MINNEAPOLIS — When the lockout ended this spring, the Minnesota Twins had a catching duo of Mitch Garver and Ryan Jeffers with Ben Rortvedt behind them on the depth chart. In a matter of days, that all changed, leaving Jeffers the only one of the three still around.
Garver and Rortvedt were dealt on consecutive days — Garver to the Texas Rangers, Rortvedt to the New York Yankees — and when the wheeling and dealing was done, the Twins had acquired Gary Sanchez from the Yankees to pair with Jeffers.
Jeffers and Sanchez were expected to split the bulk of the work behind the plate, but after an errant pitch fractured his thumb and required surgery, Jeffers instead spent most of the second half of the season rehabbing.
The Twins will be on the lookout for another catcher to pair with Jeffers come this offseason with Sanchez set to hit free agency.
When the Twins traded for Sanchez in March, the narrative was that perhaps the catcher, who took his fair share of criticism in New York, might thrive in a different market.
But while there were defensive improvements, Sanchez had a worse season at the plate than he did a year ago, hitting .205 with a .659 OPS. His 89 OPS+ was 10 points off of last year, when he was near league-average at 99. His 16 home runs were the fewest the two-time all-star had hit in any season, save for the truncated 2020 year.
Sanchez was durable, avoiding the injured list all season and playing in 128 games. Most were behind the plate, though he did handle designated hitter duties from time to time.
Jeffers, meanwhile, played in just 67 games, returning in late September healthy after rehabbing from his July surgery. He spoke many times about feeling good about swing adjustments he had made right before the injury.
Jeffers finished the year slashing .208/.285/.363 in 212 at-bats.
While he was out, the Twins swung a trade with Cleveland for Sandy Leon, a light-hitting veteran whom pitchers raved about throwing to. Leon eventually underwent season-ending knee surgery late in the year. Caleb Hamilton and Jose Godoy also saw limited action behind the plate for the Twins.
There’s no doubting that Jeffers’ is the Twins guy heading into the 2023 offseason as it stands.
But will he take a step forward offensively next season? And who will the Twins pair with him?
Beyond Jeffers, the Twins have a clear need to add to the position as Sanchez and Leon will both be free agents. Godoy and Hamilton are no longer in the organization, either.
The Twins don’t have any catching prospects knocking at the door — in fact, none of their top 30 prospects per MLB Pipeline are catchers — so this is something the Twins will need to address externally. As for how they’ll utilize their catchers, expect to see a co-catching tandem yet again.
“There are some guys who catch close to every day, and they’re kind of a smaller group of elite players,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “But a lot of them, let’s just say, you end up where it’s 60-40 and not 50-50, something like that becomes the extreme, I would anticipate us probably looking at it again in some way like that.”
This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.