Twins Prospect Retrospective: Jair Camargo

[Cody Christie]

The Twins' big-league depth is already being tested during the 2024 season, which opened an opportunity for the organization’s top-catching prospect. So, how did Jair Camargo make it to his MLB debut?

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

The Dodgers organization originally signed Jair Camargo as a teenager out of Colombia in 2015. His professional debut came in the Dominican Summer League during the subsequent season. In 41 games, he hit .250/.309/.346 (.654) with seven extra-base hits and a 20.6 K%. He came stateside in 2017 and raised his OPS by 55 points while regularly being a catcher. During the 2018 season, he returned to the rookie leagues, where he remained young for the level. His OPS took another slight jump to .720 as he saw a few more doubles turn into home runs. Camargo had yet to show significant power, but there continued to be time for the teenager to mature physically.

Camargo moved to the Midwest League in 2019, where he was over two years younger than the average age of the competition. There were some struggles in the transition to a full-season league, with his OPS dropping to .642 and his strikeout rate rising to 32%. He logged a career-high 88 innings at third base, but that was a way to get his bat in the lineup more regularly. Following the season, the Dodgers included Camargo in the trade that sent Kenta Maeda to Minnesota in exchange for Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley.

His debut in the Twins system had to wait until 2021 after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season. Camargo made his High-A debut in 2021 and hit double-digit home runs for the first time in his career. He struggled to get on base with a 4.6% walk rate compared to a 40.3% strikeout rate. By the 2022 season, he started putting it all together at the plate. In 77 games, he hit .262/.310/.483 (.793) with 11 doubles and 18 home runs while also reaching Double-A in his age 22 season. He dropped his strikeout rate by nearly 5% while facing older pitchers in over 75% of his plate appearances. Camargo had clearly put himself into the team’s long-term plans as a catcher. 

Last season, the Twins continued to be aggressive with Camargo by having him spend the entire year at Triple-A despite having fewer than 200 plate appearances at Double-A. He showed that he was up to the challenge by hitting .259/.323/.503 (.826) with 16 doubles and 21 home runs. It was his highest slugging percentage at any level, and it was a strong enough performance for the club to add him to the 40-man roster this offseason. 

Defensively, Camargo continues to work on his skills behind the plate. Last season, he threw out 25% of potential base stealers, down 11% compared to 2022. His game-calling and receiving skills continue to improve, especially as he has climbed the organizational ladder. At Triple-A, he’s getting experience working with the team’s top pitching prospects like David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson. Those relationships should help him as he gets more time at the big-league level. 

The Twins were lucky enough to only need two catchers for the entire 2023 season, but that is rare in the modern game. Camargo was recently called up but has been used sparingly, with one plate appearance, a walk, and no defensive appearances entering the weekend. Minnesota added him to the roster to allow Ryan Jeffers to serve as the DH on days when he is not behind the plate. He will likely return to St. Paul as players begin to come off the IL. However, it seems unlikely that the Twins will make it through the 2024 campaign with both catchers avoiding the IL. Camargo will get other opportunities, and now he must adjust to baseball's highest level.

How do you view Camargo at this point in his professional career? Can he become part of the team’s catcher rotation in the future? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. 

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[Patzky]

Today's the day for the vuvuzuelas.

[Dman]

The K rate has always been a concern,  but he has good power and can hit for average at times.  It will come down to defense IMO as the offensive bar is low for catchers and I  think he can exceed expectations on the offensive end. I feel he was a good addition to the 40 man as he looks like a solid backup catcher and could be more it is just hard to say as the jump to the MLB level is so huge.

[jkcarew]

A Camargo sighting in today’s lineup!!

For a while there, I thought he might be the first non-pitcher in history to qualify for the pension without an official at-bat.

[DocBauer]

I think I jumped the gun in another recent OP when I was questioning why he wasn't behind the plate instead of Vazquez, allowing him a chance to show what he can do while he's up here, and let Christian sit and take a day off to collect himself.

What I hadn't realized is that despite some really bad numbers past the few couple of games this season, Vazquez is actually barreling up on the balls he's been making contact with. The results haven't been there as of yet. Of course, he's a really good catch and throw guy.

I'm rather excited about Camargo's potential though. He's got a strong arm, and has generally thrown runners out decently, as noted above. The power seems legitimate. I've heard really good things about him as a teammate, for what that's worth. 

He's got to be at least solid behind the plate. I don't know how good he is there, but I haven't heard anything negative to this point. And as pointed out, the K % has to be at least "acceptable" for him to be an asset with the bat at the ML level. With solid catch and throw ability, and good power, would somewhere between 25-30% be acceptable? Batting anywhere between .235-.250 with an OB% just over .300 with power could make him a viable partner with Jeffers on a 60-40 split, yes?

I was a little surprised he began 2023 at AAA considering his limited time at AA the previous season. But he sure responded after a slow initial start at St Paul. And I find it interesting that before his recent call up, he was usually hitting in the #4 spot this season for the Saints.

Is he the Twins top catching prospect? Or is he just the closest to the ML level? I don't mean that as a negative, but rather, a discussion concerning Winkel, Cardenas, Cosetti and Baez as recently drafted catchers that all seem to offer some defense and offensive potential, though all 4 appear at least a year away.

But Camargo is not old. He's got some things working in his favor both offensively and defensively. Ideally, he's not really needed much this year by the Twins so he can tweak his defense and game calling, and get his contact/BB/SO numbers all a little more favorable for 2024 and beyond.