Minnesota Twins 2018 positional recap, part 1- Catchers
After an underwhelming season, let’s take a look at what went well and what went wrong at each position for the Minnesota Twins, starting with the catchers.
By now, we know the story of the 2018 Minnesota Twins season- Full of expectations, full of disappointments. In this new series, we’ll try to figure out exactly what went well, what went wrong, and what to expect in the future. We’ll do this position by position, starting today with the catchers.
The Twins used 6 different catchers this season (well, 7 if you include Joe Mauer catching 1 pitch in a beautiful tribute)- Jason Castro, Mitch Garver, Willians Astudillo, Bobby Wilson, Juan Graterol, and Chris Gimenez. We’ll focus mainly on the first three in that list as they are the ones that figure to have a role in 2019 and beyond. But first, let’s recap the season for our catchers-
2018 recap
Coming out of spring training, Jason Castro was unsurprisingly our starting catcher, with Mitch Garver drawing backup responsibilities. The pair figured to be the main combo of catchers for most all of the season, with Castro getting most of the starts and Garver continuing to gain experience and hopefully show signs at being the catcher of the future. That outlook changed entirely when Castro tore a meniscus in early May, ending his season just over a month into the year. The team turned to Garver and Bobby Wilson, who got fairly equal playing time for the next month or so. Neither did much of anything over that span- Garver slashed .200/.294/.253, while Wilson slashed .167/.208/.313. Then, however, Garver caught fire, and gave many reasons to be excited about him as a potential long term catcher.
Garver would go on to slash .298/.360/.466 over the rest of the season, becoming the Minnesota Twins’ everyday catcher, with Wilson understandably falling into the backup role. Wilson wouldn’t improve his numbers at all over the rest of the season, finishing with a .178 average before being traded to the Chicago Cubs for Chris Gimenez in late August. Here and there, Willians Astudillo made a few appearances. First for a few weeks in late June to mid July, then again in late August where he stayed in the MLB for the rest of the season after rosters expanded in September.
Interestingly, despite being known more as a catcher than a utility player, Astudillo found time at LF, CF, 3B, 2B, and even pitched an inning before getting any time at catcher. He eventually settled in as a catcher, though, with 16 of his final 20 appearances coming as a catcher. Many fans grew to love Astudillo, both for his performance (he finished the year with an impressive .355/.371/.516 slash line across 29 games, only striking out 3 times all year), and a few of his memorable moments-
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1040291224815656961
Willians Astudillo was fun to watch in the last month of the season - making him our @ticasino Player of the Month for September! #MNTwins https://t.co/04xtWCyd0I
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) October 2, 2018
Chris Gimenez was added to the mix in September, appearing in 13 games and starting in 9, where he hit a solid .276/.353/.517. Juan Graterol also made a handful of appearances in September, with not much to write home about. Graterol’s tenure with the Twins ended several days ago after being claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds.
The 2018 catcher situation turned out to be quite different than the Minnesota Twins anticipated. Castro was expected to once again handle the brunt of the duties, likely again providing solid defense and game calling while not contributing much offensively. But, he went down and Garver eventually stepped up and made a name for himself. Astudillo got a few opportunities and forced the Twins to consider him as a part of 2019 as well. Both Wilson and Graterol parted ways with the Twins, and Gimenez had a short reunion with his 2017 team to end the season.
It turned out to be a productive year for Twins catchers, both for 2018 and the future. Nobody wants to see a player get hurt and have to miss the majority of the season, but it may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the organization. Had Castro not gotten hurt, he likely would have continued to draw starts most days (not a terrible thing, but Castro’s offensive upside is quite limited), and Garver may not have been able to prove himself worthy of starting and show why we should be excited about him long term. While nothing notable came of Wilson, Graterol, or Gimenez this year, we were introduced to Astudillo, who made a compelling case for a role with the team in 2019 as well.
Looking forward
Unfortunately, Minnesota Twins fans were not able to fully experience just how valuable a good offensive catcher can be, due to the fact that the rest of the lineup under-performed for the majority of the season. The team hasn’t gotten much offensive production out of the catcher slot for the past few seasons, relying on the less than elite offensive outputs of Castro, Gimenez, and Kurt Suzuki for the past few seasons. Now, these guys certainly were worthwhile players due to their defense, clubhouse leadership, and in Suzuki’s case, 1 solid season of offense, but it’s not much of a stretch to say the Twins really haven’t had much offense from catchers since the Joe Mauer days.
Hence, Garver’s final line of .268/.335/.414 with 7 home runs and 45 RBI in 102 games is worth getting excited about. That line looks even better if you cut out some of his early season struggles and times where he was adjusting to more playing time after Castro’s injury- Over his final 70 games, Garver’s slash line sits at .293/.357/.454. Arguably his best game of the year came on September 28th, when he showcased his improvement this season in a 4 for 5 outing against the White Sox with 6 RBIs.
It’s also worth discussing Willians Astudillo as part of the Twins future. I’m a bit baffled at how exactly he does it, but the guy flat out hit this year. Of his 23 starts, there were only 5 in which he did not record a hit. He hardly ever walked (just 2 on the season), but he hardly ever struck out either (just 3). It’s hard to argue with a .355/.371/.516 slash line, plus 3 homers and 21 RBI in 29 games. It’d be one thing if Astudillo was purely a catcher, as Castro figures to be back next season for the final year in his contract, and Garver is all but a lock to make the active roster at this point, but Astudillo showed he can play just about anywhere on the diamond this year. He only got six games at 3B, two at 2B, and one in the outfield, but that sort of flexibility could give the Twins reason to include him on their roster even with Castro and Garver next year.
As for Castro, he’ll likely be back in the mix next year for one more season before his contract expires and the Minnesota Twins likely part ways with him. He’s making $8 million next year, so it’s unlikely that the Twins find any takers in trade for him, which would let the team roll with Garver and Astudillo. In fact, he could be a good person to hang onto, given that his strength has always been defense and game calling, which is an area that Garver could still use some improvement in. It could make sense to pair Castro and Garver next season, perhaps letting Garver take over the starting role and continue to develop his game, while Castro helps mentor him before becoming a free agent.
If that’s the case, that may leave Astudillo on the outside looking in. He certainly proved that he at least deserves to be looked at in spring training, but with the veteran Castro returning, Garver showing signs of being the next long term catcher, and Astudillo with options left, it makes too much sense to start with Castro and Garver in the bigs and have Astudillo wait in the minors. It’s quite rare for a team to use 3 slots on their 25-man roster on catchers, and while Astudillo’s positional flexibility helps with that somewhat, it’s hard to day if it will be enough.
Matt’s 2019 predictions
At this point, my preference would be to have Garver as the starter next year, with Castro backing him up and helping mentor him. If Garver can follow up his great 2018 performance with another good offensive year, plus improve his defense and game calling, he legitimately could become the best Twins catcher since Joe Mauer. I do like Astudillo, but I just don’t see room for him in the MLB to start the year. I’d start him off in the minors and have him be the first guy called up with Castro or Garver get hurt or need to miss time for some other reason. After all, this year proved that you can never have too much depth at catcher. At a position that takes such a big toll on the body, it’s never safe to assume someone will be able to play catcher for the entire season without injury.
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As for what exactly I’d like to see from each player next year, the biggest thing for Garver is continuing his development. The last 3-4 months of the season were fantastic for him offensively, and he really improved a lot all around over the course of the season. My goal for him in 2019 would be to continue that development, perhaps focusing a bit more on the defensive side of the game, to become a well rounded, all around solid catcher. Castro is pretty much going to be what he already is, but if he can buy in to being a backup to Garver and helping him develop, it will be really, really valuable for the Minnesota Twins organization. Astudillo will invariably get more time in the MLB at some point next year, for whatever reason, and I do hope he picks up right where he left off. The position is a bit crowded for 2019, but after Castro likely leaves next offseason, a Garver/Astudillo pairing for 2020 and beyond is pretty intriguing.
In conclusion
2018 wasn’t at all what we expected from our catchers, but the Twins were able to make the most of a difficult situation after Castro got hurt. We got a better idea of what to expect long term without sacrificing much catcher production in 2018, largely thanks to Garver’s emergence. Astudillo showed he’s worth considering as an option, too. Wilson and Graterol are no longer with the Twins, and Gimenez is considering retiring, leaving Castro, Garver, and Astudillo to compete for 2 slots on the active roster.
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Catcher has been a bit of a void for the Minnesota Twins since Mauer switched to first base, but the future is once again promising at the position. We’ll enter 2019 with 3 quality options at catcher. After the 2019 season, Castro and the Twins will likely part ways, leaving us with Garver, Astudillo, and further down the road, perhaps prospect Ryan Jeffers. The Twins have a lot of questions to answer and areas of need to address in 2019 and beyond, but catcher is one spot that shouldn’t need much work.