Working from behind, Severino 'raring to go'

PHOENIX -- If there is one player in Brewers camp most impacted by the delayed start of Spring Training, it may be veteran catcher Pedro Severino, who is in the middle of a crash course learning the pitching staff.

Milwaukee signed Severino and another catcher, Brett Sullivan, at the end of November to serve as backup options to starter Omar Narváez. The deals were struck after longtime Brewers catcher Manny Piña signed a two-year contract with the Braves.

"Look, new catchers across the industry have challenging jobs in Spring Training. And Pedro's got a challenging Spring Training for sure,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I think shortening it, to me, hurts a new catcher as much as anybody. It's just two more weeks to converse, study -- you're taking that time off for him. So, he's raring to go and he understands that there's going to be a lot this spring. We've already talked about it. He's ready for it and he's ready to go to work.

“But that would be the one player I would say is behind, really. That's the situation. It's not his fault, obviously. But we've actually talked about it, like, part of the plan for him is drift into the season [in terms of his] 'upload.'”

Severino, 28, played the past three seasons with the Orioles. He served as their primary catcher in 2021 and hit .248/.308/.383 with 11 home runs in 379 at-bats.

Asked to describe his style of play, Severino said, “I don’t want to tell people how I’m going to be. We’ll figure it out. I will play and give 100 percent every time they give me a chance to play, and they will figure it out.”

The Brewers, with associate pitching, catching and strategy coach Walker McKinven, have developed a reputation for good work with catchers in the receiving department. Narváez came to Milwaukee with a reputation as a poor defensive catcher, but he ranked atop Statcast’s catcher framing leaderboard in 2021.

“Walker, on the first day I got here, we started watching video and he gave me little things to work on,” Severino said. “My agent told me Walker is really good, because Piña and Narváez came here and were in the same situation. They told me I will be better, for sure, because of the pitching staff we have over here. I’ll just work hard and see how it goes.”

Last call

• Center fielder Lorenzo Cain’s arrival has been delayed by a family matter, but he’s expected to undergo his physical exam on Wednesday and won’t be far behind the rest of the position players, Counsell said.

• Brewers officials could not yet publicly discuss their agreement with veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen on Tuesday morning because the deal was still pending a physical exam, but Counsell did answer a question about one player potentially impacted by the acquisition: Tyrone Taylor. Said Counsell: “Tyrone’s role is going to be dependent on other guys. That’s probably where we’re going to sit here. The way you’d expect a season to go, that’s going to mean a lot of at-bats.”

• Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Josh Hader threw live batting practice on Tuesday morning as the Brewers move quickly toward an intrasquad scrimmage on Thursday and their Cactus League opener on Friday against the Dodgers. This year’s schedule is shortened, but since pitchers did work on their own before camp re-opened, Counsell believes the quicker ramp-up might actually impact hitters more directly.

“There’s 18 games, and I think one of the easy ways to look at [it] is if you play 12 of those games, that’s around 36 plate appearances, and you can put that up to where guys are normally,” Counsell said. “That’s probably a little bit under where most guys are [in a normal spring]. I think they’ll start out playing a little bit more than they did in traditional springs, but I don’t feel the need to rush it with them. Players in general say, ‘If I figure it out, if I get a good feeling,’ then we can back off a little, and I think that’s the tack most guys take.”