MINNEAPOLIS — For the past two seasons, the Twins have basically split their playing time at catcher evenly between Christian Vázquez (172 starts) and Ryan Jeffers (152 starts), including right down the middle last year, 81 to 81, in a time-share that typically saw them alternate starts.
But with Vázquez just 5-for-33 (.152) in the early going this year after back-to-back seasons with a sub-.600 OPS, and a struggling lineup searching for any kind of boost in offensive production, the Twins’ overall approach to the position is evolving.
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Before Vázquez, 34, started behind the plate in Thursday’s shutout loss to the Chicago White Sox, which was a day game after a night game that often sees a backup catcher called into action, the 27-year-old Jeffers had started three consecutive games and six times in seven games.
“RJ is going to find a few more at-bats in the near term,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “See if we can get the offense going more than we’ve seen. That’s part of it. I think getting him a few more games and a few more at-bats might be able to jump-start our group in some ways offensively.”
In Play, Run(s) pic.twitter.com/Qh3WYdT9u3
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 6, 2025
Jeffers broke out of his season-opening slump with a big game Wednesday, going 3-for-5 with a double, but his overall numbers through 17 games remain modest with a .254 batting average and no homers. Still, his mediocre .682 OPS is substantially better than Vázquez’s punchless .467 OPS.
There’s also some evidence Jeffers has gotten unlucky this season, with a handful of well-struck fly balls and line drives being caught for outs instead of landing for extra bases. His “expected” metrics paint a far rosier picture, with a .272 batting average and .490 slugging percentage.
And in their two-plus seasons paired together, Jeffers has proven to be the vastly superior bat, out-hitting Vázquez by 30 points of batting average and 201 points of OPS. Among the 51 big-league catchers with 100 or more games in that time, Jeffers ranks fourth in OPS and Vázquez is 46th.
Defense is a different story, and that shouldn’t be overlooked, especially at catcher. Vázquez has a strong reputation and the pitch-framing metrics to match. Jeffers’ pitch-framing numbers are well below average for the third straight season, but he has thrown out a league-high four would-be stealers.
Twins pitchers collectively posted a better ERA throwing to Jeffers than Vázquez in 2023 and 2024, while this season’s early stats are even. That can be misleading if one catcher is paired with better pitchers, but it at least suggests Jeffers’ defense hasn’t been a problem.
Ryan Jeffers working hard to win this low changeup. #ꓘoftheDay pic.twitter.com/ryyCQTGKdl
— Xan Barksdale (@xanbarksdale) April 24, 2025
Vázquez’s perceived defensive edge over Jeffers was a large part of why he previously received so many starts despite a lackluster bat, but his hitting has declined from below average for the position to flat-out bad. And that’s not uncommon for a 34-year-old catcher with as much mileage as Vázquez.
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Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Jeffers is in his prime and coming off a career-high 21 homers last season. Jeffers is also under team control for next year via arbitration, whereas Vázquez is in the final season of a three-year, $30 million contract signed with the Twins as a free agent in December 2022.
At that time, Vázquez was coming off a season in which he hit .274 with a .714 OPS in 119 games for the Boston Red Sox and World Series-winning Houston Astros, totaling 2.1 bWAR. He’s hit .217 with a .575 OPS in 207 games for the Twins, a sub-replacement level (-1.1 bWAR) performance.
With the Twins clearly in need of better offensive production, leaning more on the younger, better-hitting Jeffers makes plenty of sense. If anything, it’s a credit to how highly the Twins think of Vázquez’s defense, leadership and intangible value that they’ve resisted making this change until now.
(Photo of Ryan Jeffers: David Berding / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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