Twins Prospect Retrospective: Jair Camargo

The Dodgers organization originally signed Jair Camargo as a teenager out of Colombia in 2015. His professional debut came in the Dominican Summer League during the subsequent season. In 41 games, he hit .250/.309/.346 (.654) with seven extra-base hits and a 20.6 K%. He came stateside in 2017 and raised his OPS by 55 points while regularly being a catcher. During the 2018 season, he returned to the rookie leagues, where he remained young for the level. His OPS took another slight jump to .720 as he saw a few more doubles turn into home runs. Camargo had yet to show significant power, but there continued to be time for the teenager to mature physically.

Camargo moved to the Midwest League in 2019, where he was over two years younger than the average age of the competition. There were some struggles in the transition to a full-season league, with his OPS dropping to .642 and his strikeout rate rising to 32%. He logged a career-high 88 innings at third base, but that was a way to get his bat in the lineup more regularly. Following the season, the Dodgers included Camargo in the trade that sent Kenta Maeda to Minnesota in exchange for Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley.

His debut in the Twins system had to wait until 2021 after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season. Camargo made his High-A debut in 2021 and hit double-digit home runs for the first time in his career. He struggled to get on base with a 4.6% walk rate compared to a 40.3% strikeout rate. By the 2022 season, he started putting it all together at the plate. In 77 games, he hit .262/.310/.483 (.793) with 11 doubles and 18 home runs while also reaching Double-A in his age 22 season. He dropped his strikeout rate by nearly 5% while facing older pitchers in over 75% of his plate appearances. Camargo had clearly put himself into the team’s long-term plans as a catcher. 

Last season, the Twins continued to be aggressive with Camargo by having him spend the entire year at Triple-A despite having fewer than 200 plate appearances at Double-A. He showed that he was up to the challenge by hitting .259/.323/.503 (.826) with 16 doubles and 21 home runs. It was his highest slugging percentage at any level, and it was a strong enough performance for the club to add him to the 40-man roster this offseason. 

Defensively, Camargo continues to work on his skills behind the plate. Last season, he threw out 25% of potential base stealers, down 11% compared to 2022. His game-calling and receiving skills continue to improve, especially as he has climbed the organizational ladder. At Triple-A, he’s getting experience working with the team’s top pitching prospects like David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson. Those relationships should help him as he gets more time at the big-league level. 

The Twins were lucky enough to only need two catchers for the entire 2023 season, but that is rare in the modern game. Camargo was recently called up but has been used sparingly, with one plate appearance, a walk, and no defensive appearances entering the weekend. Minnesota added him to the roster to allow Ryan Jeffers to serve as the DH on days when he is not behind the plate. He will likely return to St. Paul as players begin to come off the IL. However, it seems unlikely that the Twins will make it through the 2024 campaign with both catchers avoiding the IL. Camargo will get other opportunities, and now he must adjust to baseball's highest level.

How do you view Camargo at this point in his professional career? Can he become part of the team’s catcher rotation in the future? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. 

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