Catcher Diego Cartaya Isn't Long for Minnesota Twins' 40-Man Roster

[Cody Schoenmann]

The Twins' young catching prospect has struggled at the plate and in the field to begin his 2025 campaign. Is the 23-year-old at risk of being designated for assignment for the second time in five months?

Image courtesy of © Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

 

While facing Indianapolis early Tuesday afternoon, the St. Paul Saints managed an offensive outburst their major-league parent club couldn't fathom, scoring 16 runs on 16 hits. Potential future major-league contributors Carson McCusker, Armando Alvarez, Mickey Gasper, and Ryan Fitzgerald hit home runs to fuel the beatdown. However, one player was absent from the club's offensive barrage: Diego Cartaya. 

Cartaya went 1-5 in Tuesday's game, striking out four times. The 23-year-old's lackluster performance at the plate appropriately illustrates the struggles he has undergone at the plate to begin his 2025 campaign. He's hitting .080/.207/.200, with two hits, four walks, 18 strikeouts, and an 11 wRC+ over 29 plate appearances. Strikeouts have been the most significant hindrance to the former consensus top-20 prospect's inability to produce at the plate; he's not making enough contact for anything else to matter.

Obviously, producing a strikeout rate that even former fan-favorite Joey Gallo would find alarming is a cause for concern. He had a much less eye-popping 28.6% strikeout rate over 803 plate appearances between the Los Angeles Dodgers' Double- and Triple-A affiliates. It's unlikely that he'll continue going down on strikes half the time. Still, it doesn't look at all as though he's set to blossom into the MLB-caliber contributor those who follow the Twins hoped he'd become, after the organization sent right-handed pitching prospect Jose Vasquez to Los Angeles for the right-handed hitting backstop in early January. 

Now, Cartaya's catching partner Jair Camargo isn't performing well at the plate either. He's hitting .222/.286/.356, with 10 hits, four walks, 21 strikeouts, and a 69 wRC+ over 49 plate appearances. However, the 25-year-old is at least yielding (somewhat) respectable plate appearances. Neither catcher is playing well, meaning the parent club could be in a dire situation if one of Ryan Jeffers or Christian Vázquez were forced to miss extended time. (Both have already been banged up within the first month, so it's not exactly a far-fetched hypothetical.)

If Jeffers or Vázquez were forced to miss time in the near future, Camargo would undoubtedly be the backstop to earn a promotion to the majors, despite both he and Cartaya occupying 40-man roster spots. Camargo is also outperforming Cartaya behind the plate. Over 83 2/3 innings behind the plate, 22 runners have attempted to steal a base on Camargo. He has caught 10 of those runners, generating a respectable 45% caught stealing rate. Twelve runners have attempted to swipe a base on Cartaya, and he has thrown out zero.

Cartaya has never been effective at throwing out baserunners. He's posted a below-average 19% caught-stealing rate over 353 career attempts. Yet, his defensive struggles have become more pronounced, given his ineptitude at the plate. He is still an adequate framer, a skill that will become even more important as the ABS challenge system could be implemented in the majors next season. That said, Camargo is an equally skilled framer, meaning Cartaya has no clear path to earning a roster spot over him in the short- or long-term future.

Cartaya was an intriguing low-risk, high-reward offseason acquisition by the Twins' front office. Yet, his significant early-season struggles could signal that the young backstop might be the next 40-man roster occupant to be designated for assignment if the club elects to purchase the contract of a veteran reliever or position player in the near future. Here's the most damning thing: If that does happen, there's a fair chance the Twins would be able to retain Cartaya, anyway. Right now, no team is likely to claim him and allot their own 40-man roster spot to the lost soul behind the mask.

 

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[Dman]

Yeah he is a horrible hitter. He just doesn’t see pitches well and is fooled way too easily.  He is a guess hitter at this point. I don’t see him getting much better because he just doesn’t seem to have a clue what the ball is going to do.

[bean5302]

I was 100% on board giving Cartaya a good look, but that look shows he's woefully ill prepared for AAA right now. I'm not sure if it's a talent thing or a head thing. I'd send Cartaya down to AA and replace Cossetti's playing time.

Gasper, Camargo, or Funderburk. I'd be fine DFA'ing any of them right now.

[DJL44]

Quote

He is still an adequate framer, a skill that will become even more important as the ABS challenge system could be implemented in the majors next season.

That doesn't make any sense. ABS is not going to be fooled by pitch framing.

The Twins desperately need to buy a real catching prospect. He could move quickly to the big leagues - Vazquez has been awful this season on offense.

[jorgenswest]

It is hard for a contending team to carry a player on the 40 that will not be ready for the majors this year. That player needs to be a really good prospect in order to protect him. On the other hand teams where contending is not realistic should retain upside over players in expiring contracts. It is like investing in a rule 5 player but instead you have to keep him in the 40 rather than the 26.

Is contending in 2025 still realistic? Does Cartaya still have upside?

I think Cartaya should still be given time and the Twins sure aren’t trending towards contention. It is quite possible the Twins asked Cartaya to make some changes in his swing. Any change is likely to cause struggle before growth.

 

[Danchat]

I don't think either Cartaya or Camargo are going to be major league contributors, but it's not as if they have any catchers in the system that is going to push them out of their spots any time soon. I expect both will be DFA'd after the season is over unless they get an early axing.

[jmlease1]

I think the Twins can pass him through waivers pretty easily right now and they probably should next time they need a 40-man slot for a position player. I wouldn't cut him outright or anything; there still might be something there, especially after the injuries he's had, but he was always a bit of a lottery ticket and those don't usually come home. 

Let him get healthy, get a re-set, play in AAA and see where he's at for next season. I don't think he's really blocking anyone in AA or anything. But he can slide of the 40-man.

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, DJL44 said:

...The Twins desperately need to buy a real catching prospect. He could move quickly to the big leagues - Vazquez has been awful this season on offense.

Not to mention the junk framing stat isn't floating Vazquez's immeasurable, unquantifiable, mystical value yet this year.

Patrick Winkel (AAA) has played in 1 game so far this year (4/18). He hasn't been on the IL so I have no idea what's going on there. Gasper and Morales haven't seen a single game behind the plate so I think it's clear how the Twins view these guys.

Ricardo Olivar (AA)  is the only seemingly legit catching prospect close to the majors in the Twins' system right now, but he's got zero power in AA so far.

Wonder if we could pry Luis Campusano away from the Padres? I get that he's considered a poor framer, but I feel like it's a heck of a lot easier to improve catcher defense than it is to improve the stick. Campusano is catching 38% of base runners so far this year with only 1 PB so there is some ability to play. Seems like the Padres are really down on the guy. 

 

[mikelink45]

I was never excited by him but the only reason to cut him is if we have someone to replace him.  The cupboard seems quite bare. 

[Rufus]

Seems logical to dangle Lopez at the trade deadline.  Especially if the St Paul prospects keep developing.  the Twins should be able to get a MLB ready 1st base type prospect and potentially a catcher too.  Lopez will never have more value than he does right now.  The Orioles rotation is looking bad, they should be looking hard for help.  Their top prospect Samuel Basallo is a C/1B and is projected to debut this year. Their #2prospect  Coby Mayo is a 3B/1B with huge power.  also projected to debut this year.  The Twins should be able to get at least one of those two and a couple more rising prospects.  

[DJL44]

27 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Not to mention the junk framing stat isn't floating Vazquez's immeasurable, unquantifiable, mystical value yet this year.

Remember his lousy .514 OPS in the first half last year? That would be a huge improvement over his current OPS of .318. He's projecting to between -1.5 and -3 WAR for the season. That's crazy bad for a half-time player.

His statcast page says he's doing a great job of squaring up the ball, and his hard hit % is awful with no bat speed and no power. He's an incredibly slow slap-hitter. He should bunt every time there is a runner on base ahead of him to avoid the double play.

[Linus]

10 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Remember his lousy .514 OPS in the first half last year? That would be a huge improvement over his current OPS of .318. He's projecting to between -1.5 and -3 WAR for the season. That's crazy bad for a half-time player.

His statcast page says he's doing a great job of squaring up the ball, and his hard hit % is awful with no bat speed and no power. He's an incredibly slow slap-hitter. He should bunt every time there is a runner on base ahead of him to avoid the double play.

Thats no joke. He should be bunting every time he can move a runner over. The sample is beyond large enough - he’s cooked. 

[rv78]

You were joking when you said that Gallo was a fan-favorite... Right? Because if you weren't then the rest of your article can't be taken seriously either.

[Doctor Wu]

18 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Is contending in 2025 still realistic? Does Cartaya still have upside?

Two very good questions. 

[Trov]

Looks like he is a swing and a miss low risk move. Crazy how a guy who was a highly rated prospect just falls off a cliff on offense.  Really the writing was on the wall with him.  Yeah he could hit at A and high A overall, and only had K rates between 25% to 29%.  It is a SSS this year but over 50% K rate is terrible. 

Once he went up to AA his power was gone for most part, and could not get hits.  He is not known as a top defender.  Without doing any actual scouting on him, I would guess he was good at hitting bad fastballs, but now that he is at higher level you have better fastballs and even better off speed and he has no clue how to handle a good breaking ball. 

[LambchoP]

I think Cartaya would probably pass through waivers. Give his 40 man spot to someone who can actually help the Twins this year. Mccusker would be a good idea. Jeffers is the only catcher we have that can hit. Vasquez is good behind the dish but can't hit. Catcher is definitely an organizational concern. We need to find a legit backup to Jeffers and some real depth for AAA.

[jkcarew]

The alarming part is the offensive regression of Camargo. Yuk. 

[Guest]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

You called it Cody!!

[nicksaviking]

On 4/23/2025 at 11:30 AM, DJL44 said:

That doesn't make any sense. ABS is not going to be fooled by pitch framing.

The Twins desperately need to buy a real catching prospect. He could move quickly to the big leagues - Vazquez has been awful this season on offense.

This season? 

Man, I hate to be the one to tell you this after waking up from your three year coma, but he's actually been bad every year.

Oh, and your wife left you and your dog died.