Last week, the Minnesota Twins decided to zag by signing veteran catcher Victor Caratini to a two-year, $14 million contract. They did this with many expecting them to zig toward improving their depleted bullpen.
While the move was unexpected, it wasn’t any less necessary. After presumed starter Ryan Jeffers, the backup backstop picture looked pretty grim, with recently acquired Alex Jackson having the inside track. But Caratini’s offensive profile is a marked improvement over Jackson’s career .153/.239/.288 career clip across 161 games, and $7 million isn’t going to break the bank in 2026. The value was there, as was the opportunity to improve the team, even if it wasn’t in the area that requires the most improvement.
The question is how much budget remains for the rest of their offseason and how else they might improve the roster with those limited resources. And while it might seem particularly unconventional after Caratini’s signing, part of me is hoping the Twins keep zagging toward another improvement on offense.
Yes, I know, the relief corps is currently riddled with uncertainty. Cole Sands, Justin Topa, Kody Funderburk, and Eric Orze are the only four reasonable locks, and all four would surely be better suited for lower leverage opportunities. It would behoove the Twins to add someone who could handle the eighth and ninth innings of close games – preferably two or three of those arms.
But the current group of remaining free agents leaves little more than retreads and experiments. I wouldn’t put it past the club to add a few of those names – Taylor Rogers, Danny Coulombe, Scott Barlow, and Michael Kopech all come to mind, among others. But their improvement over current options is hardly a lock at this point.
The free-agent market for sluggers, however, still presents a few options that I think would be clear upgrades over the names currently pegged to make Minnesota’s 26-man roster as bench pieces. While Rhys Hoskins and Paul Goldschmidt are no longer the All-Star caliber players that they were earlier in their careers, they both offer far more than the likes of Edouard Julien and James Outman.
Julien and Outman are projected to occupy the last two spots on Minnesota’s bench due to their lack of minor league options remaining. Replacing them with the aforementioned veteran sluggers would leave the Twins with a more cohesive group of position players and add much-needed pop to the right-handed contingent.
Julien is a left-handed hitter who has struggled to the tune of a .208/..299/.324 clip over the last two seasons, good for 21% below league average production. He doesn’t make up for it on defense, with sloppy play at second base and limitations at first. He’s superfluous on the roster as long as Kody Clemens is aboard.
Outman is also a left-handed hitter, but has been even worse in that same time span. He owns a brutal .141 batting average and a virtually unplayable 38.8% strikeout rate. He’s been 50% worse than league average over the last two years. However, he’s the most passable defensive center fielder on the roster, making him a little trickier to drop, according to many pundits who follow the Twins. But is his defensive skill set really necessary?
Outman’s range has been right around neutral over the last couple of seasons, and that’s with a good amount of play in the corners in 2025. He has a decently strong arm, but not enough to be considered a real weapon. Austin Martin presents a slight drop when it comes to arm strength, where he’s right around league average. Still, he’s almost identical to Outman when it comes to his range and sprint speed.
He also was a major improvement at the plate, hitting .282 with encouraging underlying numbers, not to mention his much-needed right-handed bat among an army of lefty-hitters on the roster. However, the Twins limited Martin to mostly playing left field last season, showing that perhaps they aren’t comfortable entrusting him to any sort of extended look at center field. But evidence suggests that the same can probably be said for Outman, so why should he get an automatic leg up?
So with Julien and Outman being fairly expendable, it could really benefit the Twins to add another competent right-handed hitter like Hoskins or Goldschmidt if their market were to dip to a suitable one-year deal, even if they are closer to league average than All-Star caliber hitters. It would mean consolidating the softest part of their offensive contingent into one bench spot. Utilityman Ryan Kreidler offers an even worse bat but is a comfortable defensive backup option at both shortstop and center field.
But imagine this depth chart:
C Jeffers
1B Goldschmidt/Hoskins
2B Luke Keaschall
3B Royce Lewis
SS Brooks Lee
LF Alan Roden/Trevor Larnach
CF Byron Buxton
RF Matt Wallner
DH Josh Bell
C Caratini
1B/2B Clemens
OF Martin
SS/CF Kreidler
It wouldn’t be a murderer’s row, by any means. Still, it offers a sprinkling of high-end offensive talent, usable balance from both sides of the plate, and some much-needed veteran stability for a team brimming with guys at crossroads in their careers.
The weakest parts of the picture will hopefully be replaced by top prospects like Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Kaelen Culpepper if all goes well. So really, we’re looking at a prime opportunity to raise the floor in the meantime.
Of course, a more direct way to raise that floor would be to zig towards investing in bullpen additions. But the route that intrigues me the most involves zagging toward a more balanced and capable corps on offense.
