Jorge Mario Alfaro Buelvas (born June 11, 1993) is a Colombian professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

in the

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organization. He has previously played in

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(MLB) for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

, and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

. Alfaro signed with the Texas Rangers as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

in 2010, was traded to the Phillies in 2015, and made his MLB debut in 2016. He represents Colombia on the international level.

Early and personal life

Alfaro was born in Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia. Alfaro's younger brother Jhoandro is a catcher who played in the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

organization. Alfaro played baseball and soccer at Instituto Técnico Industrial Antonio Prieto, graduating in 2009.

Professional career

Texas Rangers

Alfaro signed with the Texas Rangers in June 2010 as a 16-year-old

for a $1.3 million

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

that was a record at the time for any Colombian prospect. In 2010, playing for the DSL Rangers in the

Dominican Summer League The Dominican Summer League (DSL) is a branch of affiliated Minor League Baseball which is played in the Dominican Republic. The league was founded in 1985. After the demise of the Venezuelan Summer League after the 2015 season, it is the only ...

he batted .221/.278/.291 with one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

and 23

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

(RBIs). In 2011, playing for the Low–A Spokane Indians in the

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseba ...

, Alfaro batted .300/.345/.481 (9th in the league) with six home runs, 23 RBIs, and seven

hit by pitch In baseball, hit by pitch (HBP) is an event in which a batter or his clothing or equipment (other than his bat) is struck directly by a pitch from the pitcher; the batter is called a hit batsman (HB). A hit batsman is awarded first base, provide ...

(6th) in 160

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

s, as on defense he allowed 12

passed ball In baseball, a catcher is charged with a passed ball when he fails to hold or control a legally pitched ball that, with ordinary effort, should have been maintained under his control, and, as a result of this loss of control, the batter or a run ...

s and made 10

error An error (from the Latin , meaning 'to wander'Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “error (n.), Etymology,” September 2023, .) is an inaccurate or incorrect action, thought, or judgement. In statistics, "error" refers to the difference between t ...

s in 36 games at catcher. He was a ''

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'' Short-Season All Star and a

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Short-Season/Rookie All Star, and ''Baseball America'' named him the 8th-best prospect in the Northwest League. In 2012, playing for the Single–A

Hickory Crawdads The Hickory Crawdads are a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. They are located in Hickory, North Carolina, and play their home games at L. P. Frans St ...

in the

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

, he batted .261/.320/.430 with five home runs and 34 RBIs in 272 at bats. ''Baseball America'' rated Alfaro the 9th-best Rangers prospect. Prior to the 2013 season Alfaro was ranked by MLB.com as the 88th-best prospect in baseball. Alfaro was ranked the 54th-best prospect by ''Baseball America''. In 2013, playing for Hickory in the South Atlantic League, he was a mid-season All Star, an MiLB.com Texas Organization All Star, and an

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League- ...

selection. He batted .258/.338/.452 with 16 home runs, 53 RBIs, and 18 hit by pitch (leading the league) in 372 at bats, as on defense he allowed 26 passed balls and made 10 errors in 82 games at catcher. ''Baseball America'' named him the 14th-best prospect in the South Atlantic League. He also had 21 at bats with the AZL Rangers, and 11 at bats with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. After the 2013 season he played for the Surprise Saguaros in the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season baseball league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are filled ...

, where he was batted .386 (3rd in the league)/.438 (9th)/.500 with 18 runs (5th), six

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

s (6th), 11 RBIs, and three hit by pitch (2nd) in 70 at bats. He was named both a Rising Star and to the All-Prospect Team. In 2014 playing for the High–A Myrtle Beach Pelicans he was

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

Player of the Week on August 4, a mid-season All Star, an MiLB Texas Organization All Star, and a post-season All Star. Alfaro was also the starting catcher for the World Squad at the

. For the season, he batted .261/.318/.440 with five triples (10th in the league), 13 home runs (6th), 73 RBIs (3rd), and 12 hit by pitch (4th), as on defense he allowed 18 passed balls and made 13 errors at catcher in 75 games. ''Baseball America'' named him the second-best prospect in the Carolina League. He also had 88 at bats with the Double-A

Frisco RoughRiders The Frisco RoughRiders (often shortened to 'Riders) are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. Based in Frisco, Texas, the team is named aft ...

of the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

, batting .261/.343/.443 with four home runs and 14 RBIs. On November 20, 2014, the Rangers added Alfaro to their

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, an ...

to protect him from being selected in the

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. In 2015 playing for Frisco he was a mid-season All Star, and batted .253/.314/.432 with five home runs and 21 RBIs in 190 at bats.

Philadelphia Phillies

On July 31, 2015, the Rangers traded Alfaro, Nick Williams, Matt Harrison,

Jake Thompson Jacob Keith Thompson (born January 31, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Caliente de Durango of the Mexican League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, and in the KBO L ...

, Alec Asher, and Jerad Eickhoff to the

in exchange for Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman. In the remainder of 2015 he had four at bats with the GCL Phillies. ''Baseball America'' named him the 5th-best prospect in the Phillies minor league system. In 2016 playing for the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils he was an Eastern League Player of the Week and Phillies Minor League Player of the Week on April 17, Phillies Minor League Defender of the Month for July, a mid-season All Star, and an MiLB Philadelphia Organization All Star. The Phillies promoted Alfaro to the major leagues on August 26. Alfaro was optioned back to Reading the next day. He was recalled on September 11 after the Reading season ended; he had batted .285/.325/.458 in Reading with 15 home runs (6th in the league), 67 RBIs (9th) and 105 strikeouts (tied for 5th) in 404 at bats. He had a total of 16 major league at bats in 2016, in which he had two hits and eight strikeouts. Alfaro entered 2017 ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 72 prospect, and the Phillies' No. 3 prospect. In 2017 he batted .318/.360/.514 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 107 major league at bats.">"Jorge Alfaro Stats" , Baseball-Reference.com
/ref> Alfaro also had the second-fastest baserunning sprint speed of all major league catchers, at 28.1 feet/second. He had the highest batting average on balls in play of all major league hitters with 100 or more at bats, at .420, swung at the highest percentage of balls outside the strike zone of all NL batters, at 46.2%, and swung and missed at an MLB-leading 21.7% of the pitches he saw. With the Triple–A

Lehigh Valley IronPigs The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They are located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and they are named in reference to pig iron, used ...

of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

, Alfaro was a mid-season All Star, and for the season he batted .241/.291/.358 with seven home runs and 43 RBIs in 324 at bats. In 2018 with the Phillies, Alfaro batted .262/.324/.407 with 10 home runs, 37 RBIs, and 14

(8th in the National League) in 344 major league at bats. He had the highest batting average on balls in play of all major league hitters with 300 or more at bats, at .406. He also had the second-fastest baserunning sprint speed of all major league catchers, at 28.3 feet/second. On the other hand, he struck out 36.6% of the time, the highest rate in the National League and third-highest among all players in MLB with 300 or more plate appearances. He swung and missed at an MLB-leading 23.8% of the pitches he saw (the next-highest rate was Avisail Garcia's 19.0%), and swung at the highest percentage of balls outside the strike zone of all NL batters, at 46.9% (while having the lowest contact percentage with pitches outside the strike zone of all NL batters, at 42.9%). On defense, in 2018 he had the best arm strength (90.8) and the third-best average pop time to second base (1.94 seconds) of all major league catchers, while he ranked fourth among all catchers in pitch framing according to ''

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''. He led the NL in catcher's ERA (3.45), and his 9.11 range factor per game ranked 2nd among National League catchers. However, Alfaro also led all NL catchers in

s (10) and

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out ...

s allowed (59; though he tied for 3rd in runners

caught stealing In baseball, a runner is charged, and the fielders involved are credited, with a time caught stealing when the runner attempts to advance or lead off from one base to another without the ball being batted and then is tagged out by a fielder wh ...

(21)), and tied for first in

s (11). ''Baseball America'' named him to its 2018 MLB All-Rookie Team.

Miami Marlins

On February 7, 2019, Alfaro was traded with Sixto Sánchez, Will Stewart, and $250,000 in international bonus slot money to the

in exchange for J. T. Realmuto. In 2019, he batted .262/.312/.425, and was 2nd in the NL with 11 passed balls, and 3rd with 11 errors. He had the fastest sprint speed of all major league catchers, at 28.8 feet/second. In 2020 he batted .226/.280/.344, and was 2nd in the NL with 4 passed balls. He had the lowest framing percentage of all major league catchers. In 2021, he batted .244/.283/.342 in 92 games. After July he was moved to left field, where he played for the majority of August and September.

San Diego Padres

On November 30, 2021, the Marlins traded Alfaro to the

in exchange for cash or a

player to be named later In Major League Baseball, a player to be named later (PTBNL) is an unnamed player involved in exchange or "trade" of players between teams. The terms of a trade are not finalized until a later date, most often following the conclusion of the seaso ...

, which turned out to be cash considerations. In 2022, he played in 82 games for San Diego, hitting .246/.285/.383 with 7 home runs and 40 RBI. Additionally, Alfaro had four walk-off hits during the season. On November 18, 2022, Alfaro was non-tendered by the Padres and became a free agent.

Boston Red Sox

On January 26, 2023, Alfaro signed a minor-league contract with the

and was named a non-roster invitee to spring training. Alfaro played in 43 games for the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, hitting .320/.367/.520 with 6 home runs, 30 RBI, and 4 stolen bases. On June 1, Alfaro exercised the opt-out clause in his contract, giving the Red Sox 48 hours to add him to their

or grant him his release. The Red Sox declined to add Alfaro to their roster, and he was formally released on June 3.

Colorado Rockies

On June 10, 2023, Alfaro signed a minor league contract with the

organization. After three games with the Triple–A

Albuquerque Isotopes The Albuquerque Isotopes are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They play home games at Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at an ...

, Alfaro was selected to the major league roster on June 15. In 10 games for Colorado, Alfaro hit just .161/.188/.387 with 1 home run and 4 RBI. On June 30, Alfaro was

designated for assignment Designated for assignment (DFA) is a contractual term used in Major League Baseball (MLB). A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the team's 40-man roster, after which the team must, within seven days, return the pla ...

following the promotion of Ty Blach. He cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple–A Albuquerque on July 4.

Boston Red Sox (second stint)

On July 6, 2023, after many injuries at the catching position, the

brought back Alfaro on a major-league contract. In 8 games for Boston, he went 2–for–17 (.118) with 2 walks. Alfaro was designated for assignment by the team on August 1. He elected to become a free agent on August 5.

Miami Marlins (second stint)

On August 15, 2023, Alfaro signed a minor league contract to return to the

organization. In 18 games for the Triple–A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, he batted .200/.274/.262 with no home runs and six RBI. Alfaro elected free agency following the season on November 6.

Chicago Cubs

On December 13, 2023, Alfaro signed a minor league contract with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

On March 25, 2024, Alfaro was released by the Cubs.

Milwaukee Brewers

On January 14, 2025, Alfaro signed a minor league contract with the

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International career

Alfaro played for the Colombia national baseball team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He also played for Colombia at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Alfaro was named to the Colombian roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic qualification, 2026 World Baseball Classic qualifiers, held in March 2025 in Tucson, Arizona.

References

External links

Jorge Alfaro
at SABR (Baseball BioProject) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfaro, Jorge 1993 births Living people Arizona League Rangers players Boston Red Sox players Colombian expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Colombian expatriate baseball players in Puerto Rico Colombian expatriate baseball players in the United States Colombian expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Colorado Rockies players Dominican Summer League Rangers players Frisco RoughRiders players Florida Complex League Phillies players Hickory Crawdads players Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp players Lehigh Valley IronPigs players Leones de Ponce baseball players Major League Baseball players from Colombia Major League Baseball catchers Miami Marlins players Myrtle Beach Pelicans players Nashville Sounds players People from Sincelejo Philadelphia Phillies players Reading Fightin Phils players San Diego Padres players Spokane Indians players Surprise Saguaros players Tiburones de La Guaira players Tigres del Licey players Worcester Red Sox players 2017 World Baseball Classic players 2023 World Baseball Classic players