Amaya needs a little more proofing but is penciled in as the full-time starter for 2027. He’ll start more as the season goes on and he is healthy and having success.
Miguel Amaya, a 26-year-old Panamanian
native (he turns 27 on March 9) was well on his way to winning the job outright when he was injured, and from there his season went completely sideways, with a late-season return aborted by another injury. He’ll be looking to make good on some of his tremendous promise and solidify his claim on a position on the 2027 roster while helping his team chase the October Dream.
Amaya has a lifetime 3.4 bWAR as a batter, with 1.1 of that coming in 2025, when he turned in a line of ,281/.314/.500 with an OPS of .814 in only 96 at-bats, with four home runs and 25 RBI, improving his decent-for-a-catcher 2024 line by quite a bit. Indeed his projected line at BBRef is .244/.309/.407 in 288 at-bats, which seems low. 9 HR, 41 RBI, 105 total bases. Fangraphs has similar numbers..
He was extremely successful at improving his caught-stealing rate, which mushroomed from 18.8 percent to a solid 25 percent, with the possibility of improving that with some judicious work. The Cubs’ 2025 staff wasn’t very helpful in that regard as they were generally slow to the plate — Carson Kelly, seen as a plus defensive catcher, had a 27 percent CS rate.
Amaya isn’t eligible for free agency until 2030. He’s arb-eligible in 2027. So his financial path isn’t an onerous one for the team. He just needs to stay healthy. Moises Ballesteros would be his backup in a scenario in which Kelly exits at the end of the year, when his deal expires.
Kelly turns 32 around mid-season and is getting a little long in the tooth by baseball standards, but he could change the picture by having a season like 2025, given Ballesteros’ noted defensive inability at this point. Owen Ayers is a year or two out of this conversation, and break-glass catcher Christian Bethancourt probably isn’t going to last another season.
The path is clear for Amaya to assume the role and mentor Ayers when that player arrives to The Show. That’s the best-case scenario, in-house. Who the backup would be is still in the air.
