2027 Opening Day Catcher

[Cory Engelhardt]

I wanted to start a new thread here, as I am going in with a couple of assumptions here for this offseason. They are...

 

1) Ryan Jeffers does receive the qualifying offer 

and

2) Ryan Jeffers declines the qualifying offer. Jeffers then signs a 3-4 year deal with someone, and will make in excess of 50 million for that contract. That gives the Twins a good pick in the 2027 draft, and also leaves a pretty massive hole both in the lineup and behind the plate. 

With that, I think at the catching spot, the hole they'll try and fill is the "behind the plate" part more than the hole in the lineup part.

My question for you is, who are some catchers either on the free agent market, or via trade, that would be strong in controlling the run game that you like? Admittedly, Jeffers was well below average on this, and Caratini was worse. I also am going into this with thinking that Lackey will probably debut at some point in 2028, but I'd rather not play Caratini a majority of the time and just let other teams steal at will because of how bad he has shown to be at controlling the running game (even if both he and Caratini are both fairly solid at controlling the strike zone.

I don't think Cleveland would trade Patrick Bailey here, but I would love him and his defense here for 2027 and to eventually pair with Lackey. That said, there are other options. Here is what Savant ranks as the catchers in terms of "caught stealing above average" runs. Basically, this list is the order in 2026 for how good catchers were at catching runners trying to steal. For comparison's sake, Jeffers was -6 runs worse than average, and threw out 9% of baserunners. Caratini, in less time, was also -6 runs below average in terms of throwing out runners. I HAVE to think even getting to average, or zero, will be a massive improvement behind the plate. They are 70th and 71st respectively, out of 72 mlb catchers. Only Ivan Herrera of the Cardinals graded worse.

So what say you? Who do you like on this list as either a free agent addition or a trade target? And when I say trade target, one that is maybe realistic. I posted everyone that was average/zero or better.

Rk.	Player	Team	SB Att. (All)	Catcher Stealing Runs	Catcher's CS Above Average	CS	CS%	Est. CS	Est. CS%	CS Above Avg. / Throw	Runner Speed	Exchange Time	Arm Strength
1	Mack, Joe		60	5	8	16	27%	8	13%	0.13	28.6	0.59	80.7
2	Valenzuela, Brandon		57	5	8	18	32%	10	18%	0.14	28.7	0.63	82.4
3	Fermin, Freddy		62	4	6	19	31%	13	20%	0.10	28.7	0.62	82.0
4	Rutschman, Adley		47	4	6	17	36%	11	24%	0.12	28.4	0.66	81.6
5	Bailey, Patrick		62	3	5	19	31%	14	22%	0.09	28.2	0.58	81.6
6	Dingler, Dillon		52	3	5	13	25%	8	16%	0.09	28.8	0.62	84.2
7	Contreras, William		54	3	5	15	28%	10	19%	0.09	28.7	0.60	79.2
8	Campusano, Luis		36	3	4	13	36%	9	24%	0.12	28.3	0.67	79.1
9	Torrens, Luis		30	3	4	10	33%	6	20%	0.13	28.7	0.58	80.8
10	Susac, Daniel		28	2	4	9	32%	5	19%	0.13	28.7	0.61	81.0
11	Navarreto, Brian		22	2	3	8	36%	5	21%	0.15	28.8	0.66	82.6
12	Heineman, Tyler		44	2	3	11	25%	8	18%	0.07	28.5	0.56	74.3
13	Stubbs, Garrett		17	2	3	6	35%	3	16%	0.19	28.4	0.61	82.5
14	Realmuto, J.T.		66	2	3	14	21%	11	16%	0.05	28.8	0.61	82.6
15	Moreno, Gabriel		45	2	3	12	27%	9	20%	0.07	28.4	0.61	79.5
16	Durán, Rodolfo		21	2	3	7	33%	4	19%	0.14	28.6	0.64	84.7
17	Davis, Henry		25	2	3	10	40%	7	28%	0.12	28.5	0.63	85.8
18	Langeliers, Shea		37	2	3	11	30%	8	22%	0.08	28.6	0.63	84.0
19	Pagés, Pedro		48	2	3	15	31%	12	26%	0.06	28.4	0.63	81.1
20	Hicks, Liam		50	2	3	10	20%	7	15%	0.05	28.6	0.67	79.3
21	Teel, Kyle		26	2	2	8	31%	6	22%	0.09	28.5	0.68	81.6
22	Jensen, Carter		43	2	2	12	28%	10	22%	0.05	28.5	0.66	81.9
23	Basallo, Samuel		39	1	2	11	28%	9	23%	0.06	28.7	0.70	84.8
24	Bart, Joey		35	1	2	9	26%	7	21%	0.05	28.7	0.67	80.4
25	Díaz, Elias		26	1	2	7	27%	5	21%	0.06	28.5	0.62	81.6
26	Perez, Salvador		20	1	1	6	30%	5	23%	0.07	28.8	0.60	76.9
27	Alvarez, Francisco		44	1	1	10	23%	9	19%	0.03	28.4	0.64	82.9
28	Romo, Drew		47	1	1	12	26%	11	23%	0.03	28.2	0.60	80.5
29	Trevino, Jose		39	1	1	9	23%	8	20%	0.03	28.4	0.60	74.6
30	Rogers, Jake		33	1	1	7	21%	6	18%	0.03	28.2	0.58	76.5
31	Escarra, J.C.		17	1	1	5	29%	4	25%	0.05	28.7	0.61	78.5
32	Cavanaugh, Drew		38	0	1	9	24%	8	22%	0.02	28.1	0.61	80.4
33	Fortes, Nick		75	0	0	15	20%	15	19%	0.01	28.4	0.61	79.0
34	Haase, Eric		21	0	0	4	19%	4	19%	0.00	28.7	0.68	81.1
35	Diaz, Yainer		62	0	0	13	21%	13	21%	0.00	28.2	0.68	83.6
36	Rushing, Dalton		28	0	0	5	18%	5	18%	-0.01	28.4	0.61	79.1
37	Amaya, Miguel		30	0	0	7	23%	7	24%	-0.01	28.6	0.64	80.0
38	Narváez, Carlos		49	0	0	10	20%	10	21%	-0.01	28.5	0.61	74.5
39	Quero, Edgar		28	0	0	6	21%	6	23%	-0.01	29.0	0.58	77.8
40	Smith, Will		41	0	0	7	17%	7	18%	-0.01	28.6	0.66	79.4
41	Sánchez, Gary		19	0	0	5	26%	5	29%	-0.02	27.9	0.72	83.4
42	d'Arnaud, Travis		17	0	0