Article: Mitch Garver's Big League Spring

[Steven Buhr]

Almost exactly 11 months ago, Mitch Garver arrived in Cedar Rapids to get started on his first full season of professional baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization. This spring, he’s a big league catcher – for now, anyway.Garver, the Twins’ ninth round draft choice in 2013 out of New Mexico, spent all of last season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, not only playing a leadership role behind the plate but at the plate, as well. He hit .298, led Cedar Rapids with 79 RBI and was voted the Midwest League’s post-season all-star catcher.

 

Garver reported to the Twins’ spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida, with the other Twins major league pitchers and catchers in February and he’s been putting on a big league uniform every day since.

 

Major League teams invite a limited number of their minor league catchers to big league camp every spring in order to have enough catchers to handle catching duties for all of the pitchers that need to work out their kinks during the first four weeks or so of spring training. Garver got one of those coveted invitations to big league camp this year. (Tyler Grimes, who caught for the 2013 Kernels, also is getting a taste of big league life with the Twins this spring.)

 

On Friday, Garver talked about his experience this spring in the Minnesota Twins’ major league camp.

 

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After Garver and the Kernels wrapped up their 2014 season back in September, he spent a little time in Minnesota and Florida getting checked out physically, including a CT scan due to late season concussion issues.

 

“No issues there, everything came back clean,” Garver assured. “It was just an experience for me to make sure everything was OK. I got to see Target Field and everything around there. They wanted to make sure I was healthy enough to go back to Albuquerque to work out, so I was in Fort Myers (fall instructional league) for a month to kind of iron some things out.”

 

Garver split the next couple of months between time with his fiancé in Corvallis, Oregon, and with his family in New Mexico.

 

It was while in New Mexico that he woke up one morning, about a week before Christmas, to find he had a missed call on his phone.

 

“It was at like eight or nine in the morning and I didn’t know what the number was,” Garver recalled. “So I called it back.”

 

It was a good decision. The call turned out to have been from Twins General Manager Terry Ryan.

 

“He asked me how my health was and made sure everything was good with my hips and with my brain and everything. I told him I was doing great, having a great offseason. Then he invited me to spring training.” That’s major league spring training, with the big league Twins.

 

“It was really exciting. Very cool,” added Garver.

 

Garver has been in camp since February 20 and, as you might expect, walking in to a big league clubhouse as a player for the first time was special.

 

“It’s very different because you walk in and you find your locker and you turn around and there’s five clubhouse guys behind you. Five clubbies, asking you if there’s anything you need, anything they can do for you at that moment in time. You’re just being bombarded with love, it seems like. It’s a cool experience. It’s just fun to be here.”

 

He’s not just there for the cool experience, of course. Garver is there to work. He’s rooming with fellow Twins catching prospect Stuart Turner at the new baseball academy that the Twins have built on-site at their complex in Fort Myers.and, according to Garver, their days get off to a pretty early start.

 

“I wake up at 6:30, we leave the academy about 6:40 and get over to the field. I like to get there a little bit early. They have breakfast for us over there in the new, renovated locker room and kitchen. And the weight room is right there as well. Sometimes you work out in the morning, sometimes you go hit in the morning or you do both.

 

“And then team meetings around 9:00. After that, we head out to different fields and do PFPs (pitchers’ fielding practice), bullpens, live batting practice, baserunning, bunt defense. There’s a defensive station every day. So either we’re catching bullpens or we’re doing something catching-related. For that particular day, it could be blocking or the next day it could be catching pop flies or anything like that. But most of the time, it’s bullpens and we get all of our work in during the bullpens.

 

“When it’s all said and done, it’s probably around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon and you go have lunch and then you call it a day.”

 

The time Garver and other young players get on the field with major league players and coaching staff is valuable, of course, but it’s not the only aspect his first big league spring training that Garver is taking advantage of.

 

“It’s nice to get to know these guys (the major leaguers). You kind of want to get associated with them and learn what kind of people they are off the field, because you already know what they can do on the field. It’s fun to talk with them and converse about different things, finding out where people are from and all of these different stories they have, baseball related or not.

 

“Torii Hunter has some really different stories about everything. It’s fun to listen to him talk. It’s just a good experience overall.”

 

The experience also has made Garver even more aware of just how close he could be to realizing his dreams of being a major league ballplayer.

 

“It’s surreal. You’re playing with superstars and if you put it in perspective, you’re not that far off,” Garver observed. “Just a hop, skip and a jump away from being in the big leagues, whatever level you’re at.”

 

Garver got his first taste of big league game experience on Thursday night, as a pinch hitter, in the Twins first spring training game. It was memorable on multiple levels for Garver.

 

“I was sitting in the dugout (Thursday) night and we were playing the Boston Red Sox. People that I’ve only ever seen on TV, or only ever imagined playing against are in the other dugout,” he recounted.

 

“And in the other dugout is one of my best friends from Albuquerque, Blake Swihart. He’s one of the best catching prospects in the game and it’s just surreal seeing him over there. Then he’s catching when I’m batting and I’m facing a big leaguer (Boston reliever Matt Barnes). It’s kind of weird to think about it, but it’s right there in front of me. I’ve just gotta go get it.”

 

As exciting as the experience has been and continues to be, Garver is realistic and knows his time in the major league clubhouse is going to come to an end (for this season, anyway) shortly.

 

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Minor leaguers begin reporting to spring training in a few days and eventually Garver will be joining them at the minor league complex across the parking lot from the Twins’ big league facility.

 

Garver is OK with that.

 

“Yeah, it’s coming. I know it is. Everybody knows it is. I think the 15th will be our last day and the 16th is the day we’re sent back.

 

“But you know what, that’s fine with me,” said Garver, in a tone of voice that certainly sounded genuine.

 

“I’ve come, I’ve seen, I’ve learned a lot of things thus far. And I think being sent down to the minor leagues is going to be a good thing because I’ll get to play every day. I can prepare myself for the season, as opposed to helping major leaguers prepare for their season, because I’m just kind of helping out right now.”

 

Asked whether he’d like to add a couple of points to his batting average in 2015, to get it up to the magic .300 mark, Garver laughed and said that was, indeed, one his goals. But then that’s not new.

 

“I want to hit .300, I want to make the All-Star team and I want to have the most RBIs on the team. There you go. Those are my goals. The same as last year and the year before.”

 

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[HitInAPinch]

Really nice story.  Although the part about Terry Ryan checking out his hips kinda creeps me out :-)

[Mike Sixel]

Cool story. Thanks for doing the interview, both of you.

[Steven Buhr]

Thank you, TD guys, for promoting this to article status.

 

Bonus material for those who read the comment section, I asked Mitch about the fact that it seems like he and Stuart Turner are almost always mentioned together in news articles and whether that has any effect on their relationship in ST. Really liked his response:

 

"I don’t think it’s something that we really think about. He’s my roommate right now and there’s nothing other than we’re co-workers right now. It’s hard for us to really compete when we don’t hold our own destiny. We don’t control where we go or what team we’re placed with or what bullpen we catch or what situations we’re placed in. That’s all out of our control. The only thing we can control is what we do when we’re in a situation. With that being said, we’re not competing against each other, we’re competing against baseball. I think we both understand that we’re not really competing against each other, we’re competing against the game."

[gbg]

"With that being said, we’re not competing against each other, we’re competing against baseball. I think we both understand that we’re not really competing against each other, we’re competing against the game."

That's a really neat, and telling, perspective. Thanks for sharing that quote.

[diehardtwinsfan]

I think this kid is going to rocket up some lists this year.  Call me crazy.  He destroyed MWL pitching.  Yeah, he's a bit older than you'd like there, but he has plate discipline to go with decent defense.  I think he's going to be a decent regular some day.

[highlander]

I could see him on the big club next year when they break camp. With Turner. Bye Suzuki, Pinto.

[ScrapTheNickname]

I think you're so high you'd better land'er.

 

Sorry, I really am.

 

No, really, his stats so far look great.

 

Also, I see that his friend from ABQ, Blake Swihart (same age as Garver but didn't go to college) is the #1 rated catcher in the minors at this time.

 

Perhaps the Twins need to draft a catcher with their first pick in 2015?

[DocBauer]

I think this kid is going to rocket up some lists this year.  Call me crazy.  He destroyed MWL pitching.  Yeah, he's a bit older than you'd like there, but he has plate discipline to go with decent defense.  I think he's going to be a decent regular some day.

 

I am on board with this. But I'm also high on Turner as well. It's hard enough to acurately predict just how good a top pick will be in the majors...if he makes it at all...much less try to decide right now how good Garver and Turner will be as ML'ers after a full season of A ball. But I think there's something here.

 

Turner won the Johnny Bench award for the top college defensive catcher. I believe Garver finished second. We've heard raves about Turner behind the plate, but I've also heard nothing but positives about Garver defensively. I was surprised Garver was selected as late as he was considering his second place finish and big college bat at a premium position, despite worries his league inflated his numbers. Thus far, it doesn't appear his production had too much helium. Turner, meanwhile, still has potential offensively, and hit what, .280+?, after a rough first month or so?

 

Catcher is a pretty unique position. It's hard to find a really good all-around one. Right now, the Twins seem to have a couple pretty good ones to watch. (And potentially another 1 or 2 younger and lower in the system) I don't get too wrapped up in the ages of catchers. There is a difference, to me, of a 24-25 yo OF putting up quality numbers in A ball vs a similar age catcher. (I believe this may still apply to Pinto as well)

[nater79a]

 I was surprised Garver was selected as late as he was considering his second place finish and big college bat at a premium position, despite worries his league inflated his numbers. 

 

College seniors usually drop quite a bit in the draft regardless of how good they were. The whole age thing, ya know.