Will possible Catcher of the future, ever play again?

[TheLeviathan]

I'm not aware that the Twins brass espouses the playing every day theory and that is not why I believe in it. I believe in it because I've seen this aspect in all sports. Gardy isn't going to pinch hit him or DH him. We don't like this but that is the reality. Given that, it just makes more sense for Pinto's development to play more and that is in AAA. Hell, I'd be fine starting Pinto with the big club and sitting Suzuki, but that's not going to happen either.

 

The Twins say it virtually every time they send a prospect down: "We didn't want to keep him up here if he wasn't going to play every day." I think, in my lifetime as a Twins fan, I've heard that phrase close to a billion times.

 

I do agree, however, with your take about Gardy's approach being a reality. That's the sticky part for me where I could teeter either way.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Maybe we should wait more than 2 games before we complain about Pinto's playing time?

 

This is true (and I probably wouldn't have started this thread yet, certainly not with its current title!). But consider the following:

 

- Twins broadcasters previously suggested the split would be 2/3 Suzuki, 1/3 Pinto (which is basically starter-backup for catchers, not really a split at all)

- the first series is going exactly according to that "split"

- we have started 3 other guys at DH already, not even counting Colabello, suggesting very limited DH opportunities for Pinto even if Gardy was willing

- Gardy has also passed on very obvious Pinto PH opportunities in both games so far

 

This all suggests that what we have seen of Pinto's usage thus far isn't a function of small sample; this looks like "the plan" for the time being, which is a notable confirmation of previous suspicions and worthy of discussion, I think.

[tobi0040]

I'm ok with the playing time share being 2/3 Suzuki. I'm just hoping it stays around that percentage early on and transitioning to a flip of that by the end of the year.

 

I agree. Pinto should catch 2/5 and DH 1/5. We don't really know until we get a few rotations. They may just be lining up pitcher-catcher combo's.

[Guest USAFChief]

I wonder if part of the reason Suzuki signed with the Twins was due to playing time promises. I'm sure he would have had multiple teams more than willing to give him similar money to be the backup, perhaps he chose the Twins for playing time reasons.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I'm sure if you ask Pinto he'd rather be in the big leagues. He'll get playing time. He can improve his defense during practice. If he plays well he'll earn more playing time. If they wanted him working on his defense as much as possible it makes you question why he was a minor league DH 50 games each of the past two years.

 

Pinto's (or any player's) preference for the majors vs AAA has no bearing on the best course for his development.

 

And I agree that him being a MLB backup now might be better than being the AAA starter, but that doesn't mean it is optimal either. He should probably be more than a backup at the MLB level, either through more starts at C or DH. Hopefully the Twins plan to transition to this soon, but I wonder what benefit is there to delay that arrangement at all? I mean, a 50-50 split means Pinto has ~13 games on the bench per month, as opposed to ~18 if he's the backup. Are those extra 5 games per month sitting next to Steinbach really providing a lot of marginal value over the first 13?

 

And I will add that minor league catchers rarely take on a full load, I think, especially if they are fairly well-regarded prospects. It appears Mauer had 30-35 games at 1B/DH in his full minor league seasons.

 

(Plus, it appears that in 2013 Pinto had a couple weeks at AA where he didn't catch at all, suggesting minor injury, and in 2012 he caught very little after his late season promotion to AA where Hermann was already starting and they were making a late season playoff push, I think.)