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Today we begin a new series here at Twins Daily in which we will attempt to project how the Twins projected Opening Day roster will perform in 2016. Each day over the next week, we’ll consider a position at a time. Today we start with the catchers.In 2015, the Minnesota Twins had one of the worst, if not the worst, performing catchers in baseball. Offensively, the Twins catchers combined to hit just .224 (24th best in baseball) and a .596 OPS (29th in baseball). Defensively, Twins catchers combined to throw out just 19% of would-be base stealers, worst in baseball. As I wrote last week, the Twins subtracted a couple of catchers and added three new catchers. THE CANDIDATES Kurt Suzuki (32) enters his tenth big league season. After an All-Star season in 2014 (or at least 2/3rds of a season), he struggled offensively and defensively in 2015. In 131 games, he hit .240/.296/.314 (.610). While defensive metrics show that he is below average, teammates (and especially pitchers) appreciate the leadership that he brings. John Ryan Murphy (24) came from the Yankees this offseason in exchange for Aaron Hicks. In 67 games last year with the Pinstripes, he hit .277/.327/.406 (.734) with nine doubles and three home runs. He has spent time as a backup the last three years, serving primarily as a backup. John Hicks (26) and Juan Centeno (26) will be at AAA. SITUATION Suzuki could certainly benefit from playing less than the 131 games he’s played each of the last two seasons. In theory it should make him more productive. Meanwhile, the still-very young Murphy should get more time. Suzuki starts the season as the starter and will likely get more playing time than Murphy early in the season. However I would expect that over time, Murphy will eat into that playing time and eventually get more than 50% of the time. Theoretically, it should create a better situation. As much as Suzuki wants to play a lot, having fresher legs should help him offensively and defensively. Conversely, Murphy can benefit from playing more regularly. He’s still young enough and inexperienced enough that we don’t know how he’ll handle the fuller workload. KEY NUMBER 485. The number of plate appearances that would trigger Kurt Suzuki’s 2017 vesting options for $6 million. As much as Suzuki is liked and respected in the Twins clubhouse, it’s hard to envision a scenario where the Twins will let Suzuki approach that number. Even last year when he played in 131 games, he recorded just 479 plate appearances. PROJECTIONS Kurt Suzuki: 332 at-bats, .271/.320/.334 (.654), 15 doubles, two home runs. John Ryan Murphy: 353 at-bats, .280/.337/.407 (.744), 19 doubles, 1 triple, 8 home runs. YOUR TURN Now it’s your turn. Share your thoughts on and projections on the Twins catchers in 2016. Click here to view the article

In 2015, the Minnesota Twins got very little production from their catchers. Kurt Suzuki logged a lot of innings behind the plate. Chris Herrmann and Eric Fryer were the backups, but it was clear that Paul Molitor had little confidence in either as they would play about once a week. The Twins acquired three new catchers by early December clearly indicating it was a position they felt they needed to improve.According to Terry Ryan, it was something that was important to them, and he’s been generally pleased with what he’s seen from the new guys. “Yeah. I think we’ve done OK here as far as that depth and choices and so forth. Catching is always a major concern for every organization. I don’t care who you are. You can be the World Series defending champs like the Royals. We all worry about catching. It comes and goes. The injuries. When you find a catcher that’s got the total package, you’ve got something. That's nice to have. So we kept looking and trying to acquire and continue to add. We’ve added a fair amount here. We lost a fair amount. It’s encouraging.” Soon after the World Series Terry Ryan traded Chris Herrmann to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league outfielder Daniel Palka. Herrmann is competing for a starting job, and regular playing time, with the team. A day later, he traded centerfielder Aaron Hicks to the New York Yankees in exchange for 24-year-old catcher John Ryan Murphy. Eric Fryer was a free agent and chose early to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals where he has a good chance to be their backup. By early September, the Twins announced that they had signed 26-year-old veteran Juan Centeno. Murphy comes to the organization after spending parts of the last three years as a backup to Brian McCann in New York. He put up decent offensive numbers considering his limited playing time. Defensively, he is generally regarded as average, or a little better than average, across the board in all categories. Average offense and defense from the catcher position would be a nice improvement. John Hicks has been regarded as a potential average hitting catcher and a very good athlete with a strong arm behind the plate. Juan Centeno has been one of this spring’s fun stories. He has a .636/.667/1.182 (1.848) line on offense. Sure, he’s got just 11 a- bats, but he’s 7-11 with three doubles, a homer and six RBI. The 26-year-old from Puerto Rico has played in 24 big league games over the past three years. He has a .408 OPS in 66 plate appearances in that time. However, in three seasons of AAA - all in the Pacific Coast League - he has hit a combined .298/.335/.367 (.692). Note, however, that he’s averaging just under 58 games a year which means that despite hitting ‘alright’ for a catcher he has primarily been a backup. While he has just three home runs in over 1600 minor league at-bats in his nine seasons, he has looked good at the plate this spring. What he has done this spring is take really good at-bats. He’s driven the baseball. As Molitor said after Sunday’s game, “Good at-bats. He’s been that way since he’s been there. He’s one of those left-handed guys who can slice it out there and battle. He handles himself really well. You can tell he’s had some experience.” When asked about what kind of reports the Twins had on Centeno’s defense before signing him, Molitor indicated that they were positive. “Overall reports before came were a plus receiving. We’re watching how he calls pitches and handles pitchers. Part of that, at the beginning, he’s learning the pitchers. I would say (he has a) plus arm.” Molitor said that it was definitely an area they needed to focus upon. “It was a point of emphasis for us. Prospects that we might have are starting to climb. The urgency at this level was somewhat obvious. Between Murphy, Hicks and Centeno, I think we’ve protected ourselves well there.” That brings us to the likes of Stuart Turner and Mitch Garver. Where do they stand? There’s no doubt that the Twins really like both catchers. They feel Turner brings a little more defensively, though Garver has greatly improved the last year or two. Both have very strong arms. Last week on The Ride with Reusse on 1500 ESPN, Patrick Reusse was joined by Chattanooga manager Doug Mientkiewicz. When asked some of the players he might have in a Lookouts uniform this year, he mentioned both Garver and Turner. I’ve advocated for giving Turner another half-season (or even a full season) in the Southern League. He has the size, strength and takes decent at-bats. I think that extra time at a level he’s played at could be beneficial for a guy who skipped Low A and struggle in the first half at Ft. Myers. In acquiring Murphy, they have a 24-year-old who they can control for five more seasons. Hicks has two option years remaining and only a little over a month of service time. Centeno is still young too. Turner and Garver are guys to continue to hope for and believe in. As Ryan said, it’s hard to find catchers. It can be a position of attrition with all the foul tips, the drain of a long season and such. When you find a guy who can play good defense behind the plate and work well with pitchers there is a lot of value. If you can find that guy, and he can hit, you have something to really like. For now, The Twins have several quality young catchers who could become something as they start the season with Kurt Suzuki as the starting catcher. Depth is very important at the position and the Twins feel good about theirs. Click here to view the article

On November 11, the Minnesota Twins traded Aaron Hicks to the New York Yankees in exchange for catcher John Ryan Murphy. Exactly three weeks later, December 2, the Twins claimed catcher John Hicks from the Seattle Mariners. The Twins needed to strengthen their catching depth in the offseason, and I guess they also wanted to keep at least one Hicks on their 40-man roster. Twins Daily was able to catch up with John Hicks at Twins Fest.2015 was an incredible season for catcher John Hicks. It was filled with ups and downs. He had a strong spring training, but he got off to a slow start. He turned it around, and he earned his first big league promotion.He got his first hits, and he saw how the game can humble a player quickly too. Following the season, he went through being designated for assignment but then being claimed by another organization. He now finds himself with the Minnesota Twins. Let’s start at those two ultimate moments for any baseball player. For those of us who will never experience it (which is most of us), can you imagine the moment when you first get told that you’re heading to the big leagues? Secondly, can you imagine getting your first major league hit? John Hicks was not expecting the moment when it came. His season started out slow, especially with the bat. “The first few months of the season were not as planned, offensively. I felt good behind the plate all year, and when I got to Tacoma and got in the box, things just didn’t click. Things didn’t come up with me from spring training, I guess.” However, in July, Hicks hit .345/.393/.436 (.830). He slowed some in August, however, Mike Zunino was really struggling in the big leagues, and the Mariners decided to send him down to AAA. In Tacoma on August 27th, Hicks was behind the plate. “We’re in the middle of the game. I’m catching. It’s about the 6th or 7th inning. (Former big leaguer) Pat Listach was our manager in AAA. A couple of innings before, he and I were talking about a hitter on the other team. The next inning, that hitter came up. We ended up striking him out, attacking him like we had talked about. So I ran into the dugout and he asked me about it. I told him. He said, ‘Awesome! Alright, well, you’re done. You’re out of the game.’” Hicks had no idea what to think about that. He did what he was supposed to do, and it was successful, so why was he taken out of the game? What was he to do? He went and sat on the bench. “People were coming up to me and saying, ‘Are you going up? Are you going up?’ And I’m like, ‘I have no idea. He just told me I was out of the game.’” Soon after, Hicks walked back over to his manager. He asked if he should head out to the bullpen to help warm up pitchers. Or do something to stop thinking so much. That’s when he got the news from Pat Listach, ““Nah, nah. I’m waiting for confirmation, but you’re going to the big leagues.” The emotion hit him right then and there in the dugout. “It kind of hit me. It was a rush of emotions, and I couldn’t stop smiling. Then he told me to go in and pack. I went in and called my parents. There’s a three-hour time difference from Tacoma to back home (Virginia), so it was like 1 o’clock at home. I think my parents were fine with me waking them up.” My guess is that they were just fine with that phone call as well. But there was a lot of packing to be done, and quickly. “I flew out to Chicago the next day. They flew out my mom and dad, my two brothers and their wives, and then a good family friend, and they all came out and watched.” A couple of days later, August 30th (one day before his 26th birthday), Hicks made his major league debut in Chicago. The opposing pitcher was Jose Quintana. He didn’t take too long to get that first big league hit out of the way. “It was exciting. I went up, and everybody asked me, ‘Are you going to be really aggressive? Are you going to swing at the first pitch?’ I didn’t really know. I said I’m just going to go up, and if it’s a good pitch that I like, I’ll swing. I got up there and took the first pitch. Then he threw me a cutter that ran in, and I stayed inside of it, and I hit kind of a soft liner over second base, in front of the right fielder. I got to first base, and the first base coach leans over my shoulder and said, ‘Hey, there’ll never be a better BB player than you are right now, hitting 1.000, one hit, one at bat.’ I’m like, ‘All lright.’ It obviously went down a little from there, but it was fun.” It was a struggle from there. He ended the season going 2-32 for the Mariners. His other hit was a double and came off of the Angels’ Jered Weaver. Following the season, Hicks was designated for assignment by the Mariners. They called him to let him know that they had about a week to try to trade him or put him on waivers. “It was a long six or seven days, waiting to hear something. Got the call from the Mariners first. He said ‘I’ve got good news and bad news.’ He said you’re no longer a Mariner, but the Twins picked you up.’ Alright! I was really excited to hear that. Got a call from the Twins, talked a little bit with them.” --------------------------------- Before we look forward, let’s look further back. John Hicks grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He attended Goochland High School where he teamed with Ben Verlander, now a minor leaguer in the Tigers organization. “He’s a couple of years younger than I am. He and I actually work out together in the offseason.” But was there any AL Central trash talking? “We spend a lot of time together working out and hitting. He was very excited for me when I got picked up by the Twins. My oldest brother and Justin (Verlander) went to high school together and they’re still really good friends. Justin and my brother went back and forth, and Justin had a few things to say about when I face him, but we’ll see.” Although he was drafted in the 31st round out of high school by the Angels in 2008, he went to the University of Virginia. He played over 60 games all three years. He hit eight home runs each season. He hit a combined 54 doubles. Following his junior season, he was the fourth round pick of the Seattle Mariners. ----------------------------------------------------- He has primarily been a catcher his whole life. “I pretty much only caught in high school. I started catching when I was 11. I had an older brother. He’s two years older and he was a pitcher, so it just kind of worked out that he needed a catcher. My first two years of college, I didn’t catch every game. When I didn’t catch, I played first base and DH.” Clearly the Twins wanted to improve their defense at the catcher position in the offseason. They let Eric Fryer leave as a free agent, traded Chris Herrmann, and DFA'd Josmil Pinto. They acquired John Ryan Murphy from the Yankees as well. Hicks has always taken a lot of pride in his defense behind the plate. “That’s always been something I took pride in, defense. If I can go out and work with that pitcher, and we can use that scouting report that we get before the game, and use that well, and we post zeroes, we’re going to win games. Whether I go 4-4 or 0-4, if we go out and win, that’s what it’s all about.” He will need to learn the pitchers, as well as gain their confidence. That doesn’t happen overnight. “That takes time. Spring training is very important. Taking the time to get to know him and know how they like to attack hitter. They need to have confidence in you that if they have a runner on third base and a hitter that’s going to chase up there that they can throw that curve ball or split or slider in the dirt and you’re going to block it for them. It should never be a doubt in their mind that you will. For me, that’s huge. If they trust me that I’m going to get it done, then we’ll get somewhere.” Hicks likely starts the season as the Twins third catcher. In other words, he is likely to start the season in Rochester. Should there be an injury to Kurt Suzuki or John Ryan Murphy, Hicks would get the call. That is an important role on a team because catcher is certainly a position where injuries can happen. They can send him up and down without needing to clear waivers, which they needed to do with Eric Fryer as he was out of options. Hicks has two option years remaining. Hicks enjoyed the Twins Fest experience for several reasons. “It’s been good. Like I said, we’re getting to know the pitchers, and the position players too. Putting the faces to the name. Getting to know them a little bit better so when we get to spring training, we can just jump into it. I think it’s huge. And, it’s fun to get out here and see the ballpark and all that.” He will be starting his trek from Virginia to Ft. Myers on the 14th. He’ll make stops in North Carolina and northern Florida before getting there in plenty of time to report. “I’m excited to be here. I think it’s a good situation to be in. I’m excited to get out in spring training and get it going.” Click here to view the article