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A week ago, we ran our first Winter League report of the season (offseason?). Play had begun in Venezuela a couple of weeks earlier. The Dominican Winter League began Friday of a week ago. Last night the Puerto Rican Winter League began its schedule. We are still a couple of weeks from the start the Australian Winter League.Here is a quick look at how Twins players have started in their winter leagues. VENEZUELAN WINTER LEAGUE The following players have played so far in Venezuela: Luis Arraez played five games this past week. He went 5-20 with a double. Overall, in 17 games, he is hitting .270/.288/.349 (.637) with three doubles and a triple in 63 at-bats. Niko Goodrum also played in five games this week for Caribes. He went 5-17 with two doubles and scored four runs. In 71 total at-bats, he is hitting .282/.350/.394 (.744) with six doubles and a triple. Heiker Meneses went 6-18 in his five games this past week. He had a double. In 15 total games and 51 at-bats, he is hitting .314/.375/.471 (846) with three doubles, a triple and a home run. Jairo Rodriguez played in four games this week. He went 4-9, which included a two-run double. In 12 total games and 34 at-bats, he is hitting .294/.300/.324 (.624) with the double and six RBIs. Reynaldo Rodriguez played in five games this week and went 5-12 with a double and a homer. Overall, he has 69 at bats in 18 games. He’s hitting .348/.384/.594 (.978) with three doubles, a triple, four homers and 14 RBIs. He will play for Colombia in the World Baseball Classic next spring. Wilfredo Tovar went 4-21 with two doubles over five games this week. In 18 games, he is already 25-75 and hitting .333/.383/.427 (.809) with seven doubles. Victor Tademo pinch ran once this week. He has played in four games, all pinch-running. He has one stolen base and scored a run. Omar Bencomo made one start this week. In it he gave up two runs on seven hits and a walk in six innings. He struck out five. He has thrown 20.1 total innings in four stars. He is 1-0 with a 2.21 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. Opponents are hitting just .234 off of him. He has two walks and 13 strikeouts. Lefty Nick Greenwood did well in his start. He gave up one run on three hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked none. In his three starts, he is 1-1 with a 5.79 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. In his 14 innings, he has given up 14 hits, walked two and struck out seven. Opponents are hitting .269 off of him. Ryan O’Rourke pitched in three more games. He accumulated just 1.2 innings and gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. Overall, he has worked 3.2 innings in eight appearances.His ERA is north of 19 and his WHIP is approaching three. Left-handed batters are hitting just .143 against him. However, right-handers are hitting a robust .545 off of him. Edwar Colina pitched a scoreless inning in his only appearance to this point. He gave up two hits. In the DSL this year, he posted a 2.30 ERA in 58 innings. Of these players, Meneses, both Rodriguez’s, Tovar, Bencomo and Greenwood will likely all become free agents following the completion of the World Series. DOMINICAN WINTER LEAGUE Last week, the DSL was just one game old. This week, they put in a full week of action. Daniel Palka has now played in six games. He it hitting .240/.240/.240 (.480). He is 6-25 on the young season with no walks and seven strikeouts. Carlos Paulino has played in seven games and is 6-24. He is hitting .250/.250/.250 (.500). He can become a free agent at the end of the World Series. PUERTO RICAN WINTER LEAGUE The schedule started on Friday night. Juan Centeno went 0-5 last night for Tiburones de Aquadilla. Nelson Molina went 0-2 with a strikeout and a run scored. He is playing for Indios de Mayaguez. A quick glance at the league rosters shows that several Twins players are on rosters. It will be interesting to see who plays when, or if at all. On Molina’s Mayaguez roster are Jose Berrios, Kennys Vargas, and Eddie Rosario. Also, Dereck Rodriguez is on the roster. Hector Santiago, JJ Fernandez and Lean Marrero are on the Carolina roster. AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE The ABL will begin in mid-November. Please feel free to ask questions and discuss these players and leagues. Click here to view the article

Terry Ryan and the Minnesota Twins foresaw the upcoming predicament at catcher. They knew they had only one more season on Kurt Suzuki's contract, with a bare cupboard in the minors. And so they made their move last November, acquiring John Ryan Murphy from the Yankees. Unfortunately, it was essentially their only move, and it has worked out about as poorly as one could imagine. Now, the club is once again scrambling for answers.When they swapped Aaron Hicks for him, the Twins spoke of Murphy's upside with the bat. Indeed, it was his offensive potential that made Murphy a second-round pick out of high school back in 2009, when questions still surrounded his defensive position. At the time of the trade, Murphy was coming off a season in which he posted a .734 OPS over 172 plate appearances as New York's backup catcher. He was also reasonably productive in the minors, so Murphy looked like a safe bet to at least hold his own in the batter's box. At no point since coming over to Minnesota has he even come close to doing so. Murphy endured an awful spring, going 5-for-36 with zero extra- base hits in the Grapefruit League. OK, only exhibition games, no reason for panic. Then, the season started, and he went 3-for-40 over the first month. A bit more concerning, but still a small sample for a guy maybe pressing with his new team. He was sent to Triple-A in early May, and his performance there is what truly saps any sense of enthusiasm surrounding his abilities. In 68 games with Rochester, Murphy owns a horrendous .209/.264/.279 slash line. In 239 plate appearances, he has mustered one homer and 12 doubles. After showing some signs of life in June (.802 OPS) he has gone back in the tank, with a .195 average and .438 OPS since July 1st. Because the Yankees kept Murphy up as their backup catcher for the entirety of 2015, he still has an option left for 2017, meaning the Twins can afford to be patient with him in terms of control. But, in other regards, they really can't. They've watched him flail away as a 25-year-old in the International League for four months now. And this week they promoted Mitch Garver to Rochester. Garver is one of the organization's most legit internal options and needs reps behind the plate, so he figures to get at least an equal timeshare the rest of the way. That leaves Murphy as an aging part-time minor-league catcher -- clearly not any kind of credible solution for next year. So what is Rob Antony, or whoever succeeds him at GM, to do? Kurt Suzuki has no chance at reaching the 465 PA threshold that would have activated his 2017 option, so he's set to become a free agent. If he finishes strong he'll be one of the better options in a thin catching market so he'll likely require another multi-year deal. Going down that road with a 33-year-old who has nearly 10,000 innings logged at the game's most punishing position would be unwise. Going all-out for one of the top free agents like Wilson Ramos or Matt Wieters would be out of character, but perhaps a nice opportunity for the newly arranged front office to make a statement. We'll see about that one. If there's one thing that has played out favorably with Minnesota's dire catching situation this year, it has been the emergence of Juan Centeno. The 26-year-old came up when Murphy was sent down and has shown all the traits of a quality backup. He's a solid receiver, he makes contact at the plate and he's even got a bit of pop. But a backup is not what the Twins are seeking. It's not what they were seeking when they dealt for Murphy. They were hoping to sneakily pluck away a starter from another organization, and sadly that approach fizzled. Now, it's back to the drawing board, with an even greater sense of urgency than they felt a year ago. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins getting right in Cleveland, the surprising AL Central pecking order, the legend of Juan Centeno, Tyler Duffey and Ervin Santana carrying the rotation again, Joe Mauer leading off, Byron Buxton on fire at Triple-A, Byung Ho Park looking better and better, and finding the unexpected on the Minnesota Corn Growers' website.You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

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