The Twins have made a formal offer to free-agent catcher Christian Vazquez, reports Darren Wolfson of SKOR North Radio and 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link).
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said early in the offseason that his club hoped to bring in a catcher to split time with 25-year-old Ryan Jeffers — ideally one who can provide some offense against right-handed pitching, given the righty-swinging Jeffers’ stout .263/.344/.450 career batting line against lefties (which includes a .306/.377/.532 slash in 2022). The market is quite thin on lefty-hitting catchers, however, and the Twins aren’t necessarily interested in a strict platoon anyhow. Both Falvey and GM Thad Levine have spoken of a more even distribution of playing time between their two primary catchers next season, whoever the new addition might be.
Vazquez, 32, would give the Twins a strong defensive option who’s elevated his offensive profile in recent seasons as well. The longtime Red Sox backstop won a World Series ring following a summer trade to the Astros this season and hits free agency having batted .271/.318/.416 over the past four seasons combined. He’s thwarted 34% of stolen-base attempts against him in his career to date, been credited with a hefty 51 Defensive Runs Saved in parts of eight MLB seasons, and has drawn plus framing marks from publicly available metrics via Statcast, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
Now that Willson Contreras is off the board on a five-year deal with the Cardinals, Vazquez stands out as the top catcher on the free-agent market. (The Twins, for what it’s worth, did not pursue Contreras, according to Wolfson.) The trade market offers a handful of viable alternatives, headlined by Oakland’s Sean Murphy and Toronto’s Danny Jansen, though there’s been at least some mention of the Braves giving consideration to trading from their own stockpile of catching talent. (In that scenario, backup Manny Pina would be the likeliest to go.)
While Contreras removed the top name from the free-agent market for catchers, he also removed a viable landing spot for Vazquez, who’d been linked to the Cardinals in recent rumors. The Twins will still have competition, as Vazquez is said to be of interest to the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres and Giants — and other clubs are surely in play. Both Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic have previously suggested that Vazquez could command at least a three-year contract in free agency. The Twins have a projected payroll around $98MM, which sits well shy of last year’s Opening Day mark of $135MM.
Guess they want Jeffers as backup.
Twins should go all in to get him. Great catcher and can hit too. He would be a big upgrade.
Christian went on record saying he wants to play full-time so splitting time is not an option atm for him.
His career high is 138 games, twice. Realistically 115 is what the averages catcher plays be considered full time in the league. Considering he will turn 33 next season as well it’s not unrealistic to say he’s behind the plate at a 60/40 going foward
Problem is a guy like Jeffers behind him. Even if you got 60% of the starts in year one, which I doubt, undoubtedly the team will be decreasing that percentage as the contract ages.
Now, if the twins made a stupid offer, something like 7yrs/90m to him he might consider being their backup. But, absent something like that, there are much much better every day playing opportunities still out there.
That was my first thought. Vazquez wants to start on a regular basis. A club with a young, up-and-coming catcher isn’t going to get Christian unless he gets desperate.
Hard to believe they don’t want Gary Sanchez back.
The Twins are at $98MM and the Mets complain about paying luxury tax over $293MM. I have to laugh at the irony that a lot of folks don’t see.
This one belongs to the Reds;
One more time and you’re muted.
The Mets are not complaining about anything.
Nobody cares who you mute… dumbest thing to say ever…
One more time suggesting you’ll mute someone and I’ll mute you.
You just know some of the individuals carrying on about muting ppl left and right have quite the god complex going on in their lives
I would think Tucker Barnhart would make more sense if they are looking for a platoon situation
They will be paying 2 pitchers next season more than 2 playoff teams last season in Tampa and Cleveland.
It would be interesting to see a in depth look at the correlation of performance between teams based on roster construction, home grown talent, trades and signings. In the surface the Mets look like they have a significant portion of payroll tied into free agents and extensions of trade acquired players vs cheap young developed talent
Barnhart can’t hit. He used to be OK For A Catcher, but he’s seen five years of almost perfect descent to a 64 OPS+ last year. Blech.
Aside from the occasional hot streak Vazquez isn’t exactly Johnny Bench either.
Vazquez would definitely be an upgrade defensively over Sanchez
I think overall, his combination of offense and defense out weigh the value of Wilson Contreras. Another thing, he seems to handle a pitching staff much better than Contreras. Whoever gets him is getting quality.
If I am running a team, I will take Vasquez over Contreras all day long to anchor the spot. Factor in the cost differential, and this one should have been very easy. Red Sox blew it when they traded him as it really irritated the team.
Ii was really hoping he would go to the Cards. It seemed like the perfect fit. Although I can’t wait to see Contreras showing up in Wrigley wearing a St. Louis uniform!
Is it offer he cant refuse, says Michael Corleone.
When I hear “framing” I take it to mean “not a good hitter.”
Hitting is the least important aspect of playing the catcher position.
Love CV. Comes through in the post season too. Solid guy. Hope he lands in a good spot for him.
Vazquez to the Guardians? He would get a lot of playing time over there.
If CLE doesn’t land Murphy I would expect they make Vazquez an offer, and he will be the starting C just as he wishes. The absolute worst case scenario for the Guards is they bring back Hedges, and no sane fan wants that.
Always been a fan. Hope he goes back to Boston.
Ideally.
Despite the massive disappointment the Twins organization is experiencing due to missing out on Aaron Judge and Trea Turner, the team’s offers having fallen “just a little outside” those player’s acceptable financial goals, it is encouraging to the fans of this small market, low revenue, practically destitute owner, organization that the team is diving into the deep end of the 2022 free agent pool by making a massive, “offer you can’t refuse” to free agent Christian Vazquez. Of course, the next news out of the Twins camp will be the announcements with regard to the contract offers to Carlos Correa and Carlos Rodon that, unfortunately, fell just short of the offers put forth by others.
SARCASM INTENDED
Don’t forget they were real competitive offers but no free agents ever want to play in the frozen tundra of minneapolis. Always always the excuse
Too bad the Twins couldn’t get a public funded, retractable roof stadium in a suburb such as Bloomington so fans wouldn’t have to: trek to downtown Minneapolis to see an MLB baseball game, despite any threat of a rain out or having to wade through snow and bundle up to see a baseball game played in April or October..
I don’t think the tundra is very frozen for most of the spring and summer. I think it’s the weakness of the central division. Even when it’s competitive it’s on a lower level than both the AL and NL West and East. That’s why the central teams don’t do well in the POs.
Yeah. A player can certainly lay-low in Minnesota. Not the best option for attention seekers
Does 3/25 get it done with CV?
I think that sounds reasonable. He’s the complete package. Solid offense, solid defense, great team guy, very high baseball IQ and he’s clutch. Guys like him sometimes it’s hard to quantify. I think he just makes teams better.