Fermin is new to the Padres, but his roots with SD run deep

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The city of Guayana on the south bank of the Orinoco River in Venezuela has produced two Major League catchers. One of them, Carlos Hernández, backstopped the Padres to the 1998 National League pennant. He played parts of 10 seasons in the big leagues and now calls games as an analyst on the team’s Spanish radio broadcast.

The other? He joined Hernández in San Diego last week. Freddy Fermin, the Padres’ newly acquired catcher, grew up five minutes from the Hernández family’s home in Guayana.

To say Fermin and Hernández go way back would be an understatement. In fact, Hernández and Freddy Fermin once played together in the town’s Little League. That’s Freddy Fermin Sr., to be clear.

On Friday, the day after the younger Fermin was dealt to the Padres in exchange for two pitchers, Fermin Sr. made a phone call to his old friend.

“'Carlos, you’re there, man, you’ve got to help him!'” Hernández recalled. “I said I would do anything that he asked me. Anything to help him, I’ll be here.”

Earlier this season, Fermin and Hernández saw each other at Petco Park when the Royals came to town. At the time, Hernández joked about how great it would be if Fermin played for the Padres. Fermin shrugged it off -- the Royals were the only organization he’d ever known.

On Friday, after Hernández chatted with Fermin Sr., he ventured to the home clubhouse at Petco Park. That’s a rarity for Hernández, who says he likes to leave the clubhouse to the current players. He greeted Fermin with a hug, and the two spent time catching up.

Same for Fermin and closer Robert Suarez, who also hails from Guayana. Fermin says he didn’t know Suarez as well as Hernández, but he grew up knowing Robert’s brother.

“It feels so good to have familiar [people] here,” Fermin said over the weekend. “I get here in San Diego, and I have Robert Suarez, too. I feel like I am around my familia. Makes me feel good.”

Hernández has known Freddy Jr. since he was a baby. He remembers being asked by Freddy Sr. one winter to work with his son at a ballfield near their houses. Hernández estimates Freddy Jr. was 13 or 14 at the time.

“His mechanics, his footwork, he was so quick,” Hernández recalled. “I said, ‘He’s got something, this kid.’ I said, ‘I don’t know how big he’s going to be. I don’t know his swing. I don’t know anything else. The only thing I know -- that [guy] is quick.’”

Hernández knew. Took a while for the rest of the baseball world to catch on. Somewhat famously now, Fermin did not sign a professional contract until he was 20 years old -- practically ancient for an international prospect. At some point, the cycle perpetuated itself. Fermin would play well in Venezuela. Some scout would take notice. Then, Fermin wouldn’t be offered a contract, because, well, if he was this old, why hadn’t he signed already?

“I know how bad I wanted someone to sign him,” Hernández said. “I saw it. The way I was working with him, he showed me at that age. I asked a scout why he didn’t sign him, and he said it was about his age. [Forget] age. He can play. This kid’s got heart. He’s got more heart than a lot of people in this game.”

Finally, in 2015, the Royals took a flier on Fermin, and he rewarded their faith. He reached the big leagues a few years later and became the understudy for another legendary Venezuelan catcher, Salvador Perez.

Hernández followed Fermin’s career closely. When he got a text from a buddy on Thursday afternoon saying Fermin had been traded to San Diego, Hernández didn’t believe it. That kid he’d once played Little League with -- his son was joining the organization so dear to his heart? He quickly scoured the internet and found the rumor to be true.

With Hernández spending his summers in the U.S., Fermin Sr. developed a closer relationship with Hernández’s father, who passed away a few years ago. Fermin Sr. would often sit on his front porch at home, and when Hernández’s father drove by the two would stop and talk baseball.

“Man, I wish my dad would be alive to see him in that uniform,” Hernández said. “He saw all the hard work that his dad did for him -- just like he did for me. All I can tell [Fermin] is I’ll support him, help him out, be there for him.”

That’s the message Hernández tries to deliver to all the Venezuelan big leaguers he meets. And there are quite a few in the Padres’ clubhouse -- Luis Arraez and Elias Díaz in addition to Fermin and Suarez.

But Hernández wants to make sure it resonates with Fermin. Hernández’s family has since moved. It’s been nearly a decade since he’s been back to Guayana, a product of the turmoil in Venezuela. Hernández briefly got emotional talking about what it meant to see another Guayana native catching for the Padres.

“To bring a little dirt from not only my country, but my hometown, man,” Hernández said. “I haven’t been back in eight years. … To see him here, it means a lot. For me, and for a lot of people back home, it means a lot to see that guy here.”

Of course, with their flurry of acquisitions like Fermin, these Padres feel good about their chances to return to the Fall Classic for the first time since Hernández’s 1998 club -- regarded as the best team in franchise history. Heck, they want to take it a step further.

“It would be an honor to win a World Series for the Padres and with him here,” Fermin said of Hernández. “We are representing Venezuela, and we are representing Guayana.”

It would be just as great an honor to call it, Hernández says. Speaking from his booth high above home plate at Petco Park, Hernández takes a minute, then reflects on his baseball journey and the journeys of his countrymen now playing for the Padres as well.

“All my dreams I had in mind, the only thing I wanted was to play baseball,” Hernández said. “And now I get to watch him and be proud of him doing that. What I tell those guys is every time you are up there and you do something -- good or bad -- think you’ve got a friend here for you, too. Don’t feel alone here. You’ve got somebody to back you up up here.”