September 25, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer (7) during the game against the New York Yankees at Target Field. The Twins deafeated the Yankees 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

More than half of the Twins positional starters are basically set in stone, but we’ll take a look at the contenders where there is competition; many of the more interesting battles in camp will play out for backup spots as the spring progresses. And while even a strong camp will still mean relegation to the minors for a lot of these guys, they’ll be just an injury away from seeing time with the Twins at some point over the course of the season.

Today, we’ll start with the catchers, and move our way around the diamond over the course of Spring Training.

PROJECTED STARTER: Joe Mauer

After coming off an injury-plagued 2011, Baby Jesus played a smaller percentage of his games at catcher than in any previous season, and it led to career highs in games played and plate appearances. Mauer started just over half of his games at catcher–splitting the rest between first base and DH–and 2012 ended with Mauer battling for a batting title into the last few games of the season while leading the league in OBP. Mauer makes everyone around him in the batting order better, so look for this trend to continue in 2013, with the team’s backup and third catcher continuing to be of significant importance to the team. Mauer’s defense may be slipping somewhat, but it’s difficult to truly gauge how much of that is on Mauer’s shoulders and how much of it is on the pitching staff, as caught-stealing rates fell across the board for Twins backstops in 2012.

PROJECTED BACKUP: Ryan Doumit

The switch-hitting Doumit is good at the plate, and not so great behind it. He has the sort of defensive flexibility that manager Ron Gardenhire loves…although he doesn’t play any position on the field particularly well, and will serve as the team’s primary DH again this season. Still, the Twins feel he hits well enough to offset his defensive liabilities behind the plate, and not only did Doumit’s presence help keep Mauer in the lineup, but catching fewer games helped Doumit—who has his own history of injuries—stay healthy, too.

THIRD CATCHER: Drew Butera, Chris Herrmann

Butera is a horrendous hitter and a great defensive catcher; I’m not going into the numbers, but he hits like a pitcher…and in a single appearance last season, pitched like one, too. Both the Twins and the fans—and I assume Butera himself—know what he is as a player. There is certainly value in a backup catcher that can play high-caliber defense and call a solid game, and with Doumit on board, Butera had the fewest plate appearances of his career last season.

September 16, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins catcher Chris Herrmann (23) during the game against the Chicago White Sox at Target Field. The White Sox defeated the Twins 9-2. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Precipitated by injuries to Mauer and Doumit, Chris Herrmann was a late September call up last year after a solid campaign at AA New Britain. Herrmann has only been playing catcher since 2010, and while his defense behind the plate will need to improve, he did throw out 44 percent of base runners last year, so there’s a possibility that the Twins will find him a solid enough backstop to take on the role of third catcher, a position the Twins have traditionally demanded exceptional defense from. Herrmann is versatile enough to play the outfield, and beyond the injuries to Mauer and Doumit, the Twins may have given him a September call up in part to take an early look at him as competition for Butera this spring. At this point, however, he’s likely to start the year in AAA and be the first call up if an injury strikes. Looking forward, Herrmann’s defensive versatility will come in handy as the Twins start to craft a contender in the coming seasons.

LONG SHOTS

Josmil Pinto is the only other catcher on the 40-man, and his chances of heading north with the team are slim to nil. With so many pitchers in camp, the Twins are also bringing in non-roster invitees Eric Fryer, Kyle Knudson, Danny Lehmann and Dan Rohlfing.

CONCLUSION

Mauer and Doumit are set and, while Butera probably comes north as the third catcher, he may be facing his strongest competition in years for his roster spot.

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So as you can see, I expect Mauer to have another big year, though I think he’ll be putting in a lot of time at first base. I see Doumit playing a little less, with a bit less time at catcher and a bit less in the outfield with Parmelee taking that time, but about the same amount of time at DH. And I expect Chris Herrmann and Drew Butera to see about the same amount of time, with Butera getting his time at the start of the year and then Herrmann taking over the backup catcher role by the end of the year.

Doumit mashes a grand slam against Detroit. Credit: Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

Doumit was a bit of a question mark coming into Twins camp, a player who was stuck with the “injury prone” tag with sub-standard defensive skills behind the plate. Doumit has quietly been having a career year with the Twins in 2012, putting up career highs in games played, HR’s, doubles, RBI, walks and as of this post has an OPS+ of 115 (that’s 89 points higher than defensive specialist Drew Butera from a year ago). In June the Twins signed Doumit to a 2-year extension

While Doumit’s durability has been proven this year, a closer look at what Doumit has been doing this season reveals that his offensive slash line for 2012 (.277/.323/.460) is almost perfectly matched up to his career average (.273/.332/.446). Doumit has been worth between 1-1.7 WAR (1.0 WAR Baseball-reference, 1.7 WAR Fangraphs). 1 run of WAR this year is worth about $4.5 million, which means that Doumit has been worth between $4.5- 7.6 million dollars, and no matter which WAR stat you prefer, that’s a wonderful return for a player who’s making $3 million per year.

Doumit has been a great addition to the Twins, and while the season has been a disappointment overall, Ryan has been a bright spot for the hometown ball club and has limited Butera to only 40 games this season (30 starts).  The limited playing time has been good for the Twins and for Butera, who in 2011 was a -1.6 WAR player, posting a positive WAR value in 2012 (0.2).

But what does it all mean? This is not the first time that Doumit has been able to play 100+ games, it’s actually his 3rd time reaching the feat. Unfortunately every time he reached 100+ he played in less than 80 games the following season.  Can Ryan Doumit stay healthy yet again in 2013? I think that’s a big question mark going into the off-season. I think his production, right in line with his career numbers, is repeatable, and I’ve never been a fan of Doumit being labeled injury prone. In 2009 Doumit suffered a fracture to one of his legs, not really a nagging injury that fans should be worried about coming back to haunt Doumit as he ages.  And yes, he is getting older, but the switch-hitting catcher should continue to be a good bat to plug in the line-up each and every day. His ability to move around the diamond (C, 1B, LF, RF, DH, PH) has been a key component of Ron Gardenhire’s ability to get Doumit into the line-up day in and day out.

Outside of Twins Territory Doumit is fairly over-looked by the media, and that’s just fine by me. While I am generally not in support of trading offense for defense, when Doumit has been in the OF pairing him with speedy outfielders like Denard Span and Ben Revere make up a little bit for his lack of range, and he goes out and provides plus value at the plate.

I look forward to seeing Doumit back with the Twins in 2013 where I believe he will again out perform his contract and provide the Twins with great value and offensive production.