Catcher handled the changeup
Henry postponed wedding to join Brewers
PHOENIX – Payton Henry was lucky to have an understanding brideto-be.
The Milwaukee Brewers' catching prospect was at home in Utah last summer, posing for pre-wedding photos with his fiancée, Navy, when his cell phone rang. The couple had scheduled their wedding for August after the 2020 minor-league season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, but their plans were about to change.
Henry was instructed to report to the Brewers' alternate training site in Appleton, a camp that already was under way. When he wasn't on the original invite list, Henry figured his wedding date was a go but there was no way to pass up this opportunity.
“She was awesome with it,” recalled Henry, participating in the Brewers' training camp this spring as a nonroster invitee. “She said, ‘You've got to go. You're not staying here. We'll figure it out.'
“We pushed the wedding back and
got married when I got back home. It was nice to work it out that way. We still got to see a lot of family and friends at the wedding.”
Henry, 23, wasn’t sure what to expect when he got to Appleton, but he knew it was important to see some type of game action. He had been working out with his former high school team in Pleasant Grove, Utah, which is still coached by his father, for whom he played before being selected by the Brewers in the sixth round of the 2016 draft.
“We were on the field every day and getting work done – hitting, throwing, everything,” he said. “It was fun. I got to hang out with my little brother, Mason, and practice with him, too. He’s still a young guy; he’s in the eighth grade. He’s already pretty tall, about 6-4. He’s that tall at 13, so I think he’ll probably pitch or play first base or something.
“Going to Appleton was good for me. I was itching to play some kind of baseball. It was a good experience. It was fun to be with the guys again after what had happened, with the season being canceled and everything.”
Beyond the wedding, Henry was hoping for another big event in his life and career – being added to the Brewers’ 40-man roster in November. It was his year to be protected or get exposed to the Rule 5 draft, which would allow another team to snatch him away from Milwaukee.
The Brewers did protect their top catching prospect, Mario Feliciano, a more advanced offensive player. Instead of putting yet another catcher on their 40-man roster, which would have given them a whopping seven at that time – David Freitas later signed to play overseas), they decided not to add Henry.
It was a calculated gamble because Rule 5 picks must be kept in the majors for a full season or returned to their original team, and president of baseball operations David Stearns figured Henry would be bypassed because he had not played above high Class A ball. It’s not easy to “hide” a catcher on your bigleague roster, and sure enough, Henry did not get drafted.
“Payton has done a very nice job throughout his minor-league career but it’s a big jump from where he’s played at previously to catching in the major leagues,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said at the time.
“It’s tough to keep a Rule 5 catcher at the major-league level for the entirety of the season. You try to play the odds as best you can.”
Leaving Henry off the 40-man roster didn’t mean the Brewers thought any less of him as a possible big-league catcher down the road. But prospect rating services seemed to interpret it differently, lowering him on the organization’s Top 30 list or dropping him off completely.
“We’ve had some talks about it,” said Henry, referring to club officials. “I’m sure we’ll talk about it some more. That’s part of the game. I just have to keep my head down and keep working. That’s the only thing we can do here.
“We work and we grind, and we hope to find a way to get to the big leagues. That’s my main focus. They’ve told me what they think of me. There’s no hard feelings; it really isn’t. I understand it’s a business; I understand what’s going on. I’ve still got to show up and play.”
Henry is well aware the Brewers have perhaps their deepest group of catching prospects ever. Beyond Feliciano, two others are considered among the most talented players in the system – Zavier Warren, a third-round pick in the 2020 draft, and Jeferson Quero, an international signee in 2019 out of Venezuela.
Because of the pandemic, neither has played his first professional game.
Rather than worry about where he might stand in the current crop of catchers, Henry said he prefers to take care of his business and let others figure that out.
“Everybody here is a great player,” said Henry, still considered the best defensive catcher in Milwaukee’s system. “We’re all in professional baseball. Everybody’s got what it takes to be in the big leagues. You just have to focus on yourself, worry about yourself and still be able to praise those guys when they do something good.
“You are a teammate; you are a friend. But you’ve got to keep that internal focus and just worry about what you’re doing because once you start worrying about what everybody else is doing, that’s when everything starts going south.”
As the only non-roster catcher in bigleague camp, Henry is down the pecking order in getting playing time in Cactus League games. Nevertheless, he has seen action in five, with the highlight of belting a home run on March 5 against the Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale.
“That was awesome,” Henry said. “It was fun to see my work pay off. I’ve been working on my swing a lot. It’s good to see that transfer into a game. Hopefully, I can keep that going.”