Christian Vázquez is Flashing Some Red Flags

The Twins never seemed in on Murphy, so Vasquez was a great signing. A less than stellar start with the Twins won't be a concern if Christian can get untracked to provide some quality at bats and be the catcher needed for the pitchers. I'm not too worried right now, especially because Jeffers is looking much better as a catcher.

He has had other similar stretches of 100ish at bats. I expect the next two months will be better. 

I think his defense and experience at catcher are valuable to the team and worthy of the contract. I would shift his share of starts from around 60% towards 40% though. 

Good analysis. Yep, history suggests the age (32) and the data to be correlated, especially at catcher. Let’s see how it plays out though. In the meantime, let’s give Rocco credit for playing the hot bat more and not worrying about the optics vis-a-vis the more expensive FA.

However, the FO had no choice this off season at C. There just wasn’t enough/any depth in the system and Jeffers couldn’t be relied upon as a sure #1.  It could be we end up overpaying on Vasquez, but if we end up over the next two years + with a Jeffers/Vasquez backstop at their weighted average cost, things will probably be ok, if not pretty good.  I’m not knocking the FO on this signing (but I reserve the right to later - hahaha); there is a lot lower hanging fruit to pick on that front.

Good heads up, but let’s give him more time and give Jeffers, who’s hitting .273, more work.

Could it be our hitting approach of swinging for the fences? 

Vazquez is part of the reason this pitching staff has performed much better this season. I think they leaned on him a little too heavily when he started out hot. Both catchers will perform better if they share the workload.

I'm surprised how little criticism there has been of Vazquez since he has been a black hole in the lineup most of the season. We knew he was signed for defense, but it hasn't been fun to watch at the plate. Theres a level of offense where the defense just doesn't make up for it, I think its called Butera-esque.

He has had a couple of good games lately, but more importantly Jeffers has been tearing it up in increased usage which has been critical for a couple wins.

I've always been a fan of Jeffers and really thought he would be a seemless replacement to Garver with less bat but enough additional defense not to miss it that much. I had to temper my expectations last year that he would be that kind of starting catcher, but I've never totally given up on the dream.

I think Jeffers' defense has continued to improve at the MLB level. His biggest issue has been a large platoon split which tends to kill a batting line for a regular RH hitter. He's actually crushed righties this year and I'm hoping it's a sign that he's just breaking out as a hitter.

Not upset at the signing for a defensive catcher  over the winter  ....

His defense is his calling card  and whatever his hitting is  and hopefully  better will be butter on the toast  ....

It's a demanding position  and we'll have to wait it out to judge later who was the better catcher at the end of the season  ...

It seem Vasquez strikes out a lot on the high heat.  If he could avoid swinging at those his numbers would improve dramatically.  I agree with HrbieFan, we need to work on making contact particularly situationally.  Last I checked we lead the lead in whiffs.  This is where an active and engaged hitting coach would be helpful.  

Let's face it...he was never going to be the second coming of Johnny Bench, but it would be nice if he hits a little bit better than he has. His defense has been fine so far. I think we give it some more time and see if he picks it up at the plate going forward. Meantime, give Jeffers more time in the lineup. Maybe a 50-50 split, 

Not to worried about his hitting. Signing him made complete sense last winter, and I was surprised and happy they did. This team has spent a lot more on riskier contracts. Lopez getting $75 million for one. Someone who has great stuff but has never turned in results to match, and has had recurrent shoulder problems. I think this is the one to worry about.

What I find interesting is that they gave up on Garver at age 32 but signed Vazquez at 32 for $10MM a year.  Yes needed a catcher but it does appear to be an severe overpay at the moment.  

Last 8 games is 2 wins and 6 losses as the starting catcher.  Jeffers is 5-0 in his last 8 as the starter. 

A birthday shout out to Jeffers, who has performed admirably with the stick this season. Well at least Vasquez's 2023 WAR is in the top 1/3 for catchers right now- better than a number of other team's starting C's.

 Jeffers continues to play/hit like he has, Vazquez becomes the 1B to Jeffers' 1A.  It's an overpay for that at 10 million but still leaves the club in a really good position.  I suspect a 60/40 split going forward may benefit Vazquez as well.

With Jeffers hitting better than expected, this balances out the catcher position to make up for Vasquez's light hitting so far.  I still like the signing even though at this point it appears to be an over pay.  Let's give him some more time to see where this goes.

36 minutes ago, umterp23 said:

What I find interesting is that they gave up on Garver at age 32 but signed Vazquez at 32 for $10MM a year. 

Garver has 17 games as catcher in 2 years with TEX

He's not the only black hole in our lineup. Joey. Bux. Correa. 

When Vasques is the only black hole then I will worry. 

Hoping Vasquez can turn it around a bit but the numbers are very troubling.  
 

The issue is the Twins haven’t drafted or developed Catchers and you have no other options passed signing one to a longer term deal this last offseason.
 

I was a Big Ben Rortvedt fan but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy.  Thought he was a perfect paring with Jeffers as he was great defensively and a LH bat. Looks like they moved off Garver as well at the perfect time.  Both those trades were wins for the Twins overall. 
 

I do hope the Jeffers and Vasquez playing time flips now and Jeffers gets the 60% of the starts and Vasquez takes the latter.  Jeffers has looked like the guy with the bat and has looked really improved defensively behind the plate.  

3 hours ago, umterp23 said:

What I find interesting is that they gave up on Garver at age 32 but signed Vazquez at 32 for $10MM a year.  

They traded Garver away at age 30 two seasons ago. Since then he's only appeared in 60 MLB games due to injury.

I was expecting that the contract would turn out for Vasquez to catch 60% this year, there be a 50/50 split next year and Jeffers catching 60% in 2025. If Vasquez is really making that much of a difference in the pitching staff, then perhaps he can help coach Jeffers up on the defensive end. Jeffers has thrown out 35% of attempted base stealers with only 2 errors so far this year.

I always expected Jeffers to be a good hitting catcher and a better defensive catcher than given credit for. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him make the allstar team in the next couple of years. Though not this year.

"As advertised behind the plate"? Not really. Almost all of his throws to 2nd tail badly to the right plus he has a lot of balls that get away from him at the plate. Looks like a horrible deal. Twins need more production from the catcher position!

Right on cue Vazquez hits a big double tonight against the Guardians that leads to a run!

He's being $10M per to be an experienced, quality game caller, defender, thrower, and staff leader. And he's doing those things. Yes, he's slumped since a good start. But he's not the only one. And while he's been slumping quite a bit lately, there's a lot of season left to start heating back up. But his #1 job is be a CATCHER. 

Despite being an iron man, I do think he might benefit from a more even time share with Jeffers, who is having a great season thus far. I've always liked Jeffers behind the plate, but it looks like he's gotten better. And the bat potential has always been there. Experience and some work he's put in with Popkins to make some adjustments seem to be paying off. 

And I heard in the pre-game the duo has thrown out 35% of attempted base stealers. That's one if the best marks in all of MLB.