The Twins' Minor-League Catching Depth Has Never Been This Good

[Greggory Masterson]

Image courtesy of Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images

It wasn’t a surprise when the Twins drafted Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey with the third overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. Their second pick, Texas catcher Carson Tinney, though, was a surprise. It’s not common to see a team use their first two picks on college catchers who will (theoretically, anyway) be moving through the system at something approximating the same speed, as long as everything goes well.

Lackey was a legitimate candidate to be the top pick in the draft, and he’s among the best catching prospects to enter professional baseball in the last decade. There’s a non-zero chance that Twins fans could see him next season, though it’s probably more likely that he reaches the majors in 2028. Either way, he's the heir apparent following Ryan Jeffers's inevitable departure. Few, if any, would rank him any lower than second in the Twins system behind 2023 first-round pick Walker Jenkins; Twins Daily ranked him No. 2 in our most recent reranking.

Tinney, on the other hand, is a bit more of a work in progress. His ability to stick behind the plate is uncertain, but he was drafted for having some baseline talent defensively and a ton of raw power. He’s got some swing-and-miss in his profile, and he’s a large human, about 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds. He could have a career as a first baseman if his defense doesn’t come through, assuming he’s able to be productive with the bat. He’s a borderline top-10 organizational prospect, and Twins Daily ranked him 13th.

There’s another prominent name to discuss here, though. What made the Tinney selection even more surprising was that the Twins recently traded for a catching prospect. Acquired as part of the Jhoan Durán trade to Philadelphia, Eduardo Tait was the top catcher in the system prior to Lackey’s selection. The 19-year-old made it to High-A last season, but he’s struggled somewhat this go-around after appearing on global top-100 lists including MLB Pipeline and Baseball Prospectus before the 2026 season, ranking in the top five organizationally at most publications. Given his struggles, he’s slipped down lists, but he’s still solidly within the Twins Daily top prospect list at #7. And there are others.

Khadim Diaw was the Twins’ third-round pick in 2024. A good athlete, Diaw is questionable to stick at catcher and is seeing time in the outfield, as well. He’s consistently been ranked in the mid-teens to mid-20s on Twins lists, and Twins Daily has him ranked right behind Tinney at No. 14. There’s also Enrique Jimenez, a switch-hitting catcher acquired for Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak last July who is just 20 and at High-A. Jimenez profiles as a backup catcher, but teams need those. He’s caught on to a few organizational lists in the late 20s. Ricardo Olivar is another Diaw-like prospect who plays catcher and outfield, and it’s questionable that he is an MLB catcher. Furthermore, the Twins have a 17-year-old catcher in Miguel Caraballo, whom they just acquired in a trade during the most recent Rule 5 Draft. Caraballo has also appeared at the end of some top-30 lists.

After bringing up all of these names, I first want to point out that among this list, only Olivar and Diaw were in the organization last June. This crop of catching prospects is almost entirely newly acquired, either through trade or draft. The cupboards were bare, with names like Jair Camargo and Diego Cartaya headlining the Twins’ catching prospects, both of whom are no longer in the organization, alongside Olivar.

So there has been a major improvement since the beginning of 2025, but this class of catchers is notable in the context of Twins history. I’m going to do a quick exercise using Baseball America’s top 30 Twins prospects year-by-year. It's not a perfect system, but Baseball America consistently gives good prospect rankings, and they have one of the most complete catalogs available. Rankings are mostly available going back to the 1999 season.

Although they had Jimenez listed as their 30th Twins prospect, he slipped off at their midseason update, leaving “only” four Twins catchers in their top 30: Lackey (2), Tait (6), Tinney (11), and Diaw (18). The last time the Twins had four catchers in their top 20 prospects? According to Baseball America, never. They did have four catchers in their top 23 back in 2001. Those names were Justin Morneau (5), Rob Bowen (7), AJ Pierzynski (18), and Chad Moeller (23). All four of them went on to have MLB careers ranging from MVP to journeyman third catcher. But hey, if that was the outcome for these four names, I’d be ecstatic.

As mentioned, the cupboards have been bare lately. Since 2021, when Jeffers was ranked as the Twins’ No. 4 prospect, the highest a catching prospect has been ranked by Baseball America was 16th by Olivar. In 2022 and 2023, they didn’t rank a single Twins catcher in their top 30.

Of course, overall system depth varies year-to-year, and one year’s 10th-best prospect might be another year’s 18th-best prospect. But the Twins have a top-10 system in baseball right now, so those rankings do mean something. Jimenez, who would be the Twins' 5th-best prospect (I’d assume, given his spot on the list at the beginning of the season and his solid production thus far in 2026), would probably be the Twins’ top catching prospect in 2022 and 2023. Right now, he’s buried.

Since I did some research and you might be curious, here are some more things I found through this analysis. In addition to 2022 and 2023, the Twins did not have a catcher listed by Baseball America among their top 30 in 2015, 2011, 2007, and 2006. The last time they had a catcher listed second or better was Wilson Ramos in 2010, then Joe Mauer, No. 1 from 2002 to 2005. Other catchers in their top 5 were Jeffers (4th, 2021), Ramos (3rd, 2008-2009), Morneau (5th, 2001), and Matt LeCroy (3rd, 2000; 5th, 1999). They’ve only even had two in their top 10 twice, Mauer and Bowen (8) in 2002 and Morneau and Bowen in 2001.

Note: The rankings for 2000 only went 10 deep, and only LeCroy (3) made the top 10. I’m unsure where Pierzynski and Co. were on that list. It’s possible that between LeCroy and the four names from 2001, the Twins did indeed have five catchers or four in the top 20, but I can neither confirm nor deny. Similarly, in 1999, only the top 15 is available. That list included LeCroy (5) and Pierzynski (14).

Needless to say, the Twins are in a long-term catching position that they have not been in for quite some time. Catcher development is hard to predict, but they have one of the surest bets to be a long-term catcher in Lackey, quality Plan Bs (or co-catchers with Lackey) in Tait and Tinney, and a host of depth options in Diaw, Jimenez, Olivar, and Caraballo. Hopefully, at least two of those names turn out to be real talents behind the dish.

Catching depth is valuable in trade, as well. It might have seemed unconscionable to include a talent like Tait in a trade in November, given how bare the catching cupboard was, but today, his spot in the system is far easier to backfill (even if far easier might still mean pretty difficult).

Overall, the Twins are far better set at catcher than they were 13 months ago, and although there are no sure things when it comes to baseball prospects, this is a better situation than they’ve had in decades. The cries from fans, almost overnight, switched from “when will the Twins get their catcher of the future?” to “why are the Twins obsessed with catchers?”

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[Dman]

Catcher prospects had pretty much been a baren wasteland for this team for many years.  With many members of this board encouraging them to draft a catcher high for many years now.  So I think we all are a bit happier now to have more prospect balance in the system (let's work on hard throwing relievers next).

I mean it's not like they didn't try at all.  Their strategy seemed to be to take catchers late and or catchers with good offensive skills hoping to help them get there defensively.  They chose a ton of catchers in international free agency but none of those turned out.  So they didn't completely ignore it, but didn't prioritize it either.

I do think part of the reason the Twins hadn't focused on catcher is that most teams don't have a good one at least offensively so not losing that much value at the big league level.  They seemed fine paying for catching help in free agency to get what they needed. Also the Twins had so many other needs especially for other up the middle prospects I can see why they waited on the catcher position.

It's tough to invest in catching as there are so many things that go wrong in development.  As this article shows Morneau never became a catcher he ended up a 1st baseman. That might end up happening to some of the catchers currently in the system.  I'm just glad the Twins kind of woke up and started giving it more attention.  We've seen how valuable Jeffers is to this team even with just average defense.  Good catchers are getting more expensive. Developing them makes sense.  Happy to see the twins in good shape now.

[bean5302]

@Greggory Masterson I'm tired of hearing this when there is no source indicating Tinney's a poor defensive backstop.
 

Quote

Tinney, on the other hand, is a bit more of a work in progress. His ability to stick behind the plate is uncertain, but he was drafted for having some baseline talent defensively and a ton of raw power.

Tinney won the Gold Glove for best defensive catcher in college baseball. 
https://www.abca.org/ABCA/ABCA/Awards/Gold_Glove/2026.aspx

https://www.burntorangenation.com/general/103255/carson-tinney-minnesota-twins-mlb-draft

[Greggory Masterson]

31 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

@Greggory Masterson I'm tired of hearing this when there is no source indicating Tinney's a poor defensive backstop.
 

Tinney won the Gold Glove for best defensive catcher in college baseball. 
https://www.abca.org/ABCA/ABCA/Awards/Gold_Glove/2026.aspx

https://www.burntorangenation.com/general/103255/carson-tinney-minnesota-twins-mlb-draft

I didn't say that he was a poor catcher. I said that he's more of a work in progress than Lackey, and it's unclear that he'll stick at catcher, which is a question for most catchers, other than the elite amateur defenders. Per Baseball America:

"He has plus arm strength with great carry on his throws, but his footwork needs refinement and his exchange needs to be quicker. Tinney’s receiving is unspectacular now, but he should become solid with continued development and professional instruction." 50 FV defensively

Per MLB Pipeline: 

"Tinney can flash well-above-average arm strength, though it plays more as plus and he needs to improve his transfer and the accuracy of his throws. He lacks quickness and agility behind the plate, though he has become a better receiver and framer this spring and perhaps can become average in both regards." Graded as a 45 defender.

Fangraphs grades his defense 40/45.

Those are those baseline defensive traits I mentioned. Strong arm, but he's shown progress, and people have confidence that there's room to grow. Especially as a 6'4/240 20-year-old, his being a clear-cut long-term catcher defensively is a question. I personally have confidence he can work to be good enough that he can catch in the big leagues, but I don't know how confident I am that he can be an everyday-caliber defensive catcher (though his offense could make up for that).

I agree that his defensive warts might be overblown by some, and that might be in part due to people's tendency to think that any good offensive catcher must be a bad defender (and vice versa), and also comparing him alongside Lackey isn't really fair to any catching prospect. But yes, he's more of a work in progress, and there are questions about how much catching he's going to grow into.