With baseball possibly nearing a return, we take a look at the upcoming season for the Minnesota Twins players, continuing with Mitch Garver.
Several Minnesota Twins players had career seasons in 2019, so we wanted to take a look ahead for what those player’s seasons might look like in 2020. We started off the series with Nelson Cruz, Byron Buxton, and Jorge Polanco, and we continue today with catcher Mitch Garver.
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Like many of his teammates, Garver had a breakout year in 2019, putting on one of the best seasons by a catcher in the MLB. Garver finished Top 10 among catchers in average, homers, RBI, and WAR, incredibly impressive since his stat line was only across 93 games:
- 93 G, .273 BA/.365 OBP/.995 OPS, 31 HR, 67 RBI, Silver Slugger Award
Garver is another player who, similar to Jorge Polanco, has consistently improved his stats over the years. Garver has earned his playing time and continuously improved each season, doing well enough this year for the Twins to be comfortable enough letting the other primary catcher, Jason Castro walk, despite Castro’s strong season.
Garver improved greatly as both a batter and a fielder, working with Twins coaches to improve his receiving and pitch framing leading to an improved season behind the dish. That improvement shows Garver’s work ethic and desire to be the everyday catcher on this team.
Granted, the team did bring in Alex Avila to have a secondary catcher for the team, but that doesn’t really signify a lack of faith in Garver. Avila will likely be the team’s primary backup to come in whenever Garver needs a day off during a grueling season.
This leaves only one question, the same one asked about Cruz, Buxton, Polanco: can Garver repeat or improve his stellar 2019? The answer for this one isn’t easy. Garver has never played more than 102 games in a season, and his breakout 2019 powered Garver to a season WAY better than any of his previous marks.
Ideally, Garver bests his 2019 season with better numbers in 2020. The Minnesota Twins, Garver, and fans all hope so. He could match those 2019 numbers. He also could move backwards towards 2018 numbers. We won’t get to know till the season starts. But it will be an interesting one.