Twins

Christian Vázquez Still Can Be Valuable To the Twins Next Year

Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Spring training is only two weeks away, and it looks like the Minnesota Twins will still have Christian Vázquez on their roster going into camp.

There had been conversations between the Twins and San Diego Padres about shipping the 34-year-old backstop to southern California. However, the Padres signed former All-Star MVP Elias Díaz a one-year, $3.5 million deal, making it unlikely they’ll trade for Vázquez.

As teams have filled roster spots with remaining free-agent catchers and other trades, it appears that Vázquez will stay in the Twins organization when pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 13. While his performance at the plate since signing two years ago, Vázquez’s defensive promise as a catcher has been invaluable to the team.

Vázquez’s defense could be valuable as the Twins transition to the next wave of their catching core, who will get more playing time over the next two seasons. Jair Camargo, Diego Cartaya, or Mickey Gasper aren’t at the same level defensively as Vázquez. Still, they can benefit from the instruction he and bench coach Hank Conger provide them in camp.

Minor League stat trackers have limited data on fielding stats at every position, especially catcher. What little stats are available can still show the gaps in defensive skills between Vázquez and the catching prospects in the upper minors.

Passed balls can offer context for Vázquez’s defensive ability. In 719 innings of work behind the plate in 2024, Vázquez only allowed one passed ball all season. Compare that to three allowed by Gasper in 300 innings of work between Double-A and Triple-A, five allowed by Camargo in 400 ⅓ innings, and six allowed by Cartaya in 602 ⅔ innings between Double-A and Triple-A.

The limited minor league data doesn’t show how these passed balls translate into runs saved or base runners advanced. Meanwhile, Vázquez has the advantage of Statcast and FanGraphs data from the majors. His one-passed ball came from a bad pitch from Ronny Henriquez. It allowed Xander Bogaerts to advance from second to third in San Diego’s eighth-inning rally against the Twins on Aug. 20.

The passed ball didn’t result in a run being allowed, and Vázquez finished his 2024 season with seven defensive runs saved.

Still, even without minor league data showing the result of Camargo, Cartaya, and Gasper’s passed balls, it’s one way to quantify Vázquez’s help to the younger catching core in spring training.

Vázquez can help these catchers, especially Cartaya, learn how to throw baserunners out.

Vázquez wasn’t always good at controlling the running game. In 2021, Vázquez allowed 55 stolen bases against him, the most in the American League. However, Vázquez has averaged throwing out over 20% of base runners who have attempted to steal bases against him.

Concerningly, Vázquez only threw out 15.9% of base stealers last year, the lowest of his career. Camargo and Gasper had higher caught-stealing percentages than Vázquez in 2024. Gasper threw out 17% of base stealers, and Camargo threw out 28% of attempted base stealers.

Cartaya had an almost identical caught-stealing percentage as Vázquez (16%). However, he had significantly more stolen base attempts against him in the last two seasons (236 total) than Vázquez had in the previous three (204). In the minors, teams have taken advantage of running against Cartaya at every turn. They successfully stole 106 stolen bases against him in 2023 and 94 in 2024.

However, Cartaya threw out 23 and 18 base runners in the last two years. It shows what the Twins can focus on in camp and how Vázquez and the coaches can help develop Cartaya into throwing out more bases runners this season.

If the Twins don’t trade Vázquez, there’s reason for them to believe that they can have a third consecutive season where they only have two catchers splitting starts at catcher all year. However, that rarely happens in baseball because players age and become more injury-prone.

If and when either Vázquez or Jeffers get to a point where they miss time this season, the Twins will need Camargo, Gasper, or Cartaya to step up in their absence. Minnesota is better off keeping Vázquez in the organization as a mentor to these younger, more inexperienced catchers than if they were to trade him away to reduce payroll.

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Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

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