Three Catcher Conundrum

Personal catchers for personal starters. AT some point, you ask would Garver be better served catching everyday at AAA. Especially working with the starters of the future. If you are going to be playing Castro 2/3s of the time. Willians is such a unique player, though!

It's a tough decision.  I think Willians probably needs to see some time at 3rd.

April is going to have to play out before any decisions are made. Too many days off. This will sort itself out as the season plays on. Castro has had multiple surgeries and won't be able to play a lot of games as the season wears on. Other injuries will create openings for Astudillo, or maybe a trade opportunity for Garver. It's a good problem to have at this point.

Right now I'd be looking at ways to get Astudillo batting right behind Buxton. I'd have Buck bat 5th or 6th, with Tortuga right after him. Hot bats in order, great contact behind blazing speed. That might mean sitting Gonzo so Torts can play 3B. So be it. Not quite ready to bat Buck at 1, but if he keeps hitting, he's designed by nature to be a leadoff. At that point, I do believe I'd bat the little chubby guy 2nd.

El Cherubo?

AT some point, you ask would Garver be better served catching everyday at AAA.

Absolutely not, imnshueo*. He belongs on the major league roster, sink or swim. If he's spending any more time in AAA at this point, it means he doesn't have a future on the major league roster going forward.

*(in my not so humble un-educated opinion)

I think you left out an option: just start Astudillo all the time.

I love Astudillo.  There, I said it.  He needs to be a part of this team.  If he were 40-lbs lighter there wouldn't even be a debate.  Because of his appearance, people can't fathom him being able to sustain. 

If Castro is catcher #1, I think our best roster is a 4-man bench consisting of Gonzalez, Adrianza, Garver & Willians.  Three of them can play almost anywhere and provide the luxury few teams have of carrying a 3rd catcher.  I like Cave, but he has an option left and would be merely a phone call away in case of injury.  Austin has great power, but offers little else.  Maybe he could net us bonus money or a prospect, or we risk that he clears waivers.

I don't think 3 games is hardly a sample size to have any idea what the manager or FO thinks. If Darver and Zstudillo catch well enough and hit well enough Castro ends up the odd man out.

Castro is likely the best defensive catcher of the three, but his knee surgeries may make that determination moot. It's hard to tell which of Garver of Astudillo is better, since Astudillo hasn't caught much up here. But I personally think he's better than Garver. Garver is supposedly catching because of his hitting. But the problem is, at this time Astudillo is a far better hitter, so that should settle the decision between those two. I like defensive catchers, but I don't think Castros defense is enough to make the difference. Calling the game? Until someone tells me what every catcher is looking at when the turn to the dugout before each pitch, I will continue to think the the dugout is calling, or suggesting the pitch.

Play La Tortuga every day, whether it be catcher, third base, outfield, or someplace else. He needs to be a lineup regular. The catcher "conundrum" is really depth that winning teams naturally have. It is nothing but good and Rocco just has to make sure the guys get their ABs. There are enough to go around.

Man this is tough. Here's the issue:

Castro hits left handed...but at this point in his career he hits like the one-a-week catcher. In a perfect world, he'd be the back-end platoon guy.

Garver got 300 AB last year. Hit .268 with 7 HR and 45 RBI last year. He looked like the heir-apparent on a rebuilding team. He didn't look great, defensively. But he didn't do anything to lose his job.

Astudillo all of a sudden appears and now it's bedlam. He aced his audition last year. He earned a job in Spring Training. And now right out of the gate he's an offensive force in the first game he plays. He absolutely has to get playing time, somewhere, anywhere at the big league level.

I know sending Garver to AAA just seems so cruel. But in the end aren't we picking between Astudillo and Garver here? If you had to choose one of those players to play 4 days a week, who would you pick?

Astudillo needs to get his next 100 PA in short order.

If he comes close to repeating the production over the first 100 PAs, then, I'm sorry, but Castro, Garver, Gonzalez and Sano should take a back seat to Astudillo being in the lineup every day.

If it all falls apart, then you still have those four to fill two positions each day.

Right now, even Vlad the Impaler and Dr. Smooth would be blushing as they witness the bat-to-ball skill.

Astudillo needs to be utilized more as a PH or a starter at 3B or OF.   There is no excuse to keep trotting Kepler out there late in the game against LHP when close and down, if you want to win the game.

While I agree with the first part, I'm getting close to hoping for Baldelli's next "mistake". I don't think anyone is going to let that one go until he makes another one. Kepler is 0/2 PA against LHP so far. There is only one sample size smaller than that.

"Keep trotting" is a phrase I would save for something like the LoMo experience last year.

Have to try to give Astudillo more at-bats at this point and see how he progresses. FWIW, he's younger than Garver. Someone smarter than me would need to calculate the hit defensively vs the likely win offensively if you went the Garver/Astudillo. Something tells me the pitchers wouldn't be thrilled with that.

Astudillo's got 101 PA...there probably isn't a pitcher in the league that has saw him a second time yet...or a team that has game-planned him. So, we'll see. But if he hits, he hits...and then it might be time to think about getting in shape so he can take the grind and his club might realize his (potential) defensive flexibility at positions other than catcher. It's funny how being 40 lbs past your ideal body weight is endearing when it's an over-achieving career minor-leaguer, but a lack of dedication and professionalism when it's a struggling big bonus-signing top prospect. 

If Castro has the skill to reduce the number of pitches in an inning and game that impacts the staff long term. It might help the starter go an extra inning and reduce the load on the pen. It might help the pitcher stay stronger keeping him out of long innings. This has a positive long term impact.

Last year Wilson was the main catcher for Berrios and Gibson while Garver was the main catcher for Lynn and Odorizzi. I don’t know how much impact Wilson had on the success Berrios and Gibson. Maybe Gibson and Berrios are simply better pitchers. Would we have been that surprised though if it was Lynn or Odorizzi with the better year than Gibson? How much did Wilson matter? We don’t have the data to make an assessment. We are not in the rooms where catchers and pitchers prep for future games. Maybe that connection is critical. I rely on the staff on this call.

I will add that Astudillo has to be in the line up tonight. Play him at catcher or replace him in the line up for anyone other than Buxton or Cruz. Between he and Marwin every position is covered. Put him in somewhere and keep him in at least until someone gets him out.

Astudillo's got 101 PA...there probably isn't a pitcher in the league that has saw him a second time yet...or a team that has game-planned him. So, we'll see. But if he hits, he hits...and then it might be time to think about getting in shape so he can take the grind and his club might realize his (potential) defensive flexibility at positions other than catcher. It's funny how being 40 lbs past your ideal body weight is endearing when it's an over-achieving career minor-leaguer, but a lack of dedication and professionalism when it's a struggling big bonus-signing top prospect.

He did play 163 games with 640 PAs and 1260 innings on defense last season spread across the Twins, Rochester and Venezuela. I'm not too worried about him handling the grind.

He's a pro. He just doesn't look like one until you see him play.

He made 11 errors in those innings. Sano made 10 in less than half (granted Sano logged all his innings in the infield at the MLB level).

Darn!  The Twins have too many options at catchers.  What a horrible problem.

I agree that things will work themselves out and I would guess that Castro will be traded at the deadline.

 So be it. Not quite ready to bat Buck at 1, but if he keeps hitting, he's designed by nature to be a leadoff. At that point, I do believe I'd bat the little chubby guy 2nd.

 

El Cherubo?

Well we definitely don't want buck batting after the little chubby guy. We all saw what happened when you do that. *cue sad trombone*

If it were me, I just start Austudillo and use the other 2 as backups. I don't care what metrics say, I don't care who thinks who is better defensively. Austudillo is a ballplayer. He hits the ball and from what I have seen of him, he plays defense well also. 

Give the damn guy the reigns. If he is able to keep the kind of production from last year, spring training and his hot start here, he is a friggen all star. The other 2, I don't care how you slice it, are average at best catchers when you look at their entire game. 

Garver’s not that young, but he really doesn’t have that much catching experience for his age.

John Ryan Murphy has caught over 5700 innings as a professional.

Mitch Garver is 5 months OLDER than Murphy but has caught just 3400 innings as a pro.

Garver seems to be showing solid improvement as a receiver and certainly seemed to buy in to the new techniques for his set up to help him frame better.

Garver vs righties

La Tortuga vs lefties

Castro traded for anything off the 40 man and salary relief.

Fill 40 man spot with Craig Kimbrel.

Go to World Series

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe both ZIPS and Pecota project Astudillo as one of the top three hitters on the Twins roster.

Between his performance in AAA/MLB last year, his MVP runner-up season in Venezuela (where reports had him playing primarily LF) and his showing over the last month or so, I don't see any reason those systems are incorrect.

He should be a fixture in the lineup in the 2-4 spots with a TBD position every day, kind of like an in-his-prime Ben Zobrist. Winning teams (other than the 2019 version of the Cardinals) do not have one of their three best hitters regularly absent from the starting lineup. For example, it did not take long for Aaron Hicks to become a regular in the lineup in NY once he become a monster at the plate. 

Use Astudillo at C, 3B, 1B, LF, RF and DH (for the ~6.5 games Cruz needs a breather) and fix him in the lineup somewhere 2-4. 

Even if he regresses to a .300/.325/.475 hitter over the next few seasons, that's basically CJ Cron and Eddie Rosario, hovering around a 115 wRC+. It's a long fall to whoever you see as the fifth best hitter after those top four.

His defense basically needs to be Ryan Doumit for him to not be the best catcher option on this team, and yet the untrained eye might think him the best due to his mobility and arm. That said, if it's possible to carry three catchers, I'd only have him start 30 or so games behind the dish so he can be in the lineup almost daily.