The Minnesota Twins and catcher Victor Caratini are in agreement on a two-year deal, according to a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. The deal is reportedly worth $14 million.

Caratini, 32, is entering his 10th big-league season, having spent time with the Cubs, Padres, Brewers and Astros. He’s a career .244/.321/.371 hitter, but tapped into considerably more power during his two-year stay in Houston. He’s a switch-hitter and a solid receiver, rating well as a blocker of errant pitches and receiving consistently strong reviews from pitchers with whom he works.

When he first signed with Atlanta as a second-round pick in 2013, Caratini appeared to have a path to the majors that included time spent at third base. Over time, he gravitated more to catching, where his lack of speed and heavy frame are less of a problem. He makes solid contact, but has generally struggled to produce consistent power. Part of the issue was a tendency to hit too many balls on the ground; another was the fact that he was often a complementary catcher, playing far less than every day. His 12 home runs in 2025 were a career high, and the last two seasons (spent at the pull htter’s haven that is Daikin Park in Houston) are the only two in which he’s slugged over .400.

However, he does avoid strikeouts, and rarely expands the zone at the plate. A native of Puerto Rico, he’s a good handler of pitching staffs, bilingual and patient with developing arms. He should fit in nicely with the Twins’ existing infrastructure, and like Josh Bell, he adds both matchup value and a veteran voice who has recently made valuable changes to his swing.

In 2020 and 2021, Caratini became the first catcher ever to be behind the plate for no-hitters with no other player catching one in between. He coaxed journeyman Alec Mills through a no-no for the Cubs in Milwaukee in September 2020, then joined Joe Musgrove to author the first no-hitter in Padres history the next season.

Earlier Friday, catcher J.T. Realmuto agreed to return to the Philadelphia Phillies on a lucrative three-year deal, as part of what has been an extremely busy week of signings throughout the league. Realmuto was the only catcher above Caratini in the pecking order, so once he signed, Caratini’s market quickly crystallized. The Twins can plan on him as an equal partner to Ryan Jeffers, just as they arranged things with Christian Vázquez for much of the last three years, but if they get a strong offer for Jeffers (either in the next two months or come July), they could trade him and feel good about Caratini as a stopgap primary backstop.

According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Caratini will earn $14 million over two seasons, matching the annual salary Bell got on his one-year pact. 

This move certainly earns a raised eyebrow or two, because the Twins had previously acquired Alex Jackson to fill a smaller version of the role that will now surely go to Caratini. Jackson is out of minor-league options and can’t be sent to Triple-A St. Paul, so the team will need to move one of Jeffers or Jackson by Opening Day. Jackson, of course, was a low-wattage pickup and has nowhere near the track record of big-league success that Caratini and Jeffers can boast, but nor does he cost anywhere near what they do.

Every winter, the Twins lurk until the endgame of free agency, doing very little. Almost without fail, though, they then swoop in and make at least one or two signings of players whom the market has overlooked. Caratini wasn’t far below the radar, but as his modest price indicates, this was a matter of waiting things out and letting the price tag come down to a place that was comfortable for the team. It’s not surprising that Derek Falvey and his staff got involved at this level, but it invites several questions about the next step in the team’s offseason.