A’s Spring Training In Arizona: It’s A Big League Living As Stanford and Michigan Man Followed Career Path To A’s Bullpen Catcher
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
MESA, Arizona — Christian Molfetta has a new job.
A’s bullpen catcher.
The 28-year-old has accepted the fact he will not be a major league ballplayer, but he’s still in the Big Leagues, working as one of the two bullpen catchers for the Athletics. The A’s hope to move to Las Vegas in 2028 when their planned $1.75 billion domed stadium on the Strip is supposed to make its debut at the former Tropicana hotel-casino site.
It’s Molfetta’s first year with the A’s after six years at two big-time universities earning undergraduate and graduate degrees and several more years in minor league pit stops like the Erie SeaWolves and the Salt Lake Bees.
“I’m trying to learn as much as I can,” said Molfetta, who noted he became a catcher as a kid because he was too bored with the other positions in the field.
Molfetta earned an undergraduate degree in politics and policy after five years in Stanford before spending a year at the University of Michigan where he earned a sport management graduate degree in 2021.
Now as an A’s bullpen catcher, “I’m at the intro level to coaching.”
If you’re keeping score of Molfetta’s recent moves, here you are:
At 28, Molfetta is now trying to move up the ladder on the coaching side of the baseball industry.
It’s like any line of work — there are dues to pay and you start at the bottom rung with hopes of moving up.
“It’s just like a corporate office,” Molfetta told LVSportsBiz.com before the A’s prepared to play the San Francisco Giants at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa Tuesday.
The five-foot, ten-inch 195-pounder is a Newport Beach, Calif. native who went from Stanford to Michigan to Angels affiliate Rocket City to Tigers affiliate Erie.
It’s hard to plant roots as a ballplayer, especially a minor leaguer, and Molfetta stayed in Columbia, S.C., Los Angeles and Long Island, NY the last three off-seasons.
“I was coach surfing from family to family,” he quipped.
In transitioning from minor leaguer to major league bullpen coach, Molfetta mentioned he’s learning the nuances , habits and language of the A’s pitchers.
It’s all part of learning any industry — whether you’re working in retail, manufacturing or the internet. It’s all about networking, relationships and timing.
Molfetta’s workplace is the bullpen, catching the warmup pitches of A’s pitchers.
And he might not be a Major League Baseball player, he does travel with a big league team and the A’s are his employer.
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There was an A’s fan wearing a yellow jersey and kelly green ballcap before the game and it turned out he was Bill Conners is a former Monterey, California city attorney who grew up in Boulder City, Nevada. He lives in Carmel, California. Conners’ mother was former 33-year teacher Eileen Conners, the namesake for Eileen Conners Elementary School in Las Vegas.
That’s spring training for you.
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A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after the A’s win that he wants to realize the commitment to seeing through the Athletics move to Las Vegas. Here’s Kotsay’s response to our postgame question about that:
The A’s won their second straight with a 7-5 win over the San Francisco Giants.
