What about Gasper. His bat looks great and I believe he's even caught a few innings this spring?

This is likely an offseason topic because right now teams are clutching their valuables. Murphy (MIL mgr.) had an interview where he praised Jeferson Quero as "maybe my favorite prospect that's ever been with the Brewers." High praise and I thought Milwaukee might give him up for Brooks Lee and Jorge Alcala. Now we know ... no way.

Perhaps October comes and someone will loosen up their hold on catchers. Maybe the Twins just go with a system of veterans until they hit on the next Joe Mauer or remotely close guy. I thought the last 2 years there were opportunities to pry away a good catching prospect but that may have been just impossible. Given that the Twins are not desperate in their current situation I doubt anything noteworthy happens this season.

1 hour ago, LambchoP said:

What about Gasper. His bat looks great and I believe he's even caught a few innings this spring?

Although he has come up as a catcher, he hasn't even caught a single MLB game at catching-starved BOS. He has hit in MiLB but has yet to translate that at the MLB. I don't see any future for him in catching much less grab a backup job.

16 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

This is likely an offseason topic because right now teams are clutching their valuables. Murphy (MIL mgr.) had an interview where he praised Jeferson Quero as "maybe my favorite prospect that's ever been with the Brewers." High praise and I thought Milwaukee might give him up for Brooks Lee and Jorge Alcala. Now we know ... no way.

Perhaps October comes and someone will loosen up their hold on catchers. Maybe the Twins just go with a system of veterans until they hit on the next Joe Mauer or remotely close guy. I thought the last 2 years there were opportunities to pry away a good catching prospect but that may have been just impossible. Given that the Twins are not desperate in their current situation I doubt anything noteworthy happens this season.

Those who value catching & have it tend to hold onto it, MIL values catching, they scout, draft, develop & trade for good catching. I envy them.

IMO trading for your needs has no season unless maybe a starting catcher who has so much to prepare to get ready for the season. But a 3rd catcher, shouldn't be a major deal. Yet for the Twins it is for the reasons I gave. The only other options we have this season is A) suffer through another Jeffers 2nd half slump; B) give Vazquez more playing time, that won't happen; C) if Russian Roulette catches up to us & either get hurt, we have to sign an expensive inferior FA from the salvage pile. How can we compete in that scenario this season? As I stated, I doubt Twins will initiate any trade like this

Next season w/o a groomed backup catcher our options are A) extend Vazquez, who knows our pitchers (best alternative) B) sign an expensive FA, who we can afford & doesn't know our pitchers. 

Season after that, Vazquez will for sure be gone, We have 3 scenarios with Jeffers #1 sign him to an outrageous extension; #2 sign him to a reasonable extension or #3 we lose him. Cartaya is iffy & no one behind him. Even if we extend Jeffers our catching will be a shambles. I don't want to even think about what we look like if we don't sign him or how handcuffed we'd be if we sign him to an outrageous extension.

We can't afford to keep kicking the can down the road.

30 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

We can't afford to keep kicking the can down the road.

The increased focus on splitting catching duties means that defense is more important. Teams will sign or trade for catchers to have them ready by February to work with the staff. There are always options even if those options are often cringeworthy at the plate. The Twins will keep pushing to find better solutions and sign players to keep a decent glove behind the plate. It is important to note that the time share has been adequate. The Twins are much more in need of strong defenders in the field who can also bring the terror at the plate. Because catching duties are largely split, we should expect the team to successfully fill the position as needed. BTW, Cartaya has looked pretty decent behind the plate. I'm not ready to toss out either of Camargo or Cartaya yet. As you already know, trading for 2-3 catching prospects was part and parcel of my offseason ideas. However I'm fine with the current setup and what is not known is how other teams value Twins players which makes it impossible to know if another team would ever consider accepting any of Miranda, julien, Lee, Lewis, Larnach, Wallner, etc. for their catchers. It is surely complex.

I just checked the Twins' roster and it appears that Cartaya has been optioned to St. Paul. That leaves three catchers on the roster, plus a slightly more than emergency guy in Mickey Gasper. 

Ryan Jeffers is 27 years old, has progressed to arbitration contracts and is under team control for two years. The author has continually stated that Jeffers is not and cannot be the primary catcher for the Twins. I disagree. Despite playing slightly over the half the time for the past two years, Jeffers has accumulated WAR in the top third of all catchers. As noted by others, in a 50-50 job sharing of catching, there is no significant difference in the performance of pitchers when Jeffers is catching compared to Vázquez. Jeffers isn't Yadi Molina behind the plate, but he isn't Dr. Strangeglove either. 

Many predicted Jeffers would regress to the mean in 2024 and perhaps he did, but he did it in an inconsistent manner. He played All-Star worthy baseball for the first two months of the season, but slumped badly and never really had a hot streak in the second half. Was it wear-and-tear, was it a hidden injury, did the league catch up to him, or was it one of those things, a bad stretch with no real cause? We'll find out in 2025 provided Jeffers continues to avoid disabling injuries. I really would put my bet on him improving because he works hard at his craft (listen to the interview G & G did at Twinsfest) and he is still pretty young. 

We've had two years of Vázquez being one of the worst hitters in baseball who gets continued regular play. At 34, it is tough to imagine him getting significantly better unless being in a contract year does something magical. Given the usage of the Twins' major league catchers, it will be a loss when Vázquez leaves despite the meager offense. Finding the backup or partner for Jeffers will be a high priority for next year, although it could be from the two young catchers that the Twins will carry in St. Paul. 

I don't hold out significant hope for either Camargo or Cartaya, but another year in the minors might unlock enough for one of them to be a contributing major leaguer. Having two lottery tickets doubles the odds, I guess. 

To respond to @Doctor Gast conclusion, I don't think Twins' catching is a five-alarm fire, but there is a need for reinforcements and having someone who is more projectable than Camargo or Cartaya would be prudent. 

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I just checked the Twins' roster and it appears that Cartaya has been optioned to St. Paul. That leaves three catchers on the roster, plus a slightly more than emergency guy in Mickey Gasper. 

Ryan Jeffers is 27 years old, has progressed to arbitration contracts and is under team control for two years. The author has continually stated that Jeffers is not and cannot be the primary catcher for the Twins. I disagree. Despite playing slightly over the half the time for the past two years, Jeffers has accumulated WAR in the top third of all catchers. As noted by others, in a 50-50 job sharing of catching, there is no significant difference in the performance of pitchers when Jeffers is catching compared to Vázquez. Jeffers isn't Yadi Molina behind the plate, but he isn't Dr. Strangeglove either. 

Many predicted Jeffers would regress to the mean in 2024 and perhaps he did, but he did it in an inconsistent manner. He played All-Star worthy baseball for the first two months of the season, but slumped badly and never really had a hot streak in the second half. Was it wear-and-tear, was it a hidden injury, did the league catch up to him, or was it one of those things, a bad stretch with no real cause? We'll find out in 2025 provided Jeffers continues to avoid disabling injuries. I really would put my bet on him improving because he works hard at his craft (listen to the interview G & G did at Twinsfest) and he is still pretty young. 

We've had two years of Vázquez being one of the worst hitters in baseball who gets continued regular play. At 34, it is tough to imagine him getting significantly better unless being in a contract year does something magical. Given the usage of the Twins' major league catchers, it will be a loss when Vázquez leaves despite the meager offense. Finding the backup or partner for Jeffers will be a high priority for next year, although it could be from the two young catchers that the Twins will carry in St. Paul. 

I don't hold out significant hope for either Camargo or Cartaya, but another year in the minors might unlock enough for one of them to be a contributing major leaguer. Having two lottery tickets doubles the odds, I guess. 

To respond to @Doctor Gast conclusion, I don't think Twins' catching is a five-alarm fire, but there is a need for reinforcements and having someone who is more projectable than Camargo or Cartaya would be prudent. 

Stringer, we agree more than we disagree & I respect your opinion. Jeffers is a very good hitting catcher, A couple of years ago he changed his hitting approach & hasn't been affected by the league adjusting. I know he works very hard on his defense. Contrary to what many believe, I like Jeffers. but I'm a realist. Jeffers is a good veteran hitter where the league adjustment isn't the cause of his last season slump nor was it a hidden injury (although he might have suffered some secret pain due being overextended) but as I've many times before documented that the correlation of Jeffers's slump offensively & defensively is due to the degree of his overuse. Catching is a very demanding position, you need a lot of stamina to maintain your productivity. Jeffers has his limit & that's weak side tandem. And there is no shame in that. Twins hyping him up more than that has compromised us & come extension time, leave it to Borus to try milk every bit of that hype into big dollars to handcuff us financially, or have Jeffers walking away. Both are negative situations.

WAR is a terrible tool to gauge the value of catchers, some are worse than others for they greatly undergrade defense. The WAR you are measuring Jeffers as in the top 3rd of catchers seems to be way off. IMO catching defense is the most important position on the field. fWAR has MN in the bottom half, but I'd rate them a little higher not because of Jeffers's hitting but because of Vazquez's defense. It's admissible if we were in the bottom half at DH or 1B but not catching, IMO I'd love to be in the top 5, at least top 10.  I was against signing Vazquez, I'm against signing any FA catcher. I prefer developing our own catchers or at least trade for them, who can excel in the MLB. 

Twins are hoping that Jeffers, Camargo & Cartaya, will miraculously become what they have hyped them to be. I believe in miracles but in this case I need something more than hope. & I don't want us to sign another expensive FA catcher.

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Twins are hoping that Jeffers, Camargo & Cartaya, will miraculously become what they have hyped them to be. I believe in miracles but in this case I need something more than hope. & I don't want us to sign another expensive FA catcher.

If the Twins are sold (that is an if) you won't have to worry because there will be a whole entire new management team from top to bottom. The new guys will find your catcher. Patience.