Twins Add Catching Depth with Early Offseason Swap

1 hour ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I'd much rather have Vazquez than Jackson. Vazquez has proven he is a major league catcher, Jackson has not. Vazquez knows most of the Twins pitchers, their pluses and minuses...Jackson does not. Vazquez already has the respect of the pitching coach and the pitching staff, Jackson does not. Catching is so much more than being a good hitter, which neither of these catchers is. Would you trade Jackson for Eeles and Vazquez? I would.

I get that catcher is a position where you are to sacrifice some hitting for elite defense, but Vazquez's defensive metrics are declining and he is no longer elite. Jacksons metrics have improved and he has a huge arm. With the strike zone challenge rule, Vazquez's pitch framing becomes less critical.

As to the hitting, it's one thing to sacrifice some offense, but Vazquez has literally been the worst hitter in baseball over the last three years. It takes a bigger defensive differential than Vazquez provides to overcome that. 

And no, I would not trade Jackson to get Vazquez back. 

A thought ... How many people have seen Alex Jackson play several times?

19 minutes ago, ashbury said:

You mean, like, in double headers?

He has played for several teams and at AAA. A number of people have commented on him and I wondered who had seen him play .... you know ..... actually watched him behind the plate and seen him batting on several occasions. 

This gent has what seems to be a  good glove, not a bad choice.

54 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I commented that I had never heard of him and he's got more than three years of service time. 

Alex Jackson was a big deal, Baseball America High School Player of the Year and 6th pick as an outfielder. I remember that. He had the world at his feet. He was 18 years old. Baseball has been really tough for him though and he turns 30 in a month and is now a catcher. It would be such a sweet story to see him suddenly transform as a Twin. The odds are against it. He looked rough at the plate and ok behind it the several times I saw him play for Tampa Bay a couple of years ago. The facts are that nobody knows if he can be someone as a 30 year old that he hasn't been since he was a teenager, a good baseball player. Looking over his stats and the sunny reports people have decided he is better than Christian Vazquez. He never has been yet but he certainly could be. The Twins will not pay him $10M either, which was a frustration for some Twins fans. My only real concern is that his contract has historically (last 9 years) meant he gets the position all season no matter what happens. I was hoping for some trades, still do. However, that's on me and is my fault for being an optimist. I wish Jackson well. He looked so invincible on the cover of Baseball America, the next Bryce Harper. I totally admire that Jackson has stuck with the dream.

On 11/21/2025 at 10:55 AM, Vanimal46 said:

Getting a viable MLB backup C for a former lottery ticket minor league FA signing is a win in my book.

Viable?

On 11/21/2025 at 12:30 PM, Chris Hove said:

I personally liked Eeles. He can play middle infield. Despite his 5-foot-5 frame, he can hit the ball and has potential for more. 68 stolen bags in two years is also what the Twins want to do more of. In terms of potential, I think the twins gave up more. This team probably won't be good enough for the backup catcher to matter that much. Never hurts to have middle-infield depth, IMO. Could have signed anyone to fill the backup role and keep Eeles. I don't think the Twins really believed in him.

When I first saw Eeles at Ft Myers, he gave me some serious "Charley Hustle" vibes. I believe the Twins could use more of that. Maybe the new staff will push a little harder.

On 11/21/2025 at 11:36 AM, IndianaTwin said:

I'm responding to your comment, LC, but it could just as easily be responding to several above.

Jackson may well regress to his historical average. But he also may not. I remember a Bill James article stating that the most common position player to defy the aging curve is the backup catcher. Because of the emphasis on defense for catchers (and which Jackson apparently provides), AAAA catchers have to focus their energies on that side of the ball if they are going to stick. As a result, their offensive development often lags behind their defensive development and some do improve into their 30s. It's hard for a starting catcher to improve in their 30s because their body has taken such a pounding, but that's much less of an issue for a career backup like Jackson. 

 

I'd also note that he was a No. 6 overall pick, so there's some sense of pedigree. And let's not overlook the fact that he's a Christmas baby, so maybe he'll be a gift for us! 😀

HE was the 6th overall pick more than a decade ago (2014).  The "pedigree" has worn off and you don't get any of that shine anymore when you are 30 years old.  

IS it possible that he doesn't regress to his career average, and perhaps he can have a year like 2025 in which he showed decent pop in his bat?  Sure.   Somehow he hit 5 HRs in 91 at bats to boost his slugging percentage to .473 which drove his OPS to 11% above average.  His .253 Isolated Power measure was almost double his career totals (which includes that outlier).   

But, his strikeout rate was pretty much in line with his career 45.5%.

I also looked at exactly who Jackson hit his home runs off.  Two were off legitimate MLB pitchers.  One in Tampa against Ryan Pepiot.  One in Baltimore against Garrett Crochet.   

But two of his other homers were hit against low level MLB pitchers Nestor Cortes and Kyle Freeland.  The other home run was hit in an 18-0 route of Colorado against our old friend Kyle Farmer pitching in a mop up role.  

My biggest point is, again, this management group has always seemed to believe in outside replacement level players over their own internal prospects.   While I agree that the trade value we gave up was low level, why not save $1 million in salary and just roll with the internal catching prospects.

Ricardo Olivar has better minor league totals than Jackson and is just 24 years old.  Or perhaps Cardenas or Nate Baez or Andrew Cossetti.  

The value of developing these internally developed players is worth much more than having Alex Jackson whiff 45% of his at bats.  But perhaps the front office knows more than we fans, but then, that is really telling on their own performance.  They selected/signed these minor leaguers.  If they think they can't match Alex Jackson's most likely offensive output that is very telling.

On 11/21/2025 at 9:29 PM, bunsen82 said:

It’s that you can use a piece for another. He may not be the end game.  He has a little more value than Eeles. We sure do seem to like to ignore hot stretches in this forum.  

Well, at least 2 teams just agreed that they're essentially the same value, so what other piece are you moving Jackson for? Another Eeles non-prospect type? What's the point? 

Because they're not representative of production you should expect moving forward....

Something I have wondered about is who is responsible for evaluating players within the Twins organization? Second to that is whether the people who actually make the decisions follow the evaluators' recommendations. If evaluations and decisions are made in a collaborative fashion I wonder how many voices are in the room and whether a person on point for a player makes the call or whether the call is made by Zoll and/or Falvey. 

If I were a Pohlad I would expect every guy who might be in the room that evaluates and/or makes decisions to be very familiar with every single player above A+ ball  and they should also have reasonable knowledge of every player in professional baseball. If the club has people assigned to be more familiar in a specific area that person should have a vote in decisions when appropriate. 

We can expect that this is true of all of the planners, decision-makers, and evaluators within the Twins organization but my confidence is a little shaky concerning this system as it rolls into its tenth year.

This had bubbled up in my head previously but was regurgitated by reading many comments from people who had never heard of Alex Jackson. That is really normal for readers and fans but there must have been at least 10 minutes of specific discussion related to Jackson within a conference room or via Zoom to pull the trigger on a trade that holds down a 26 person roster spot. I don't think the loss of Payton Eeles is important. He looked decent in 2024 but the knee injury slowed his 2025 season and Eeles actually looked pretty weak the last two months. It would have seemed a fair decision to hold Eeles because of his low cost and years of control versus the decision to hand the second catching job to an inexperienced, seldom used Alex Jackson. I'm hoping Jackson proves to be a special find.

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

"Just a backup." 

 

1. The Twins don't do "backup catcher." They've had a roughly 50/50 catcher playiing time split for years  I doubt they change.

2. Even if its just a backup, the backup catcher will play at least 25% of the time. And that's if Jeffers doesn't miss any time.

3. Bad players playing at all, much less 25% of the time, is  not how to win.

4. Make no mistake, this guy is a bad player.

This trade does absolutely NOTHING to make the Twins better. In 2026 or any future year. Just a roster spot, because you need 13 rostered players on a team, and 2 need to be catchers.

Good points. And don't forget, if you are the Twins organization, you need at least 16 guys making 1 mil or less.