A Quick Update on Twins' Historic, Unique Usage of Christian Vázquez and Ryan Jeffers

As I've assiduously documented over the last year or so, the Twins alternate Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vázquez in composing their daily starting lineups. They don't kind-of, sort-of alternate them, or play matchups or pair each with a subset of the starting rotation. The Twins believe so strongly in keeping their catchers on a one-on, one-off schedule that they've only deviated from a perfect alternating pattern between them six times all season--and all of those were because injuries forced the issue.

In half those instances, though, the injuries compelling a change to the pattern weren't even to the catchers. Hurt players elsewhere on the roster forced the team to start Vázquez at third base once and to slot Jeffers in as the DH a bit more often than they actually wanted to, earlier this year. With 41 games to play, Vázquez needs 16 games at catcher and 62 plate appearances to reach 80 and 300, respectively. Jeffers needs 18 turns behind the dish, and has already exceeded 300 trips to the plate.

If each player gets to each of those figures, it will be the second straight season in which they've done so. Should that happen, they'll become just the third pair of teammates ever to catch 80 or more games and come to bat 300 or more times in consecutive years. The first was Joe Azcue and Duke Sims, of the 1967-68 Cleveland club. The second was Buster Posey and Nick Hundley, of the 2017-18 Giants. All of the other 32 instances of two catchers sharing work that evenly in baseball history have been one-year things, either because one of the backstops got hurt in the surrounding seasons; because one of the two seized a more regular job and consigned the other to backup duty; or because the team lucky enough to be in possession of two solid backstops cashed one in via trade.

If Vázquez slides up in the order a bit the rest of the way (which wouldn't be out of line, given that he's hitting .288/.325/.523 since Jun. 1), he could even get to 325 plate appearances for the season. If he does so, he and Jeffers will become the first pair of teammates ever to have that many PAs and 80-plus games behind the dish in two straight years. There are only 12 such seasons in history as things stand, and last year's version of Jeffers and Vázquez is already the only one since 1996, when Ed Taubensee and Joe Oliver did it for the Reds.

The organization's fierce belief in the value of resting catchers between appearances has paid off to an extent even they probably couldn't have predicted. This arrangement won't last another year. The team needs to clear some money this winter to accommodate other needed moves, so they'll trade one of Vázquez and Jeffers. For two seasons, though, these two have been a great yin and yang, kept constantly in balance, bringing different but equally valuable things to the team on a daily basis. Keeping catchers healthy and fresh is almost as hard as doing the same with pitchers, but the Twins are doing it, just by making sure neither of their receivers ever takes his position in a state of greater fatigue than necessary.