Royals’ Sebastian Rivero’s first promotion to the majors a moment he’ll never forget
Left-hander Daniel Lynch wasn’t the only wide-eyed Kansas City Royals prospect to land in the majors for the first time Monday night. Catcher Sebastian Rivero’s first taste of the majors came unexpectedly, but with plenty of smiles.
The Royals added Rivero, 22, to the 40-man roster this winter. He’d been slated to begin this season as the primary catcher at Triple-A Omaha. But with backup catcher Cam Gallagher having taken a pair of jarring foul balls off his face mask on Sunday, Rivero got summoned to Kansas City in case of a roster move.
Rivero, a highly regarded defensive catcher, garnered praise from both manager Mike Matheny and starting catcher Salvador Perez for his work behind the plate during spring training. Matheny described Rivero as “ready to catch” in the majors in March.
For his part, Rivero was overflowing with excitement and anxious to find out whether he’d be added to the active roster. When Gallagher went on the injured list and put in concussion protocol, Rivero was activated.
“I didn’t know,” Rivero said. “Am I activated? Am I not activated? It was that kind of excitement inside of me. As soon as I got to the field everybody was like ‘Congratulations. Congratulations.’ But hey, I’m not active yet. So we have to wait. As soon as early work was done, Mike grabbed me and he told me, ‘Hey, we activated you. Congratulations. Go tell your family.’ That was the first thing I did.”
Rivero’s wife and their infant son were in Kansas City for his first game in the big leagues (he did not play on Monday night). Rivero said his parents were making their way to town from Venezuela in order to witness the milestone moment in his professional career.
When asked what it will be like to share the moment with his parents, Rivero said almost as much with the joyous smile on his face as he did with his words.
“Yeah, I don’t — I can’t imagine that moment because it has been almost two years without seeing my parents now,” Rivero said. “So seeing them at this moment will be really good.”
A native of Venezuela who views Perez as his baseball idol, Rivero said he got a notebook and started filling it with things he has learned from Perez.
Rivero said every rookie catcher should get the chance to learn by watching a veteran with nearly 10 years of experience in the majors.
An international signing in July 2015, Rivero spent last season at the alternate training site after having played 91 games for High-A Wilmington in 2019 and three games for Triple-A Omaha.
Primarily based on his defensive performance, River garnered South Atlantic League All-Star honors in recognition in 2018 and Baseball America dubbed him the “Best Defensive Catcher” in the Royals system following that season.
“Talk about a guy who just does everything the right way,” Matheny said of Rivero. “Anything that we’ve asked him, he goes about it in a way that you want it modeled by other players. He just pushes. He doesn’t care who is watching. Nobody’s watching, he’s pushing. He has made some of our other catchers in the system better by just how hard he works. Meanwhile, surprise surprise, he’s getting better.”
Matheny described Rivero as a “throwback” mechanically behind the plate with sound technique as a receiver, catcher, as a catch-and-throw player. His attention to detail has endeared him to pitchers.
This fall and early this spring, Rivero started to show more strength at the plate as well. Driving the ball more consistently and pulling the ball with power.
If nothing else, Rivero has certainly brought an infectious enthusiasm along with him for his first stint in the majors.
“Sebastian couldn’t stop smiling yesterday, and that’s special,” Matheny said. “As many tough conversations as I have, I was able to have one with him out on the field yesterday and he lit up.”
Aside from the fact that the Royals lost on Monday night, the experience was nothing short of pure elation for Rivero.
“I was really happy. I was actually speechless at the beginning. I was just smiling, smiling, smiling because it was a moment that I will never forget.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2021 at 8:30 PM.
