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Ryan Jeffers

Twins’ Ryan Jeffers Also Drew Interest At Trade Deadline

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The Twins shipped out nearly 40% of their roster but could’ve been even more active. Minnesota also received interest in catcher Ryan Jeffers from multiple teams, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, though obviously nothing came together.

Whether it was a case of the Twins not receiving a satisfactory offer or simply not having time to hammer out yet another swap involving a player controlled beyond the current season, Jeffers is still the Twins’ starting catcher — at least for now. He’s controllable only through the 2026 season, so it stands to reason that he could again be a trade candidate this winter. Perhaps if the Pohlad family can complete a sale of the team in the near future, new ownership will be more intent on keeping a competitive roster together for next season. However, as things currently stand, Jeffers seems likely to be available again in a few months’ time, given the sheer magnitude of Minnesota’s still-surprising deadline teardown.

The 28-year-old Jeffers (29 next June) is enjoying a third straight productive year at the plate, hitting .260/.345/.409 with eight homers, 22 doubles, a 9.8% walk rate and a career-low 19.3% strikeout rate. Dating back to the 2023 season, he’s a .250/.333/.441 hitter — good for a 117 wRC+ that ranks fifth among all qualified big league catchers in that time. His glovework isn’t as well regarded, but Jeffers isn’t a liability from a defensive standpoint by any means. He’s earning $4.55MM this year and will likely clear $7MM next season in his final year of club control.

It’ll be a thin market for teams seeking help behind the plate this winter, so Jeffers should hold plenty of appeal if the Twins do dangle him. The top options on the free agent market will be J.T. Realmuto, ahead of his age-35 season, and Victor Caratini, who’s never really handled a starter’s workload behind the dish. (Even this year, as Caratini is on track for a new career-high in plate appearances, he’s spent 24 games at DH and 11 at first base in addition to his 39 games behind the plate.)

There will be a few other options to consider, but this offseason’s catcher class is composed primarily of mid-30s backups and younger starters who are struggling through down years. Danny Jansen is having a sub-par year for a second straight season. Gary Sanchez will end up missing roughly one-third of the year with the PCL sprain that’s currently sidelining him. Salvador Perez can technically become a free agent, but the Royals will presumably pick up his $13.5MM club option (a net $11.5MM decision when considering the option’s $2MM buyout).

As explored at greater length by MLBTR’s Anthony Franco yesterday, Jeffers and top starter Joe Ryan headline a group of several logical offseason trade candidates who remain on the Twins’ roster after that deadline purge.

Twins More Seriously Listening To Offers On Rental Players

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The Twins have stumbled out of the gate with a 1-3 record in the second half and are beginning to more seriously weigh trades of their short-term players, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Utilityman Willi Castro, outfielder Harrison Bader and left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe are the team’s three most appealing free agents, but the Twins also have righty Chris Paddack, first baseman Ty France and backup catcher Christian Vazquez set to hit the market at season’s end.

[Related: Minnesota Twins Trade Deadline Outlook]

Of course, more of the focus for contending clubs will be on Minnesota’s more controllable and higher-profile talents. Top starter Joe Ryan and high-leverage relievers Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax will draw widespread interest. Heyman notes that Twins brass won’t turn interested clubs away without hearing them out, but the they would understandably need to be bowled over to consider moving anyone from that group. All three pitchers are controlled for two additional seasons beyond the current campaign.

Among the rental players, Castro fits the broadest number of teams, given his versatility. The 28-year-old switch-hitter is enjoying a nice season at the plate, hitting .258/.350/.435 with 10 homers, 14 doubles, two triples, eight steals (ten attempts) and a career-best 10% walk rate. He’s been productive from both sides of the dish, has above-average speed (74th percentile, per Statcast) and is capable of playing second base, shortstop, third base and the outfield (although defensive metrics have panned his work at shortstop and in center). Castro is earning $6.4MM, making him affordable for virtually any contender.

Bader’s defensive excellence and bounceback year at the plate ought to garner plenty of interest as well. He’s hitting .249/.330/.438 as Minnesota’s primary left fielder, but he’s only in left because of Byron Buxton’s presence in center. Bader still grades out brilliantly at any outfield slot, and while he’s typically showed notable platoon splits, he’s posted nearly identical numbers against righties and lefties alike in 2025. By measure of wRC+, Bader has been 15% better than average at the plate. He’s sporting his highest walk rate in a 162-game season since 2019 and hitting for more power than he has since 2021 (12 home runs, 11 doubles, .189 ISO in 282 plate appearances). He’s on a one-year, $6.25MM contract with a mutual option that obviously won’t be exercised by both parties.

Coulombe has been quietly terrific. He missed three weeks earlier in the season with a forearm strain but has shown no ill effects. His 0.65 ERA in 27 2/3 frames is the best in baseball among the 433 pitchers who’ve tossed at least 20 innings, and Coulombe has fanned 26.9% of his opponents against a 6.5% walk rate. He doesn’t throw hard (90.2 mph average fastball) and isn’t going to make it the whole season without surrendering a home run — he’s currently yet to do so — but there aren’t many better left-handed options on the market. He’s playing on a one-year, $3MM contract.

The rest of the Twins’ rental options have some track record but are in the midst of poor seasons. Paddack still has good command, but he’s sitting on a 5.14 ERA and career-worst 16.4% strikeout rate. He had a nice run from mid-April to mid-June, but Paddack has never really held up for a whole season under a starter’s workload and has been hit hard since mid-June. He looked impressive in relief when he came back from Tommy John surgery in 2023 and is making a relatively affordable $7.5MM this season, so perhaps a club might roll the dice on him as a bullpen option. Otherwise, his appeal as a fifth starter is fairly limited.

France had a nice start but has seen his role decrease and is now mired in an awful 5-for-41 slump that’s dropped his previously solid batting line to .245/.309/.348. He’s not striking out and has played a strong first base, but he’s a bat-first player who’s in his third straight down year at the plate. France’s $1MM salary is low enough that another club could well roll the dice on adding him to its bench, but he’s not going to net the Twins anything of substance in a trade.

The 34-year-old Vazquez is in the final season of a three-year, $30MM contract that hasn’t gone as hoped. He was always signed to be a glove-first catcher and remains a plus defender, but his once-passable offense has cratered and he’s been thoroughly outplayed by Ryan Jeffers, who has long since claimed the starting role in Minnesota. Vazquez’s .182/.249/.260 batting line in 159 plate appearances is among the least-productive in baseball. He’s still such a good defender that another club might take him on if the Twins ate most of the money he’s owed, but like France and Paddack, he’s not going to net a prospect of any real note.

There are other players the Twins could conceivably market. Right-handed reliever Justin Topa has pitched decently on a $1MM salary and has a cheap $2MM club option for the 2026 season. The aforementioned Jeffers is in his penultimate season of club control, but the Twins lack an heir apparent in the upper minors and starting catchers rarely change teams midseason. Trevor Larnach has been a roughly league-average bat at DH and in the outfield corners and is controlled two more seasons beyond the current one. Righty Brock Stewart has been excellent since the Twins signed him to a minor league deal a couple years back (2.44 ERA, 32.6 K% in 73 2/3 innings since 2022), but he’s frequently been injured. He’s being paid $870K and has two seasons of club control remaining. He could be a nice bullpen piece in future Twins seasons, but if a team is willing to make a decent offer, there could be some temptation to sell high as well.

One player clearly not going anywhere is Buxton. The 2025 All-Star is signed for three more seasons, has a full no-trade clause, and during last week’s All-Star break called himself a “Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life.”

Twins Notes: Keaschall, Wallner, Lewis, Jeffers

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Top prospect Luke Keaschall provided a spark to a listless Twins lineup upon his initial call to the majors. The 2023 second-rounder has done nothing but hit since moving from Arizona State to pro ball, and the majors were no exception. Through the 22-year-old Keaschall’s first seven games, he hit .368/.538/.526 with more walks (five) than strikeouts (two) in 26 plate appearances. The former Sun Devil also tied a major league record with five stolen bases in his first five MLB games.

Keaschall landed on the injured list after an errant pitch from veteran Kyle Hendricks hit his forearm and resulted in a non-displaced fracture. For the time being, there’s no indication he’ll require surgery, but head trainer Nick Paparesta told the Twins beat last night that Keaschall is likely to miss multiple months nonetheless (link via Dan Hayes of The Athletic). Keaschall will be reevaluated in about one month.

The injury to Keaschall is the latest for a Twins club that has been torched by health troubles this season. Third baseman Royce Lewis has yet to play in a regular-season game. Utilityman Willi Castro is out with an oblique strain. Ace Pablo Lopez missed two weeks with a hamstring strain. Top infield prospect Brooks Lee is healthy now but started on the shelf with a back injury. Relievers Brock Stewart and Michael Tonkin opened the year on the injured list due to hamstring and shoulder strains, respectively. Infielder Jose Miranda struggled early, was optioned to Triple-A, and has since gone on the minor league injured list with a strain in his left hand.

Most of those injuries have been relatively minor in nature. Keaschall is the most significant injury, but slugging corner outfielder Matt Wallner is also looking at a lengthy absence. Via Hayes, Paparesta added that Wallner is dealing with a moderate to severe strain of his hamstring. Wallner only first began light jogging on a treadmill yesterday, two weeks after his initial injury. He’ll be reevaluated next week, but it seems likely that the injury will sideline him well into May, if not longer.

Wallner, 27, is hardly a household name but has emerged as the Twins’ top power threat. The Twin Cities native, selected 39th overall in 2019, floundered through a catastrophically poor start to his 2024 season but mashed for the final three months after being recalled from Triple-A. In 228 plate appearances following last year’s recall, Wallner hit .282/.386/.559 with a dozen homers, 16 doubles and a triple.

A sky-high .410 average on balls in play and an ugly 34% strikeout rate point to plenty of regression in batting average for Wallner, but he draws enough walks and makes enough hard contact that he could be a productive overall hitter even if his average dips into league average territory (.241) or a bit lower. Between last year’s torrid finish and this year’s hot start, Wallner boasts a .278/.383/.540 line (164 wRC+) in 295 plate appearances. He’s walked in more than 10% of those trips to the plate and posted eye-popping batted-ball metrics: 92.4 mph average exit velocity, 16.1% barrel rate, 52.3% hard-hit rate.

With Keaschall and Wallner out for extended periods and injuries at multiple other positions, the Twins have turned to the DFA market to add some depth on the bench. Jonah Bride and Kody Clemens came over in cash swaps with the Marlins and Phillies, respectively, after both were designated for assignment. Both are out of minor league options, so it could be a short stay for one of them on the roster, particularly once Lewis returns. He’s played two Triple-A rehab games already and gone 3-for-6 with a double. A return next week wouldn’t be a surprise.

The Twins could opt to preserve their depth by instead optioning Lee or Edouard Julien so they can get regular at-bats in Triple-A. The ultimate move will come down to health and production among the current infield group. It’s a more straightforward scenario in the outfield, where Harrison Bader — signed to be an oft-used fourth outfielder — will see regular run alongside Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach.

In general, the Twins’ lineup has begun to emerge from a dormant state. Facing clubs with poor pitching staffs like the White Sox and Angels surely plays a role, but Minnesota is hitting .276/.359/.432 as a team over the past two weeks. Unsurprisingly, they’ve gone 8-4 in that time. They’re still three games under .500, but the lineup is meshing and Lewis’ looming return creates reason for more optimism.

Part of that resurgence has been a blistering hot streak from catcher Ryan Jeffers. Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote last week that manager Rocco Baldelli is moving away from the largely even split in playing time between Jeffers and veteran Christian Vazquez. Jeffers is seeing an uptick in at-bats and will shoulder a larger portion of the catching workload. So far, it’s paying off. Jeffers is hitting .308/.426/.538 during this Twins hot streak; that looks more closely in line with the 27-year-old’s terrific 2023 season and strong start to 2024.

A slow finish last year dampened Jeffers’ numbers, but he’s a .247/.331/.449 hitter (120 wRC+) in 885 plate appearances dating back to ’23. Jeffers tells Matthew Leach of MLB.com that he feels some mechanical changes he’s incorporated in recent years have reached the point where he no longer even needs to think about them.

The move away from Vazquez is understandable, particularly at a time when the lineup was struggling. The 34-year-old remains a premier defensive catcher but has limped out of the gate with a .139/.200/.250 output in 14 games and 40 plate appearances. He’s in the final season of a three-year, $30MM contract that hasn’t panned out as the Twins hoped, but Vazquez’s glove is strong enough that he can hold a backup role even with a .218/.261/.318 slash in 710 plate appearances as a Twin. Jeffers, meanwhile, is in his second of three arbitration seasons and can be controlled through 2026.

The Twins’ Quietly Elite Catcher

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For years in Minnesota, the catching position was the strongest on the roster. Hometown kid and former No. 1 overall pick Joe Mauer went from ballyhooed prospect to three-time batting champion and 2009 American League MVP. He solidified the spot for a decade, hitting .323/.405/.469 in more than 5000 plate appearances from 2004-13.

When concussions forced Mauer over to first base, the Twins turned things over to a series of veterans as they struggled to develop an in-house replacement. Kurt Suzuki and Jason Castro both inked multi-year deals to serve as the starting catcher in Minnesota. Those contracts actually panned out reasonably well; Suzuki hit .263/.316/.364 in three seasons and made the 2014 All-Star team. Castro hit .229/.325/.390 in his three seasons and provided elite defense. Along the way, the Twins succeeded in developing one high-end offensive catcher — Mitch Garver — but struggled to keep him healthy. Garver was eventually traded to the Rangers for Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ronny Henriquez. Kiner-Falefa was then immediately flipped to the Yankees alongside Josh Donaldson in a swap that netted the Twins Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela (while shedding the remainder of Donaldson’s $92MM contract).

Somewhat lost in the shuffle during that catching carousel was 2018 second-rounder Ryan Jeffers. The UNC-Wilmington product had a nice debut showing in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, slashing .273/.355/.436 in a small sample of 62 plate appearances. Jeffers, however, fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances that year and experienced even more pronounced contact issues in the two subsequent seasons.

From 2021-22, he hit just .203/.277/.384 with a 32.4% strikeout rate. The power was apparent (21 homers, .182 ISO in 529 plate appearances), but Jeffers’ contact issues rendered him a well below-average hitter. The Twins, in win-now mode after a strong 2022 campaign, signed veteran Christian Vazquez to a three-year, $30MM deal that generally aligned with market expectations.

Heading into the 2023 season, Jeffers wasn’t relegated to a traditional backup role, but there was a clear expectation that he and Vazquez would be in a timeshare behind the plate — likely with the defensively superior Vazquez handling a bit more of the workload. Through the season’s first few months, that’s precisely how things played out, too. Vazquez received 202 first-half plate appearances to Jeffers’ 157. Vazquez provided his typical brand of elite defense but hit just .210/.287/.265 in that time. Jeffers, on the other hand, hit .256/.357/.421 — numbers more in line with his intriguing rookie showing from 2020.

Following the All-Star break, the balance of playing time tilted in the other direction. It was Jeffers who found his name called more often, picking up 178 plate appearances to Vazquez’s 153. While Vazquez improved a bit offensively in the season’s second half, Jeffers saw his production soar to heights not seen by a Minnesota catcher in years. In the final two-plus months of the season, the 26-year-old mashed at a .294/.379/.549 clip and belted 10 homers. By measure of wRC+, that was 54% better than the league-average hitter. And considering catchers tend to be about 12% worse than the average hitter, Jeffers’ breakout was all the more eye-catching.

It didn’t appear to be simple small-sample noise, either. Jeffers made notable gains in his contact ability, fanning at a reduced (but still higher-than-average) 26.4% clip post-break last season. That includes a strikeout rate of just 17.1% in the season’s final month. While he didn’t suddenly reduce his chase rate on pitches off the plate, Jeffers took a noticeably more aggressive approach overall and seemed to benefit from it. His 50.3% overall swing rate in September was markedly higher than the 43.7% of pitches at which he’d offered in the five months prior. He’d previously made contact on 57.5% of his chases off the plate and 82.2% of his swings within the strike zone; those jumped to 71.4% and 87.8%, respectively, in the final month of play.

We’re now five weeks into the 2024 season, and Jeffers has picked up right where he left off last September. He’s hitting .300/.393/.556 on the season and has already popped five homers in his 107 plate appearances. His 16.8% strikeout rate is an easy career-low. The more aggressive approach he showed late last year remains in place, as he’s swinging at a 47.4% clip with better contact off the plate and within the zone that he’d shown prior to last September.

Jeffers has made himself veritably indispensable in the Twins’ lineup. He’s appeared in 27 of their 30 games: 14 at catcher and 11 at designated hitter. Manager Rocco Baldelli has begun to bat Jeffers in the top-third of his lineup with regularity. Seventy percent of his plate appearances have come while batting first, second or third this year. Jeffers has long pounded left-handed pitching (career .267/.362/.487), but he’s now hitting .285/.368/.489 against righties dating back to Opening Day 2023 — a wild improvement over the .185/.256/.361 slash he posted versus righties from 2020-22.

And, for all the talk about Vazquez’s defense earlier, it should be noted that Jeffers is hardly a slouch himself in that regard. Statcast was down on his ability to block balls in the dirt last season (five blocks below average), but Jeffers has routinely drawn positive overall grades from Defensive Runs Saved. He’s been better than average in that regard in each other season of his big league career, however, and Jeffers has been an average or better pitch framer in his career as a whole, per both FanGraphs and Statcast. He has a slightly below-average caught-stealing rate in his career, but much of that stems from an ugly 13% caught-stealing rate as a rookie. Jeffers nabbed 25% of thieves in 2023 (league-average was 21%) and is 1-for-5 in 2024 (23% is league-average).

Since last season, there are 75 big league catchers who’ve tallied at least 100 plate appearances. Jeffers’ 146 wRC+ leads the pack by a massive margin; the Contreras brothers check in at 133 (William Contreras) and 132 (Willson Contreras) and stand as the No. 2 and 3 entrants on that list. Yes, it’s still only a sample of 442 plate appearances for Jeffers, but he’s been far and away the best-hitting catcher in the majors going back to last year, quietly topping stars like Will Smith, Adley Rutschman, Sean Murphy and the Contreras brothers on a per-plate-appearance basis. Granted, Jeffers isn’t going to top WAR leaderboards because of his more even timeshare with Vazquez and lesser defensive skills to names like Murphy, Rutschman, Patrick Bailey and others — but he’s nevertheless stepped out as one the game’s premier hitters at his position.

Perhaps the Vazquez addition took some pressure off Jeffers, but the breakout at the plate and the Twins’ efforts to scale back payroll this past offseason do combine to make that signing look superfluous. Vazquez is a flat-out elite defender, but he’s hitting .222/.273/.309 in 421 plate appearances as a Twin. For a team that was up against some pretty noticeable payroll constraints from ownership in the offseason, that $10MM-per-year salary could certainly be allocated in a more efficient way.

That’s not to disparage Vazquez; had Twins ownership merely allowed the front office to maintain last year’s roughly $155MM payroll, his salary wouldn’t even be all that cumbersome to manage — and there’s surely intangible benefit to him working with Jeffers and with the team’s pitching staff. Still, the Twins spent relatively heavily to install a starting-caliber option behind the dish, only to see one of their young, in-house options emerge as the cornerstone backstop they’d been seeking all along.

Jeffers remains highly affordable for the Twins, earning just $2.425MM this season in his first trip through arbitration. He’s well on his way to earning a major raise on top of that salary if he can continue to hit as he has going back to Opening Day 2023. He’ll be arb-eligible twice more and is controllable through the 2026 season. As a Boras Corporation client, Jeffers doesn’t stand out as the likeliest candidate to sign a long-term deal, but it’s hard to imagine the Twins wouldn’t be interested in hammering out some kind of deal to keep him in Minneapolis longer than he’s currently slated to stay.

Twins Notes: Paddack, Lewis, Kirilloff, Jeffers

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Twins right-hander Chris Paddack is making progress in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, per The Athletic’s Dan Hayes. Hayes relays that, according to Twins training staff, Paddack is around ten days away from facing live hitters for the first time since he went under the knife last May.

Initially, Paddack was hoping to return to the big league mound this month, though given the time he’ll need to spend building up stamina after graduating to facing live hitters, it’s hardly a surprise that timeline was more recently pushed back to sometime in September, with the distinct possibility that return will have to come out of the bullpen rather than as a member of the rotation. While sixteen months away from the majors following Tommy John surgery is a certainly a longer rehab process than has become the norm in recent years, it’s worth remembering that this is Paddack’s second surgery, as he also went under the knife as a prospect back in 2016.

Regardless of if Paddack ultimately makes it back to pitch for the Twins this year, the 27-year-old hurler figures to be a key piece of Minnesota’s pitching staff in the long term. The Twins agreed to a three-year deal with Paddack this past offseason that guaranteed him $12.5MM while buying out what otherwise would have been the first year of his free agency. With Paddack locked up through the end of the 2025 season and current rotation pieces Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda both slated for free agency this coming offseason, Paddack figures to join Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and Pablo Lopez as part of Minnesota’s rotation of the future.

For his career, Paddack has been a roughly league average starter with a 4.20 ERA (97 ERA+) and a 3.94 FIP in 330 1/3 innings of work. Those career numbers are somewhat hampered by Paddack’s struggles in a pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and an injury-shortened 2021 season; the Twins are surely hoping that, once fully healthy, Paddack can return to the form he displayed in 2019 when he posted a 3.33 ERA in 140 2/3 innings of work.

Also taking positive steps in his attempt to return from injury is infielder Royce Lewis, who has missed the past month with an oblique strain after starting the season on the injured list while recovering from knee surgery. Per Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune, Lewis took batting practice on the field yesterday as he continues to ramp up his rehab process. Nightengale indicates that Lewis could rejoin the Twins’ lineup as soon as this month, though he cautions that Lewis’s return is still a matter of weeks away rather than days.

Lewis’s return would surely provide a major boost to a Twins lineup that has suffered a variety of injuries throughout the season, with Byron Buxton, Alex Kirilloff, Nick Gordon, and Jose Miranda all currently joining Lewis on the shelf. In 26 games this season, the talented youngster has slashed .326/.354/.474 that’s good for a 131 wRC+. That figure would represent a massive upgrade over the club’s current production at the hot corner, as Twins third basemen have combined for a wRC+ of just 90 this season with a 0.7 fWAR that ranks bottom ten in the majors.

While Minnesota’s lineup has received encouraging news on Lewis, the same cannot be said regarding first baseman Alex Kirilloff, who went on the injured list with a shoulder strain at the end of July. Per MLB.com, Kirilloff, who previously underwent an MRI and received a cortisone injection in his ailing shoulder, “was still in the resting and strengthening phase of his recovery” yesterday, with no clear timetable for return. The 25 year old was enjoying something of a breakout season at the plate prior to his injury, locking down first base for the Twins with a slash line of .270/.357/.442 (124 wRC+) in 258 trips to the plate this season.

With Kirilloff on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the Twins have needed to look elsewhere in the lineup for offensive production. Fortunately for the club, they’ve found it in the bat of 26-year-old catcher Ryan Jeffers. While he’s played just 63 games this season thanks to sharing time behind the dish with offseason acquisition Christian Vazquez, Jeffers has slashed a phenomenal .292/.392/.503 (152 wRC+) in 203 trips to the plate this season. That production has seemingly earned Jeffers additional playing time, as The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman relays that manager Rocco Baldelli has indicated Jeffers will receive starts at DH while Buxton is on the shelf in addition to his usual timeshare with Vazquez.

Twins, Christian Vazquez Agree To Three-Year Deal

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The Twins have jumped into a fast-moving catching market, reportedly agreeing to terms with Christian Vázquez on a three-year contract. The deal, which is pending a physical, will guarantee him $30MM. Vázquez is represented by MDR Sports Management.

A longtime member of the Red Sox, Vázquez now changes uniforms for the second time in five months. Boston dealt him to the Astros at this past summer’s trade deadline, bringing back prospects Wilyer Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez for the final half-season before he hit free agency. That left Vázquez in an unfamiliar role splitting time with Martín Maldonado, but it positioned him to secure his second World Series title.

Vázquez, 32, is one of the better all-around catchers in the game. A light-hitting defensive specialist for his first few seasons, the Puerto Rico native has taken a step forward with the bat over the past four years. He hit .276/.320/.477 in 521 plate appearances in 2019, popping a career-best 23 home runs. Vázquez hasn’t replicated that kind of power outside a season with perhaps the liveliest ball the league has ever used, never reaching double digit longballs in another season. Still, he’s been an adequate hitter in two of the past three years. Vázquez stumbled to a .258/.308/.352 mark in 2021, but he was an above-average hitter during the abbreviated 2020 campaign and roughly league average this past season.

Going back to the start of 2019, he owns a .271/.318/.416 line in slightly more than 1600 plate appearances. That’s five percentage points below league average overall, by measure of wRC+, but it’s above par for a catcher. Backstops have a cumulative .232/.304/.390 mark over that stretch. Vázquez doesn’t draw many walks and, 2019 aside, rarely hits for power. His high-contact approach differentiates him from most of his positional peers, as he owns the fifth-lowest strikeout percentage among catchers (minimum 750 plate appearances) since the start of 2019.

The 2022 season was generally par for the course. Among 29 catchers with 300+ trips to the dish, he had the fourth-lowest strikeout rate (16.2%) and fourth-best rate of contact per swing (85.1%). Overall, Vázquez posted a .274/.315/.399 line in 119 games. He carried an impressive .282/.327/.432 mark with the Red Sox before the trade but stumbled to a .250/.278/.308 showing in 35 regular season games as an Astro. Vázquez also did very little offensively in his six-game playoff showing.

The Twins clearly aren’t deterred by that slow finish to the year. That came in an unfamiliar role dividing his reps with Maldonado, and Minnesota presumably anticipates he’ll more closely approximate his production from his time in Boston moving forward. Offense is only part of the story and Vázquez has an excellent reputation with the glove.

For his career, Vázquez has nabbed just under 34% of attempted basestealers. He had a more modest 27.1% mark this year, but that’s still narrowly above the roughly 25% league average. Statcast also credits him with a better than average arm, placing him 20th among 73 catchers with 10+ throws in pop time (average time to throw to second base). Vázquez consistently draws strong grades from public pitch framing metrics. Pair strong receiving with his ability to control the running game, he’s been rated as an above-average catcher by measure of Defensive Runs Saved in all but one season of his career. DRS pegged him 11 runs above par in 2022 and has rated him as 51 runs above average over his eight years in the majors.

That wealth of experience calling games certainly added to Vázquez’s appeal to the Minnesota front office. The Twins have young backstop Ryan Jeffers on hand already. The 25-year-old will continue to see a fair amount of run at Target Field, but president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine have each spoken of a desire to add another starting-caliber catcher to pair with Jeffers. They’ve done just that, leaving manager Rocco Baldelli to decide how to divvy up playing time.

Jeffers, a right-handed hitter, has been far better against lefty pitching (.263/.344/.450) than same-handed opponents (.185/.256/.361) through his first couple MLB campaigns. Vázquez also hits right-handed and is better against southpaws, but his career splits aren’t so drastic. He has a .257/.309/.422 line against lefty arms and a .263/.310/.372 mark against right-handers. Falvey has already suggested the Twins don’t plan to relegate Jeffers solely to the small side of a platoon, but the presence of a more balanced hitter in Vázquez gives Baldelli some more flexibility in matching up against opposing pitchers.

It’s the first meaningful dip into free agency for Minnesota this offseason. Vázquez’s contract lands right in line with MLBTR’s prediction of $27MM over three years. The specific financial breakdown hasn’t yet been reported, but an even distribution of $10MM annually would bring Minnesota’s 2023 payroll around $107MM, in the estimation of Roster Resource. There’s a fair amount of room before getting to this past season’s approximate $134MM mark, and the Twins surely aren’t finished. Addressing shortstop — where the organization awaits Carlos Correa’s decision — is the big question, but the Twins also could stand to upgrade both areas of the pitching staff (especially the bullpen) and potentially shake up their outfield.

Vázquez’s signing follows last week’s five-year agreement between the Cardinals and Willson Contreras and this afternoon’s blockbuster that sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta. As a result, the catching market is drying up quickly. The Blue Jays can still dangle one of their three backstops, with Danny Jansen seemingly the most likely to move. Free agency is without many obvious solutions at this point, with glove-first players like Austin Hedges, Tucker Barnhart, Roberto Pérez and Mike Zunino (the latter two of whom saw their 2022 seasons cut short by surgery) among the options.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported Vázquez was making progress on a deal with an unknown team. Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported the backstop was in agreement with the Twins. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reported it was a three-year contract, while Ted Schwerzler of Twins Daily was first to report the $30MM guarantee.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Twins Likely To Explore Catching Market This Offseason

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Though the Twins’ top priority at the moment is likely ascertaining whether they have a real chance to extend Carlos Correa before he formally triggers his opt-out clause, they’ll head into the winter with a lengthy list of needs. Among the priorities will be looking for some help behind the plate. President of baseball ops Derek Falvey recently spoke of the “co-catcher” model — that is, two catchers splitting time more evenly rather than a conventional starter/backup committee (link via Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic). He implied that there’s “an opportunity to match up” right-handed-hitting Ryan Jeffers with a partner who can provide some more offense against right-handed pitching.

Falvey notably emphasized that Jeffers isn’t viewed as a strict platoon candidate, but there’s little denying that the 25-year-old has been vastly more productive in platoon matchups to this point in his career. Jeffers hit .306/.377/.532 in a small sample of 70 plate appearances against southpaws this season and carries a career .263/.344/.450 output against left-handers. Comparatively, he’s batted just .185/.256/.361 against right-handers. From a pure power standpoint, Jeffers’ .187 ISO against lefties and .176 mark versus righties are comparable, but Jeffers strikes out more often and walks less against same-handed opponents. He also makes far less hard contact against righties and pops up nearly four times as often in those matchups as he does against lefties.

While the pure offensive splits do speak to a potential platoon scenario being advantageous, it’s also worth pointing out that Jeffers is still young and any such numbers are coming in a small sample. Though he’s been a prominent factor in the Twins’ catching mix since late in the 2020 season, injuries have limited his availability. Most recently, spent more than two months on the injured list this season due to a fractured thumb. Considering that Jeffers hit .276/.362/.427 against righties in his final full minor league season (2019), the Twins may not want to completely cut off his avenue to at-bats against right-handed pitching; there’s still time for him to improve in that regard.

Beyond that, limiting Jeffers to a platoon setup inherently subtracts as quality defensive player from the lineup. True, Jeffers’ 19% caught-stealing rate is five percentage points below the league average during his three years in the Majors, but he regularly grades out as a strong framer and has long drawn praise for his receiving skills on the whole. In about a season’s worth of innings over the past two years, he’s been credited for eight Defensive Runs Saved.

Still, there’s some obvious cause to add not just catching option who can provide some clout against right-handed opponents, but one who can shoulder the workload in the event of any additional absences from Jeffers. This year’s injury was fluky in nature, but the Twins’ system is generally thin on catching prospects at the moment, so adding a veteran who can step up and take a bigger role, if needed, makes good sense.

Unfortunately, among this year’s group of free-agent catchers, the options in that regard are fairly limited. Certainly, the market’s top catcher, Willson Contreras, would provide some extra thump against right- and left-handed pitching alike (and bring more than enough bat to occasionally mix in at DH), but the competition for him figures to be strong. Some lefty-swinging backstops are available in the form of Omar Narvaez and switch-hitting Tucker Barnhart, but neither did much against righties or lefties in 2022. Both are coming off down seasons, though Narvaez in particular does carry a career .268/.345/.406 line against right-handers. The trade market will present everything from top-tier regularsi (Oakland’s Sean Murphy) to out-of-options rolls of the dice (the Angels’ Matt Thaiss).

The quintet of Jeffers, Gary Sanchez, Sandy Leon, Caleb Hamilton and Jose Godoy combined for a .197/.275/.355 batting line while catching in 2022, equating to an 81 wRC+ that ranked 17th in the Majors. Twins catchers were far from the sport’s least-productive unit, but that’s as much an indictment on the current production (or lack thereof) from catchers throughout the league as a testament to the Twins’ catching corps. Whichever route Falvey and his staff take, some form of complement to Jeffers feels inevitable. And, with only about $52.5MM on next year’s payroll (when factoring in Correa’s opt-out and the likely exercising of Sonny Gray’s club option), there’s plenty of room for upgrades up and down the roster.

Sandy Leon To Undergo Knee Surgery

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The Twins announced that catcher Sandy Leon has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 24, and will undergo right knee meniscus surgery. Taking his place on the active roster is fellow catcher Ryan Jeffers, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. The club already had an opening on its 40-man roster for Jeffers. Should they need another roster spot in the final days of the season, they can transfer Leon to the 60-day IL since this move will keep him out beyond the end of the schedule.

Earlier today, MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote about Carlos Correa and highlighted the tremendous amount of injuries the Twins have suffered this season. One of the many players missing significant time was Jeffers, who went on the IL in mid-July due to a thumb contusion and has only now returned. He was having a decent season before that injury, having hit .214/.291/.375. That only amounts to a 92 wRC+, which is 8% below the league average hitter. However, this year’s league average slash line for a catcher is .227/.296/.368, 89 wRC+. Jeffers produced strong work on the other side of the ball, accruing four Defensive Runs Saved and a mark of 3.2 from the FanGraphs framing metric, allowing him to produce 1.0 fWAR in just 60 games.

Jeffers and Gary Sanchez had been splitting the time behind the plate in the Minnesota, with Sanchez taking on a larger role after Jeffers landed on the shelf. The Twins also used Caleb Hamilton for a couple of weeks before turning to the veteran Leon, who had been in the minors with the Guardians. The Twins swung a trade for Leon at the deadline and called him up to the big league team. Outside of a scorching hot 2016 season that now seems like an outlier, Leon has never been much of an offensive threat. That continued to the be the case in his time with the Twins, as he hit .179/.270/.232 for a wRC+ of 50. With just over a week remaining in the campaign and the Twins out of contention, this IL placement will finish his season. It’s unclear how long it will take him to recover from this surgery, but he will he will head into free agency in just over a month and look to heal up and find his next opportunity.

Since Sanchez is also an impending free agent, Jeffers is lined up to be the club’s primary catcher for next season. Hamilton will likely still be around as well, but it’s possible the club will look to add another established backstop during the offseason. By returning at this stage of the calendar, Jeffers will have the opportunity to get a handful of games in and finish the season on a positive note before the winter arrives. Both he and the Twins will be hoping for better results in 2023, after injuries caused them to fall short of expectations this year.

Twins Place Jorge Polanco On IL, Select Jermaine Palacios

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The Twins announced that they have placed infielder Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, retroactive to August 31. To take his place on the active roster, they selected the contract of infielder Jermaine Palacios. To open a spot for Palacios on the 40-man roster, catcher Ryan Jeffers was transferred to the 60-day IL.

Polanco, 29, has been dealing with this knee issue for a while, having last played on August 27. IL placements can be retroactive but only to a maximum of three days. Minnesota’s primary shortstop for much of his career, Polanco has slid over to second base for the past couple of campaigns, yielding to Andrelton Simmons last year and Carlos Correa here in 2022. His bat has been just as productive as ever this year, as he’s hit 16 home runs and is slashing .235/.346/.405 on the season. That production is 20% better than league average, by measure of wRC+, just shy of his career best wRC+ of 124, outside of a five-game cameo in 2014.

With Polanco on the shelf, Nick Gordon has been manning the keystone this week. For the season, he’s hitting .279/.322/.440 for a wRC+ of 118. That should allow the club to avoid a significant downgrade on the infield, though it means Gordon is subtracted from an outfield mix that has lost Byron Buxton and Alex Kirilloff to the IL in the past month. The Twins are just a single game behind the Guardians in the Central division and four games back of the Blue Jays for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.

Palacios, 26, briefly made his MLB debut earlier this year when selected as a “substitute” while Correa was on the COVID IL. He got into eight games before being returned to the minors. He’s played 101 Triple-A games and hit .283/.341/.462 on the year for a wRC+ of 112. Defensively, he’s played primarily shortstop but also spent some time at each of the other infield positions as well as the outfield corners, giving the club some extra depth all around.

As for Jeffers, this move is largely a formality as he has been out of action since mid-July due to a thumb contusion. He will now be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which would be mid-September. He recently resumed baseball activities but hasn’t yet started a rehab assignment and was targeting a late September return to action.

Twins Select Caleb Hamilton

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July 16: Scans have revealed a slight fracture in Jeffers’ thumb, per MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park (via Twitter). The Twins backstop will require 6-to-8 weeks for the thumb to heal. The Twins will forge ahead with Sanchez and Hamilton as their catching tandem for the time being.

July 15: The Twins announced they’ve selected catcher/infielder Caleb Hamilton onto the big league roster, just minutes before tonight’s game against the White Sox. Ryan Jeffers lands on the 10-day injured list due to a right thumb contusion in a corresponding move. Minnesota already had a 40-man roster vacancy.

Hamilton, 27, reaches the major leagues for the first time. He entered pro ball as a 23rd-round draftee out of Oregon State University in 2016. Hamilton has spent six-plus seasons progressing up the minor league ladder, first reaching Triple-A in 2019 and logging the past few years in the upper minors. He’s spent this season with their top affiliate in St. Paul, hitting .252/.387/.491 with a massive 18% walk rate. He’s already set a personal-high with ten home runs across 194 plate appearances.

That breakout showing has come with a fair bit of swing-and-miss, as Hamilton has gone down on strikes in 27.8% of his trips to the dish. That’s been a concern throughout his professional tenure. Still, his combination of plate discipline, catching ability and this season’s improved power output will get him a look behind Gary Sánchez on the big league club.

Jeffers is having a decent third season in the majors. The 25-year-old backstop owns a .214/.291/.375 line across 214 plate appearances. That isn’t eye-popping offensive output, but it’s a bit better than this season’s .224/.293/.363 league average for catchers. Jeffers’ greater value is in what he’s provided behind the dish, as he’s a well-regarded defender who has rated favorably by Statcast’s pitch framing metrics this year.

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