Former Minnesota Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey didn’t make a lot of moves in his final offseason with the team. But before he mutually agreed to part ways with the team on Jan. 30, he made a couple of free agent signings including Victor Caratini.
Caratini agreed to a two-year, $14 million contract with the Twins on Jan. 23, one week before Falvey left the team. While he’s offered versatility at first base and catcher, his performance hasn’t lived up to his salary.
While Caratini homered on Wednesday, the Twins will need more after Ryan Jeffers broke the hamate bone in his left wrist and it’s the perfect opportunity for the 32-year-old to avoid becoming Falvey’s final mistake.
Twins need more from Victor Caratini after Ryan Jeffers’s injury
The Twins thought they were getting a versatile player with a solid bat when they signed Caratini last winter. Over his past two seasons with the Houston Astros, Caratini hit .263/.329/.406 with 20 homers and 76 RBI in 589 at-bats and was coming off a decent year in 2025 with a .259/.324/.404 slash line with 12 homers and 46 RBI in 114 games.
For a team working on a right-sized budget and few legitimate options at first base, Caratini looked like a fit. But he hasn’t come anywhere near those modest expectations.
Entering Wednesday’s series finale against the Astros, Caratini’s .224 slugging percentage was the second-lowest in the majors among players with a minimum of his 107 at-bats. Caratini’s .187 batting average was also the second-lowest on the Twins behind the recently demoted Matt Wallner (.167) and his .298 on-base percentage was the third-lowest behind Wallner (.259) and Josh Bell (.296).
While Wallner and Bell at least brought a power element to the table, Caratini hasn’t brought much of anything. Although Jeffers’s injury will give him an opportunity for more playing time, he also runs the risk of being Falvey’s final free agent mistake in Minnesota if he doesn’t turn it around.
Caratini was supposed to be the replacement for Christian Vazquez, who signed a three-year, $30 million contract before the 2023 season. That contract was a massive flop as Vazquez hit .215/.267/.311 with 16 homers and 73 RBI in 260 games with the Twins, but somehow it wasn’t the biggest free agent flop under Falvey’s watch.
After finding gold with Nelson Cruz in 2019, the Twins signed Josh Donaldson to a four-year, $92 million contract the following offseason. But “The Bringer of Rain” ran dry in Minnesota and was salary dumped before the 2022 season.
The 2021 offseason also brought a haul including Andrelton Simmons, Alex Colomé, J.A. Happ, Matt Schoemaker and Hansel Robles. But it may have been a better result lighting $30 million on fire as the Twins finished with a 73-89 record and several of those names were traded at the July deadline.
Carlos Correa was a good one-year risk for the Twins in 2022 after Donaldson was traded to the New York Yankees. But Falvey coughed up a six-year, $200 million contract to keep him after the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets backed out of mega deals over concerns with his right ankle and the Twins made another salary dump and last season’s fire sale at the trade deadline.
Falvey is long gone but Caratini is keeping the legacy of free-agent whiffs alive. If he can’t replicate the performance he had on Wednesday, there’s a chance that the signing could look even worse and give the Twins another bad contract on a payroll that doesn’t have a lot of margin for error.
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