Are the Minnesota Twins Setting Up Ryan Jeffers to Fail?

I know Garver had one great season - until he demonstrates that he might have another I want to push Jeffers to get a real chance to succeed. 

Jeffers is still young and in a normal year you might say keep him at AAA for another season. But as a second to Garver, he will be able to catch at least 50+ games this season, if not more, and he will learn on the job, Catching is a tough position, and many catchers don't have to show complete skill sets if they can handle the duties behind the plate. I have faith that Jeffers will be a solid catcher for seasons to come.

Jeffers bypassed AAA so yes there are going to be frustrating ABs for him in the bigs, but he's looked good defensively and every AB he gets with the Twins now is incredible important for his development. If he wasn't getting much playing time I would say the Twins were setting him up for failure, but he's getting plenty of ABs, so he's just gotta roll with the punches and learn from every game. 

Jeffers is the future he will get his opportunity.  The priority right now to get Garver going and figure out what you have in him.  If he hits like 2019 its complicated, if he just returns to a good hitter he has re established trade value, if he continues to struggle Jeffers becomes the priority. 

Why does it seem like every article on here is negative?

We have a few options when a player underwhelms: blame the people who put him on the roster, blame the person who does or doesn’t put him in the lineup, blame the player himself, or accept that succeeding in the Majors is extremely difficult.

At the end of the day the players have to do their job. Jeffers warrants some patience because of his age and talent, but it’s ultimately on him to reach his potential. This isn’t a video game where players have numerical ratings that automatically determine the quality of their play.

I'll go with 'no.'

Given the way the Twins handle almost all of their young and upcoming players Jeffers is lucky to be playing at the majors in any capacity at this point in his career.

Jeffers has a patient at bat approach.  Last year, he succeeded on that approach especially with 2 strikes. He is doing the same this year and I wouldn't say he is guessing at the plate.  Last year he didn't miss on the one pitch per at bat that he felt he could do something with.  Not perfect but rarely missed.  This year his approach really hasn't changed but his one pitch to drive he is fouling off or just missing in the zone.  I like him behind the plate. It comes down to Rocco analytics of who plays when and where depending on matchup.  Garver has history vs Lefties but that is two years ago.  Hell you look at the lineup and take 3 guys out (Arraez, Cruz, Buxton) and the rest of the team is hitting about .230 or less.  So we are about 2 weeks in and it's a marathon.  What I'm more concerned about it the BP than I am the hitters at the moment.

Jeffers bypassed AAA so yes there are going to be frustrating ABs for him in the bigs, but he's looked good defensively and every AB he gets with the Twins now is incredible important for his development. If he wasn't getting much playing time I would say the Twins were setting him up for failure, but he's getting plenty of ABs, so he's just gotta roll with the punches and learn from every game. 

I am with you here.  While the righty, righty matchups are not advantageous to Jeffers batting line he is gaining valuable experience. It is not like he is never going to have to face right handed pitching.  Perhaps working on a weakness early will produce more favorable results in the end.

While the main point of this article has merit I think it is over the top to suggest the Twins are setting Jeffers up to fail.  If by fail you mean us box score watchers aren't going to see the stats we want then I get it.  The Twins know what position they are putting him in so the stats don't matter as much to them.  They obviously don't want a black hole bat there but just how much better was a guy like Jason Castro?  I'd wager not much better and they stuck with his "veteran" bat for three years.

The kid has barely been in the Majors I think he needs more time likely a full season to get the hang of things and see where he is at.  For right now any MLB at bat is a good at bat for Jeffers.  There can be a painful learning curve but he is smart and talented enough to succeed in the end IMO.

We are a dozen games in... complete over reaction. Catching position for us is a strength. Calm down. 

Jeffers bypassed AAA so yes there are going to be frustrating ABs for him in the bigs, but he's looked good defensively and every AB he gets with the Twins now is incredible important for his development. If he wasn't getting much playing time I would say the Twins were setting him up for failure, but he's getting plenty of ABs, so he's just gotta roll with the punches and learn from every game. 

100% this. I wouldn't surprised to see him sent to St Paul once they begin AAA games to gain more experience that way. That probably depends if Garver can figure it out.

Given the way the Twins handle almost all of their young and upcoming players Jeffers is lucky to be playing at the majors in any capacity at this point in his career.

This is an old and tired stereotype of the Ryan era Twins that no longer holds water, and actually stopped holding water towards the end of the Ryan era anyways.  See below for a list of current/former Twins, and the age at which they debuted.

Sano--22

Polanco-22 (technically 20, but his first significant stint came when he was 22)

Arraez--22

Rosario--23

Kepler--23

Buxton--21

Berrios--22

Players who do well in the minors get pushed to the majors quickly.  There is no similarly long list of players who were tearing up AA/AAA at 21/22/23, and yet didn't make the majors until 25.

Maybe a solution would be to have Garver play some first base with Jeffers behind the plate and K-Sano on the bench once in a while. Maybe if Garver AND Jeffers got a few more at bats on a regular basis they would both start to hit again. Sitting Sano might actually help the lineup. Blocko Dumbelli wants a different lineup everyday anyway and Sano looks like he needs to rest.

We should definitely sit the guy with a .599 OPS despite a .176 babip in order to get more PA's for the guy with a .451 OPS despite a .444 babip.

It is still way too early.  I am fairly certain that over the course of the season Jeffers will get his fair share of ABs vs. lefties.   While I hope for real production out of the catcher position this year, I am much more interested in how our two catchers are calling games and getting called strikes for their pitchers.  It may be a coincidence, but the two most dominant performances of the season - Berrios' start vs. the Brewers and Pineda's performance vs. Red Sox -  have come with Jeffers behind the plate.  

I think the determining factor of who will get the lion's share of ABs this season will depend on Garver's and Jeffers' defense, not their offense. 

Lot of patience here for a 6-7 team struggling offensively and expected to compete for a pennant. In general probably the right attitude but I’m not sure it needs to apply to Jeffers.

Many here want Sano out of the lineup. Sano’s K’ing at a 34.6% rate and walking at over 23%. Jeffers 52.2% and 8.7%. He’s been overmatched. It’s a small sample, but it’s not unreasonable that a team in the Twins position might want to get him ever-day at-bats (C/1B/DH) in AAA for a bit.

Ben Rotvedt is getting closer. I’m not too worried about the Twins at catcher.