After Acquiring Diego Cartaya, Should Twins Trade Christian Vázquez or Ryan Jeffers?

[AKTwinsFan]

I think Jeffers might garner more trade assets since he's got more upside. But he's a home grown player and more of a fan favorite. Vasquez makes more sense since he's got a bigger price tag and less upside. 

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Wasn't Camargo one of our top 30 prospects not too long ago? I don't understand all the hate and speculation that he's a throwaway DFA candidate soon. Isn't he a good hitter, at least in AAA? Maybe if he actually got a chance to play in the bigs during his next call up, rather than warm the bench, he'd surprise us. Hope to see how he does behind the plate in spring training.

Anything after #20 is PTBNL area. Technically worth keeping an eye on, but no expectations. Camargo doesn't appear as a top 30 org for MLB in recent years, but he did squeak in at #22 for Fangraphs. He wasn't even worth a TLDR. He wasn't on TD's recent top 30s, either from my memory.

He's scouted as weak defensively, and even at age 24, he couldn't hold his own at AAA in 317 plate appearances. .212/.290/.403 was good for a wRC+ of 84. Plenty of pop, but nothing else. On the plus side for Camargo, he had a nice Dominican Winter League performance .323/.359/.495 OPS .853 in a SSS of 109 PA.

[Elliot]

Defense is really a slippery evaluation. I think it is a common view that the Twins in general were a poor defensive team in 2024. Personal opinion is that it resulted from injuries to the three big stars, necessitating the aggressive promotion of some players, and others playing out of position. Hopefully that will be addressed this year by having someone capable of playing at least average MLB defense at CF and SS. 
So what about catcher? Defensive metrics, questionable at best overall really seem to fail us when looking at catchers. In general Vazquez is seen as better than Jeffers, but how big is the gap? How about Carmargo? Is he good, is he horrible, is he passable? I think I have seen all three assessments on these pages.  Now the new guy. When we first got him I read the following here at TD. 
“His defense has never been his calling card, though he has improved with his pitch-calling and framing in recent seasons, and his arm has always been regarded as above-average.“

Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Now in the above discussions I get the feeling he might be MLB ready defensively right now but needs some work on hitting. I think we are probably best served by waiting for the evaluators who work with the catchers on a daily basis to make the call. 
Overall I believe that for the Twins to have a successful 2025 they will need to be strong defensively up the middle (not exactly a novel idea). The best way for that to happen is for Buxton and Correa to remain healthy. Short of that the Twins need to make sure that they have solid defensively replacements on board. Hopefully they can contribute offensively, but that should not be the main consideration. Same thought should apply to catching. 

[stringer bell]

According to BBRef, Jeffers has been one of the top 10 catchers (as measured by WAR) in 2023-2024. He turns 28 during the season, so he should be nearing his peak and he’s been healthy all of the last two years. The Twins have no one who could be predicted to match that production in their system and signing a free agent or trading for a replacement would be expensive. My advise is to keep Jeffers at least for his time under team control and consider an extension next off-season.

The Twins have had time to see Camargo and he hasn’t thrived, but maybe it’s fair to say he’s held his own. That they added Cartaya tells me they aren’t thrilled with the option of Camargo as the injury replacement for either catcher. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the two guys alternating at Triple A, with the better player getting called up if necessary. Spring training might be significant for the backup catchers and it will be interesting to see how Gasper is used, as well. 

[RpR]

To trade either would be an exercise in futility.

[MoyBoy74]

I am guessing most won't agree with me, but I would trade Jeffers. His 4.5 million is what you save trading Vazquez. Jeffers could get us a younger controllable right-handed outfielder or young 1B to add to core. Pair Vazquez with Camargo or Cartaya and the catcher bats 9th every game, but we have stellar defense. Houston won a lot of games with no offense from catcher....Just great defense. 

 

Jeffers will be expensive soon, he has way more value to bring back a much higher upside player.

 

just my thoughts.....