Padres catcher breaks out mid-90s fastball and an eephus in pitching duty

Christian Bethancourt started Tuesday at catcher before moving to second base and then the outfield, but his mound work made the biggest impression

The star of Tuesday's Padres-Mariners game was undoubtedly Seattle's lineup, which plated 16 runs and homered five times in a blowout victory. But the individual player who made the biggest impression was on the other side.

Christian Bethancourt, a career catcher until recently, captured everyone's imagination during Tuesday's game. Though he started the game behind the plate, he later took breaths at second base and in the outfield. Oh, and he also pitched -- and not as poorly as you might've guessed.

All told, Bethancourt walked a pair of batters and threw more balls than strikes. However, he showed an impressive velocity band, topping out in the mid-90s and bottoming out with an eephus:

Bethancourt's mechanics were far from idyllic -- his arm stroke is very short -- but that's to be expected. The curious, exciting part is that he showed enough on the mound to think he could have a future there -- particularly if his OPS remains below .600 heading forward. Of course, Bethancourt himself will ultimately have the final say on any positional switches; Tuesday's appearance is just likely to spur that conversation more often heading forward.

Another position player, Alexi Amarista, saw action on the mound. He didn't get as big a chance to impress, throwing just one pitch to make the only batter he faced ground out.