Ryan Jeffers emerged as clear No. 1 Twins catcher, but Christian Vázquez remains in 2024 plans

Throughout the Twins' postseason run, manager Rocco Baldelli said one of the "more challenging" decisions he made before each game was benching catcher Christian Vázquez.

The Texas-Arizona World Series begins Friday night, and at this time last year, Vázquez was helping the Houston Astros win a title. In this postseason, the 33-year-old didn't appear in any of the Twins' six playoff games, with Ryan Jeffers as the obvious offensive choice to start at catcher.

"This has clearly been, for me personally, one of the more challenging positional discussions, roster discussions, like usage on the position players side, because we've relied on Vázqy for a lot this year," Baldelli said before a game in the American League Division Series.

Vázquez, who signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Twins two months after winning his second World Series, had one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, batting .223 with a .598 OPS. Both numbers were his lowest in six years. Vázquez is skilled at blocking pitches in the dirt and rates highly at framing pitches, and he started the season ahead of Jeffers, earning the bulk of starts in April. As the season played out, the Twins essentially alternated between their two catchers.

Despite Vázquez's lack of playing time in the postseason, they want him to share near-equal catching duties with Jeffers again in 2024. The Twins will probably experience at least a small drop in player payroll after their TV contract with Diamond Sports Group ends, but they like their setup at catcher.

Vázquez remains under contract for the next two seasons, at $10 million per year, and this is the first offseason Jeffers is eligible for arbitration, which will raise his salary.

"I know Christian is disappointed with where he was at from an offensive standpoint this year, but that doesn't mean he's not going to be a factor in that again next year," Derek Falvey, the Twins president of baseball operations, said at his end-of-the-year press conference. "I feel like that's an area of strength for us organizationally, and not an area we would tinker with but hopefully just build off, because it's a big part of any season you have."

The continuity between the two catchers, Baldelli says, was a factor in the pitching staff's success. Vázquez and Jeffers have their own game-calling styles, but they both earned a lot of trust from their pitchers.

It was a vast improvement from 2022 when the Twins used four catchers, and none played particularly well. Jeffers, to his credit, improved offensively after working with hitting coach David Popkins, and looked better defensively.

Alternating starts between catchers, instead of relying on one catcher to handle the bulk of the workload, is now the Twins' preferred approach.

"You're going to get the most out of your guys when they're both actively out there on a regular basis," Baldelli said. "As long as you have good players — and we do — that works great for us. We have guys in Ryan and Vázqy that are both going to be out there regularly, they're both going to play, they're both going to be catching all of our pitchers. That's how I see it. We'll rotate them as we see fit when the time comes."

The future looks bright for Jeffers if he can repeat what he did in 2023. He batted .276 with an .858 OPS in 335 plate appearances.

As the Twins' front office begins mapping out plans for the winter, catcher is one area they appear content.

"The catching side of things worked out very well for us this year," Baldelli said, "and I look forward to working in a similar fashion with those two guys going forward."