The Twins Need To Protect Mitch Garver

When you say Garver is "37% above the league average hitter."  I see that as all players or is it at catcher?  I do not see the need to put him at 1B right now until I see how the Sano and Kiriloff mix is. Of course thanks to baseball and Covid he is seeing less games without any maneuvering and I am including this year.

Seems like the FO has allowed the roster to become overloaded with bat first corner players.  Drafting Rooker, Wallner and Sabato lines up more of the same.  Team needs some work to get more balance around the diamond.  How does this effect Garver?  Not a lot of at bats available at first base or DH.

I think the comp to Mauer is just what Cody wanted, nothing more than a catcher who is a VERY good hitter but that catchers tend to get beat up more than most other position players.  As hitters, Mauer and Garver are almost polar opposites.  I think Cody is making an excellent point.  We have two young catchers in Jeffers and Rortvedt who need to play.  It may be a little too soon for Rortvedt with the Twins, but he did play a bit with them last year and his defensive chops are for real.  We currently have no LF'er.  The idea, (even if Kiriloff is the superior defensive 1B-man) of rotating Garver and Sano between DH & 1B and sticking AK out in LF may hurt the overall defense a bit, but would really add juice to the lineup.  If the Twins could live with the ups and downs of Jeffers and Rortvedt offensively, this is a strategy I would fully support.  I'd love to see what Garve-Sauce could do with 500 AB's.   

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

When you say Garver is "37% above the league average hitter."  I see that as all players or is it at catcher?  I do not see the need to put him at 1B right now until I see how the Sano and Kiriloff mix is. Of course thanks to baseball and Covid he is seeing less games without any maneuvering and I am including this year.

I keep looking at the logjams and wonder how they are going to get playing time for all these guys. The only answer I can come up with is that they won't. The numbers don't match up. So what do they do? Kirilloff needs to play and 1st base is where he should be playing. Sano has one year left on his contract if my memory is correct. Who knows how many games will be played this year. What if they only get 120 games in? Sano always seems to me to take half a season to get his hitting in gear. Should the team expect that again this year? Why not see if they can trade him, perhaps as a part of a package for a pitcher? Everybody loves his long bombs but no one loves his whiffs. 

I doubt Garver will ever catch more than 80 games again in a season.

The Twins still have him around for three more seasons, to say the least. That he can catch is a bonus. I would get him some reps at first base. And he would be a prime DH candidate. 

The Twins have one more season of Sano. I would happily jettison Sano if Garver shows continued success at the plate, and if Kirilloff is your first baseman for the future, considering you have Sabato and Wallner coming up in the minors. The Twins can also live without Donaldson if we think Miranda is the real thing. Both of those bodies would better suit DH going forward, but not at the expense and, in that sense, they serve little purpose that we can't get from Garver - WHO CAN ALSO CATCH!

Garver reminds me of Randy Bush, or Gene Larkin. That guy who can come off the bench, also catch unlike the others mentioned above, and would probably welcome prolonging his career in a Twins uniform. He isn't flashy and would be passed over by other teams as a DH or catcher. But can find and keep a home here.

 I love Rortvedt defense & arm  but I agree that he should stay down a little longer to hone his hitting skills. Once he does that it'd be awsome to have LH hitter as catcher, Also agree that we need to protect Garver, once he's completely healthy he'd be awsome. We can put him at DH also at times to give him a break.

Do we protect him or trade him ,,, his trade value is probably the highest of any current player on the 40 man roster followed by arreaz,  in  arreaz first season arreaz  proved he is a major leaguer ( to me anyway ) , most players take 3 years to know what you get  ,,,

The twins have to much surplus and they play out of their primary position and are inadequate in defense , you need super utility players and the twins don't really have that at the moment ...

I'm for finding a position permanently for the players and not just to get them in the lineup ...

Trade the surplus of players that do not have permanent position  for pitching  ... 

Where do we find at bats for miranda  , he will start in AAA WHENEVER   .. also martin probably will be the shortstop starting the season because the minor leaguers are training and playing  and ahead of the 40 man roster , Palacios could also be the shortstop for 2022

The biggest log in the jam is Sano. 2nd biggest is Donaldson. There's no place for either of them if the Twins are serious about becoming competitive in 2023. And if they hang on to both of them this season, if there's a season, that will push that hoped for competitiveness back to 2024 as Kirilloff, Garver, Miranda, Jeffers, Larnach, Arraez and Gordon will all lose AB's and playing time this season as a result.

There ain't no future in the past.

Can he play SS?

(This is a joke.)

If Garver plays catcher regularly (100-120 games), which he most certainly should assuming he stays healthy, that basically leaves 6 TBD primary roles to fill as noted:

1B Kirilloff 

LF Arraez, Martin, Larnach, Miranda

DH Sano w/ some Donaldson mixed in allowing for Miranda/Arraez to get AB's at 3B)

SS Free Agent TBD (Lewis?)

4th OF: Celestino

UTL: Gordon, Arraez, Martin

Why is there an issue with Garver's role? Seems fairly simple to resolve even before likely trades. Garver should be the Twins # 1 catching option as his bat is a major+ at catcher, he can really hit and it opens up clear spots for Kirilloff and Sano.

The high upside lineup play is to start Garver at catcher as much as reasonable. Perez led the league with 120 starts at catcher. That may not be reasonable. Aiming for 100 seems reasonable. Aiming for another 30-40 starts at DH will give him plenty of at bats in a healthy season.

I suppose you could argue that they have a better chance at a healthy season and more at bats if he reduced his catcher load. I would still go for the upside. The Twins will need to hit on the upside in several places to be relevant this year.

Unlikely as it may seem, I think the Twins have three top shelf catchers at various stages of development. Garver has improved defensively, but at 31 his bod ain't gettin' no younger.

Ryan Jeffers looks like a long-term starting catcher to me, including with the bat.

That leaves Ben Rortvedt. To me, Rortvedt looks like he could develop into a perennial star, if he'd just tuck his chin into his shoulder at the plate. That's how you find the plane of the ball with your bat, by looking down the length of it. That's how Arraez does it, with his Pete Rose stance. Quit standing so upright. 

Mitch Garver should play catcher as much as possible because that's where he benefits the Twins, and himself, the most.