Twins Off-Season Preview – Catchers

Hey All, I posted a first draft of this on a different reddit account. I think I want to keep these separate from my main account just in case Falvine decides to hire me off of this juicy content.

[Summary](https://imgur.com/6gOrrIB)

The Twins have a significant need at catcher, they cannot go into 2023 with internal options at the position. How much they invest may be up to how the market plays out, and how much they believe Jeffers can take another step. With no help coming from St. Paul, the Twins will need to sign at least 1 veteran catcher. In addition, they’d be well advised to sign a AAA depth piece as an emergency backup.

The Free Agent crop is underwhelming, headlined by Willson Contreras & Christian Vazquez. There should be a heated market for the top-end options. Gary Sanchez, Omar Narvaez, & Austin Hedges round out the remaining appealing catchers.

**Plan A:**

The Twins sign Willson Contreras. He’s the best free agent catcher by a significant margin and his bat would be a significant boon to this lineup. Contreras will be expecting a deal north of the 19M QO he’s expected to get from the Cubs, likely making him the highest paid catcher in baseball. Contreras is a below average framer, but the Twins have shown the ability to coach up the skill recently bringing Gary Sanchez up to league average.

**Plan B:**

If Contreras is out of the picture, I think Omar Narvaez represents the best profile to bet on. He’s coming off a down year offensively, but he has produced a positive OPS+ in 3/5 most recent seasons. Narvaez is an elite framer, 89th percentile, which provides a solid floor for a backup catcher to still help the team if the bat struggles. He’d be a great fit in a pairing with Jeffers that allows both to get the proper rest.

**Returning Players:**

Ryan Jeffers is the only catcher on the 40 man roster going in to 2023. After a disappointing 2022 where he was only available for 67 games, he enters his last year of pre-arbitration where he should see a modest raise. Jeffers is a reliable defender with above average framing & a bat that has shown flashes of potential. 2023 will be a big year for Jeffers, he’ll need to make big strides to show he’s the #1 catcher the Twins believe he can be.

**Prospects:**

This is where I’d talk about the Twins catching prospects – IF THEY HAD ANY – but with no catchers in the MLB top 30 we should expect no help from St. Paul at catcher. It’s a bit interesting to see the dearth of catching prospects in the Twins organization as catcher prospects seem to be bubbling up all over the league. One must wonder if the lack of investment in catcher is intentional, perhaps due to the potentially changing landscape around catchers related to automated balls & strikes coming soon.

**Twins Free Agents:**

Gary Sanchez:

I want to give a shout-out to Gary Sanchez. His 128 Games was a career high, 91 of those at catcher. He was unspectacular at the plate, producing a modest 89 ops+. He was available for the entire year, giving the Twins a reliable option at catcher in a year plagued by injury. He made a solid improvement in framing, I would not be opposed to extending Gary.

Sandy Leon:

Knee surgery at 34 may be the end of the road for Sandy Leon. His performance in his first game after being acquired at the deadline going 2-3 may have been the high water mark of hope for 2022. He was a reliable catcher with a poor bat. He’s nothing more than AAA depth at this point in his career.

**Other Free Agent Options:**

Christian Vazquez would be a significant upgrade. After a breakout in 2019/2020 the now 32-year-old catcher bounced back to a 99 ops+ after an atrocious 2021. He stands out in this group as the best defender, showing above average pop time & framing. Like Contreras he’ll benefit from a shallow catcher market and should have his pick of destinations.

Austin Hedges is the best of the defense only options. His 42 OPS+ in 2022 would be “hold your nose” bad, but his skills defensively should make him a backup somewhere.

Curt Casali has a reputation as a great defender & clubhouse presence. That shine doesn’t appear in his 2022 numbers, but if the Twins choose to go with a true backup to Jeffers as their signing, he would be a great mentor for the young catcher.

Mike Zunino. If the Twins wanted to bet on an injury bounce-back, they could do worse than Zunino who hit over 30 Home Runs in 2021, but was awful in a small sample for 2022.

**Trade Options:**

Sean Murphy is the biggest name potentially available via trade. There was strong speculation the A’s would sell Murphy at the deadline, but chose to hold on to him. He is just entering his first year of Arbitration so the A’s have little urgency to make a deal contractually, but with Langeliers and Soderstrom both ready to be MLB contributors in 2023 the A’s will likely move him. Murphy would come at a significant cost & I’m not sure the Twins place a high enough value on catchers to give up the prospect capital to obtain him.

Danny Jansen of the Jays is likely on the move. With the emergence of Alejandro Kirk & Gabriel Moreno, the Jays would be wise to sell off some of their catching depth. Jansen has 2 years left of arbitration, and as a result will likely return a nice prospect haul as a catcher with 141 OPS+ in 2022.

Joey Bart is another name to consider, once a top prospect he’s mostly flailed at the major league level. The Giants have favored several vets over him, and the cost to acquire may be low enough to consider. He’s an all or nothing Power Bat & an average defender. He would be an unspectacular, but cheap, backup option to Jeffers. The Giants may choose to keep him for the reasons I wish to acquire him, and there’s been no indication he’s actually on the block.

Sal Perez is likely available for a trade, but I’m ruling him out as I don’t see the Twins wanting to send the prospect capital required to get an elite catcher within the division.

Really Interested in what others thing the Twins should do here. They obviously have a significant gap in their roster & an underwhelming crop of free agents to choose from.