-year-old also learned about Matheny’s mentorship of Yadier Molina when he first broke into the big leagues. Although Ohlman has only been in camp for a few days, he’s already made a strong connection with Matheny. From Langosch’s article:

At 6-foot-5, Ohlman stands out among the nine catchers participating in Major League camp. He’s the only one on the team’s 40-man roster to be listed as taller than six feet.

The 6-foot-3 Matheny has a unique understanding of the challenges bigger catchers face and has already twice taken Ohlman aside to share of his experience. One session occurred on Sunday afternoon; they met again in the batting cages on Monday morning.

…”I’m very impressed,” Matheny said. “He has been a sponge. There are some things he’s been working on that we’ve been able to see improvements on. He looks like a kid with a lot of potential.”

Ohlman hit just .236 with two home runs and 25 doubles over 113 games in 2014 at Class AA, but was ranked as the Orioles 9th best prospect by Baseball America as recently as 2013 after a season in which he won the Carolina League batting title by hitting .313 with 13 homers for High-A Frederick. Drafted in the 11th round of the 2009 MLB draft, Ohlman spent the last six years in the Orioles system before being designated for assignment by the team in late January. The backstop owns a career .254 average with 24 home runs and 206 RBI.

Read Langosch’s full article on Cardinals.com.

 

Feature image used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison. No changes made. Creative Commons License.