The baseball team at Dunwoody (Ga.) High School wears red uniforms. Naturally, catcher Johnathan Langley arrived at his first freshman practice at Georgia Tech with a red chest protector. The rest of the Yellow Jackets’ players must have blended in well enough with the team’s standard gold-and-white uniforms with navy blue trim, because Langley immediately caught the attention of head coach Danny Hall.

“He’s like, ‘what is this?’ The equipment guy had to get me some new gear,” Langley recalled. This was his introduction to his new coach.

Before long, it was apparent that Langley’s attempt to walk on would not result in a roster spot. By his sophomore year the Georgia Tech roster included catcher Joey Bart, who went on to become the second overall pick in the 2018 amateur draft. So Hall allowed Langley to keep his uniform, and his mitt, and his place in the team’s media guide, in a different capacity: the team’s bullpen catcher.

For four years Langley bided his time in the Yellow Jackets’ bullpen, repeating the same motions he first learned as a 7-year-old. He never appeared in a game. He did not aspire to.

“I enjoyed working with the pitchers, helping them to become better pitchers, seeing what the ball was doing behind the plate,” Langley said. “Helping the pitching coach to make our pitchers better: I knew my role on the team.”

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By his senior year, Langley had amassed a 3.85 grade-point average. He completed his degree in business administration, with a concentration in operations and supply chain management, in May. Some of Langley’s similarly qualified peers entered the workforce with a $70,000-a-year job waiting. But the office life did not appeal to Langley. He liked his no-frills office in the bullpen just fine, so he began to ask around: how do I become a professional bullpen catcher?

It’s an interesting question with many correct answers. One major league team plucked a bullpen catcher from its ticket sales staff. Another selected a sports medicine student who caught bullpens for his college team on the side. Most have professional playing experience but rarely are they major league veterans. Even at the highest level, the paying wage is believed to be uniformly middle class.

Langley found the connection he needed through Steve Tamborra, Georgia Tech’s strength and conditioning coach. Tamborra leads workouts for a handful of Atlanta-based big leaguers in the offseason, including Kyle Farmer, Alex Wood, Andrew Toles, Charlie Culberson, Daniel Palka and Matt Wieters. Last winter, Langley found himself in a gym with the group and decided to put his name out there.

“I think he just loves the game so much, and he’s a smart guy, and he wanted to dive into what the Dodgers are doing here with analytics and stuff,” Farmer recalled.

Farmer passed along the contact information for Brandon Gomes, the Dodgers’ director of player development. Not long after Langley graduated, Gomes reached out with an offer. It wasn’t glamorous. Langley would be assigned to Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz. to catch bullpens, mostly for minor league pitchers. Langley would get a uniform, and a minor league contract, but he would be placed on the disabled list with no expectation of playing.

At 22 years old, Langley had a job in professional baseball, and that was all that mattered.

“Honestly, I have no idea how much big league bullpen catchers make,” he said. “I’ve heard it’s enough to live.”

So it was that the Dodgers signed a college catcher who never played an inning on the field.

Reasons for signing a minor league contract vary greatly. One major league organization signed a “player” so he could more easily obtain a work visa and join the team’s player development staff. Other minor league bullpen catchers have player contracts too, but Langley might be the only one who spent four years in college in the same role.

Langley said he’s caught bullpens for several rehabbing major leaguers already: Hyun-Jin Ryu, Julio Urías, Yimi Garcia, Josh Fields, Tony Cingrani, Adam Liberatore and Tom Koehler, before the right-hander aborted his 2018 comeback. Even then, Langley had already caught major leaguers while he was in college, if they needed an offseason glove to throw to in Atlanta. Mostly he catches minor leaguers, many of whom are younger than him.

You certainly don’t need a 3.85 GPA and a four-year degree to be a bullpen catcher. It doesn’t hurt.

“What separates John is that his feedback is subtle, timely and valid,” said Mark Kertenian, the coach of the Dodgers’ team in the Arizona Summer League. “He’s a very observant person. He’s in no hurry to give feedback. He does so when he believes it’s important to that player. That puts him beyond his years.”

The Dodgers might have found more than a future bullpen catcher. They might have found a future coach.

Langley said the ambition began in high school. In college, he worked as an assistant summer travel team coach in the Atlanta area. He’s also helped out with summer camps at Georgia Tech.

“I love having a servant’s heart and being able to help people out,” he said.

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Dodgers’ Corey Seager feeling ‘strong again,’ and his quality of contact has been a big hit In the long term, Langley said he would love to manage a major league team someday. For now, he is not exerting himself to impress anyone, Kertenian said.

“It’s definitely humble. He separates himself from nobody,” Kertenian said of Langley. “He chooses to be close and have valuable relationships with everybody because he wants to be an excellent teammate. He’s definitely a brilliant guy without ever putting that out there in an over-the-top manner.”

The coaching pipeline is not always a conspicuous one. For every Aaron Boone – a postseason hero turned television commentator – the next big league manager could come in the form of Mike Shildt, the St. Louis Cardinals’ skipper who never appeared in a professional game before receiving a contract extension in August.

Or in the form of a college bullpen catcher.

“I would definitely say it’s been worth it,” Langley said. “The goal for the immediate future would be to be with the big league team. One of our pitching coordinators told us, ‘just be where your feet are.’ Just be present right there. That’s helped me put a little reality on it: I’m out here in Arizona working with the Dodgers. Not many people can say that.”