ALTOONA, Pa. - Easton Carmichael’s first taste of pro ball came with a lesson he didn’t exactly want to learn in the moment.
Last summer, after grinding through 61 games for Oklahoma in the spring, he was worn down and ready to head home while struggling in the Cape Cod Baseball League. He told his dad, head coach Skip Johnson and his agent that he was out of gas. They all pushed him to stay put and work through it, a stretch Carmichael says changed the way he viewed the pro grind.
“I'm gonna be honest, I was so mad,” Carmichael said Wednesday evening in the Altoona Curve (Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate) home dugout. “But looking back, it was the best decision I ever made.”
That call to keep going looks even bigger now. In his first full professional season, Carmichael has rocketed through the Pirates’ system after being taken in the third round of the 2025 Draft, climbing from Pittsburgh’s No. 19 prospect to No. 8, according to MLB Pipeline.
The 2024 summer also helped sharpen the approach that has made him stand out behind the plate. Carmichael, the son of former Oklahoma catcher and college coach Darby, has long carried himself like a player who understands the game beyond his years. Former Prosper High School coach Scott Holder said Carmichael handled his routine with a level of consistency that separated him from most prep players.
At Oklahoma, Johnson trusted him early. Carmichael played 51 games and even handled pitch-calling at times, especially when his older brother, Braden, was on the mound. That comfort with the job has carried into the pros, where Carmichael says the work behind the plate is about guiding pitchers toward what they do best.
“That's why I catch: to play the little chess game,” Carmichael said. “Calling pitches, moving defense around, things along that line.”
The bat has come with it. In 97 games between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona, Carmichael has posted a .838 OPS with 19 home runs and 82 RBIs, including three Wednesday night. The jump to Double-A hasn’t been smooth every day, but he isn’t treating it like a different sport.
“It's still the same game,” Carmichael said. “Understanding that there's nothing I've never seen before.
… Guys make a little bit better pitches a little more consistently, and that's really about it. Still get 27 outs, and the quicker that I realize that is the quicker I'm gonna have success.”
Johnson remembers laying out the Cape Cod challenge in plain terms. If Carmichael wanted to someday handle the workload of a 130-plus game professional season, he had to learn how to survive the stretches that test a player’s legs and focus. Carmichael did that, and the payoff was real: he won All-Star Game MVP in that prestigious summer league and boosted his draft stock.
His climb to Altoona came fast, too. After being promoted on July 24, Carmichael’s move was a blur.
Greensboro was on the road at Winston-Salem, and after a doubleheader he went back to Greensboro, cleared out his locker that night, then packed the rest of his things at home after 4 a.m. He was on a flight at 8:30 a.m. from Greensboro to Charlotte, then Charlotte to Akron, where the Curve were facing the RubberDucks (Cleveland) that night.
Now he’s settling into the routine at a new level, working to get better sleep and recover more consistently as he keeps inching toward the Majors. Pittsburgh has plenty of catching depth in the system, with four catchers ranked in its Top 30 by MLB Pipeline, and Carmichael says he likes being in that kind of group.
He’s focused on staying centered through it all.
“If they're better, then that's going to push you to be better,” Carmichael said. “It's kind of a ‘you get what you give kind of thing,’ and that's how I always take it. But ultimately I can only control what I do, and I just try to be the best I can.”
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