Victor Caratini was expected to be the backup catcher behind Austin Nola when he was acquired along with Yu Darvish last offseason from the Chicago Cubs. However, Nola wasn’t able to stay healthy very much so Caratini had to step up and increase his workload.
That was probably a contributing factor to Caratini’s slight decline in performance as the season went on because he wasn’t used to catching this many innings behind Willson Contreras in Chicago. The most games Caratini had played in prior to this season was 95 in 2019. He ended up playing 116 games (+21 game difference) in 2021.