Twins 2022 Position Analysis: Catcher

Projected Starter: Ryan Jeffers
Likely Backup: Gary Sánchez
Depth: José Godoy, Caleb Hamilton
Prospects: Alex Isola

THE GOOD

The Twins are all-in on Ryan Jeffers. By trading Mitch Garver and Ben Rortvedt on successive days, the front office decimated its high-level catching depth. Yes, all the moving and shaking did bring back Gary Sánchez, but he's an occasional (at best) catcher with one year of team control remaining. 

Jeffers is the guy. Clearly the Twins have been heartened by his performance through two big-league seasons and are ready to commit.

The 24-year-old former second-round draft pick rose fast through the system, playing only 167 games over a season-and-a-half in the minors before being summoned from the alternate site in 2020 to help the Twins. He has since shown to be a quality defender with good power, equating to 1.1 fWAR over 111 games for the Twins. He was Twins Daily's pick for team Rookie of the Year in 2020.

Overall, defense has definitely been Jeffers' calling card in the big leagues. He runs the staff with confidence, bringing good mechanics and instincts behind the plate. His pitch-framing stands out as well above average, ranking in the 74th percentile last year according to Statcast. 

The bat is lagging behind the glove here, for sure, but given he's only 24 and followed an accelerated development path, it's reasonable to expect some offensive growth ahead. He slashed .286/.377/.452 in the minors, flashing solid discipline that will hopefully translate over time to the majors, and his power tool is definitely legit. 

When Jeffers gets into one, the ball takes off. 

The same can be said for his new backup. Sánchez is a masher, and a fair approximation of Garver at the plate. In fact, his All-Star campaigns in 2017 and 2019 were basically what you'd hope to see from Garver in a full season. Sánchez has 138 career home runs through age 28, leading all catchers since 2016,  and has been a reliable slugging force even when his offensive game has otherwise run astray.

Defensive misgivings aside, it's nice to be able to plug Sánchez's threatening bat into the catcher position from time to time.

THE BAD

Even before they traded Garver and Rortvedt, catching depth was an area of uncertainty in the Twins system. No one outside of the top three had any MLB experience, Garver was running out of team control, and Jeffers was a question mark.

Make no mistake: Jeffers is still a question mark, having seen his OPS+ drop from 119 in 2020 to 83 in 2021. It's just that he now bears a much higher level of expectation and dependence. 

Sánchez might be a comparable bat to Garver, but he represents a huge drop-off defensively. It's actually pretty hard to make sense of Minnesota's plan in light of their commitments to quality defense, and timeshares behind home plate to reduce wear-and-tear.

Are they actually going to let Sánchez catch a sizable share of the team's games? Really?!

His defensive issues are well known, especially among Yankees fans. Sánchez has led the league in errors at catcher three times, and allowed the second-most stolen bases of any backstop last year. His rigid movements and slow reactions lead to numerous costly mistakes; Sánchez ranks sixth among all active catchers in passed balls allowed.

Here's a, er, "highlight" reel of his glovework: 

He struggled so mightily in New York that some Yankees pitchers notoriously asked not to have him behind the plate in games they started. That doesn't seem like a great situation for a Twins staff that expects to usher in multiple young pitchers this year. 

Despite their claims otherwise, I find it difficult to believe the Twins are going to follow through on the current plan. But until something changes, Sánchez is lined up for a big portion of work behind the plate, and we are one Jeffers injury or demotion away from him being the primary guy there. Ack.

To make up for the loss of Rortvedt, the Twins claimed José Godoy off waivers from San Francisco on Thursday, infusing at least some semblance of experienced depth behind Jeffers and Sánchez. 

Godoy is actually quite similar to Rortvedt in profile – a mid-20s, no-hit defensive specialist who's gotten his feet wet in the big leagues. He's a reasonable swap-in that at least gives the team some peace of mind in terms of contingencies. There are players further down in the system like Caleb Hamilton and Chris Williams with the potential to reach the majors relatively soon, but they're not high-caliber prospects and could use more seasoning.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Twins imploded their catching depth in order to unload Josh Donaldson's contract. The pipeline is very thin at this position and Sánchez is a year away from free agency, so there is a ton of pressure on Jeffers to entrench himself as a long-term fixture behind the plate.

That's a bit of a scary proposition, since he's hardly established himself as a surefire MLB starting catcher. But it's a risk the Twins were willing to take as part of their offseason roster overhaul. 

This team was in an enviable spot with two starting-caliber catchers under control for multiple seasons. Now they've got Jeffers and a pseudo catcher/DH in a walk year, followed by little assurance at one of the most attrition-filled positions in the sport. 

Catcher now stands out as a glaring weakness for this franchise, unless Jeffers and Sánchez can both convincingly put their disappointing 2021 seasons behind them. 

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