Twins 2021 Position Analysis: Catcher

Catcher-cam needs to be an occasional part of MLB broadcasts.

Dayum, some of those pitches were downright scary.

We need more catcher-cam. Wow.

Did the team or Garver ever address his woeful 2020 numbers?

Garver should be the backup catcher.

I hope Garver comes back strong.  I still do not understand what happened to him last year and how it gets fixed.  I am very happy to have Jeffers on board.

Garver was battling injuries in 2020 and if you thrown in the weirdness of the pandemic (and small sample size) it's easy to forecast a pretty significant rebound. we don't need 2019 Garver for catcher to be a position of strength; even something closer to 2018 Garver on offense will be a quality asset. I think he'll be ok; it sounds like he's healthy now.

Jeffers is great from a production standpoint; the only thing that isn't ideal with this pairing is there's no platoon advantage to add to the mix. But that's a small thing in the light of how bad most team's backup catcher is. Heck, Jeffers would start for a LOT of teams so splitting time like this really puts the team in good shape.

Is there drop-off if we run into a bunch of injuries at catcher? Sure, but name me one team that isn't facing that. But even in that case, the Twins are in better shape than most teams; Astudillo can fill in and still add something on offense, Telis is a competent receiver, and Rortvedt is MLB ready on D right now...he just might be a classic no-hit catcher who gets on the field for D.

Twins should probably commit another pick to the position in the next year or two to keep the pipeline going; you can never have too many catchers in development who can hit.

Not many cathers (or players) with a year (hitting) as bad as Garvers was last year have ever had any year as good as Garver's two seasons ago. Last year was a short year with injury's but two years ago Garver proved he could put up brilliant numbers for an entire major league season. 

Garver doesn't have to ever have a year as good as two years ago to be a very good hitting catcher. In fact, his 2019 season was soooo good I'd wager he could never repeat it. But so what, 25 homers, 270 batting average is just fine with me .. 

I believe our catching tandem insures a high level of play 162 games a year unless one of them get's hurt .. 

I'm comfortable with our catching corps though I can agree with the concerns over both. We may need to add a veteran (and probably should to our AAA team now) if either of them falter or get hurt. I can see Garver hitting .260 with 22 homers and Jeffers hitting .250 with 12 homers. Hopefully they stay healthy cause their defense and framing skills are very good. 

Catcher-cam needs to be an occasional part of MLB broadcasts.

 

Dayum, some of those pitches were downright scary.

I agree that should be an angle that gets into the games.  Not sure why it has not yet.  I mean they put base cams in games.  It really shows how hard hitting a MLB pitch is.  

I hope Garver has some level of bounce back.  I do not expect he will repeat 2019, not only because ball will be not as lively, but also teams showed last year they were pitching different too him.  

He talked about how he stays off of edge strike zone stuff and liked to attack fastballs early.  Which scouting would see that too.  Last year I saw a lot more off-speed early in counts and fastballs on edges late in counts.  This led to him falling behind and not getting meatballs to hit.  I hope the injuries he had last year did play into his lack of contact.

I hope he gets value back and Twins can flip him for something.  Not saying having 2 good catchers is not something to want, but they are not guys that will work as platoon and Garver will not be FA until after he is past prime.  Many teams will be willing to take him on if he can hit for few years of cheap control.  Jeffers is much younger and room to grow.  

Jeffers may lose some value when electronic zone comes into play because framing will not be a thing.  However, I think part of framing is also being a good receiver  for pitchers.  I think the electronic zone may lead to a few more chases at times because hitters know it is all electronic and if they guess wrong they cannot hope the ump guesses wrong too.  I could be wrong but I think some players will be more aggressive on the corners worrying about those that just clip the zone for a called strike. 

By far the biggest strength of the Twins for 2021 is catcher. Garver's swing is so simple and direct, no way he won't fix his hitting now that he's healed up. Jeffers looks like a starter for the next decade. I'd work those two 50/50 all year, with an occasional game for El Cherubo just to see him do his trick throw to first. 

Stay healthy, Twins!

I'm glad to see Garver hit the ball with authority early in the spring. Hopefully he's got a handle on whatever his issues were last year.

And I fully agree, catcher cam needs to be part of the game broadcasts.

Unfortunately, this all echoes the various offseason discussions we've already had about Garver previously. He has a good eye, a smooth, quick and compact stroke with power. He's hit in college, the minors and even his rookie year in MLB. While I don't expect him to perform at the amazing level he did in 2019, he's going to be just fine.

I can't describe how impressed I was with Jeffers, SSS or not. He wasn't playing in meaningless games either. My only concern in just lack of experience and will he make necessary adjustments quickly.

Whether you like Astudillo or not, he is fine as a 3rd catcher who has shown he can hit some as well. Telis has experience, some hit ability and at least some ML experience. I don't believe he would embarrass himself.

Rortvedt, IMO, just needs a little more time and I hope he isn't rushed. The defense is there. There is power potential. He needs time and experience to hone the hit ability. He's shown flashes.

Agree and disagree about adding lower catching depth. You always want to draft a solid backstop of two every year. But from past drafts and international signings, they have added a few guys recently. The problem us they are so young and didn't play last year so we aren't really sure what we have.

I'll be so glad when the electronic strike zone is implemented.  Until then, having a catcher that can "steal strikes/fool the umpire" is important to a pitching staff.  Any idea what the final numbers were for Twins' catchers? The tweet was August 22. 

JcS