What to Expect From New Twins Catcher José Godoy

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, bighat said:

Fair enough. Rortvedt batted .169 last year, just in case you or anyone else here needed a refresher on his offensive capabilities.

Sanchez might be more of a natural DH in my opinion.....so maybe without having to catch much he'll be able to focus on hitting only. Maybe he DH'es for the Twins 4-5 days a week and catches once every couple weeks. With Jeffers and Godoy sharing most of the duties behind the plate we might be just fine at the C position.

Byron Buxton hit .156 in 2018, just in case you or anyone else here needed a refresher on his offensive capabilties.
Mike Trout hit .220 in 2011, just in case you or anyone else here needed a refresher on his offensive capabilities.
Babe Ruth hit .200 in 1914, just in case you or anyone else here needed a refresher on how he was always destined to be a nameless, faceless roster filler candidate.

[bean5302]

The issue isn't losing Rortvedt. The issue is Rortvedt may be a starting caliber MLB catcher and the Twins may or may not have one of those in the system anymore so from a positional need perspective, Rortvedt was important.

Rortvedt may turn into Drew Butera, but there is a substantial likelihood Rortvedt will be as defensively strong as Butera, but hit far better. Rortvedt hitting .230/.300/.385 over 140 games is worth 2.5+ fWAR. Can he hit that? Maybe. His projections are all pretty close to that. Steamer is at .226/.288/.382.

Jeffers had a lot of plate appearances last year for his numbers to be a fluke. 293 of them, and in his second year of MLB experience. .199/.270/.401 with average defense isn't playable as a starter. 

Sanchez is probably a bit borderline when it comes to starting caliber and he's a free agent next year. The Twins just don't likely have a starting catcher on the roster for 2023+ and they may not have a catcher who will be worth starting this year. Godoy is an emergency depth kind of guy. 

[stringer bell]

On 3/18/2022 at 1:10 PM, bean5302 said:

Jeffers had a lot of plate appearances last year for his numbers to be a fluke. 293 of them, and in his second year of MLB experience. .199/.270/.401 with average defense isn't playable as a starter. 
 

From the time they made the Garver trade, it seems that the Twins were convinced that Jeffers is a starting catcher. Despite the low BA, his OPS+ was 83, okay for a catcher and he's 24 years old, the same age as Ben Rortvedt. 

I don't think Jeffers' defense is outstanding, but he's not bad. The team has lost their depth pieces at catcher and it is crucial that the catchers they have stay healthy. 

[jorgenswest]

Rortvedt was likely not ready to hit well enough this year if ever. If an automated strike zone issued next year does that change the value of a defense only catcher?