Happy Fourth

On this Independence Day morning, the Twins, having won a 12-inning affair in Oakland on Wednesday night:

• are 54-31, a .635 winning percentage, which translates to 102 wins over the course of the season
• still have not lost three games in a row
• lead Cleveland by seven games in the AL Central
• have the second-best run differential in MLB and the best in the American League.

They feel like they've been in a malase since Memorial Day, and the Yankees have overtaken them for best record in the AL, but that's still a pretty solid position to be in on July 4.

---

Jake Odorizzi went on the disabled list with a blister after his awkward start on Tuesday, with Zack Littell coming back up. This also takes Odorizzi out of the All-Star Game, but he was scheduled to start Sunday anyway, so he was going to be sidelined for the big exhibition regardless. Jose Berrios was named to the roster.

So the Twins have three All-Stars. Happy now?

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Since June 18, the #MNTwins have played in contests of 18, 17 and 12 innings.

Mitch Garver has caught 45 of those 47 innings. With Garver behind the plate, Twins pitchers have allowed 8 runs (7 earned) in those 45 innings.

That’s a 1.40 ERA for those keeping score at home.

— Dan Hayes (@DanHayesMLB) July 4, 2019

And he had two key hits Wednesday too.

Contemplating Mitch Garver

We might have a better idea later today of how badly damaged Mitch Garver's ankle is after Tuesday's plate collision, but the immediate diagnosis -- a high ankle sprain -- suggests a few weeks on the injured list.

At the start of the season, losing Garver for a month (or whatever it turns out to be) wouldn't have seemed as daunting as it does today. As it is, we might rather have had Byron Buxton's throw -- which only cut down the tying run -- be off line and pull Garver out of harm's way.

That's not a choice anyone gets to make. Buxton made a remarkable throw -- Statcast puts the throw at 253 feet and 98.6 miles per hour -- from a dead stop, and both Garver and baserunner Shohei Ohtani did what the rules regarding plays at the plate say they are supposed to do, and Garver got hurt anyway.

Garver, of course, has been a major part of the remarkable production the Twins have gotten from their catchers (he hit a two-run bomb on Tuesday before the injury). They still have Jason Castro and Willians Astudillo, the latter of whom just came off the injured list himself. Both figure to get more playing time while Garver is out, and presumably Astudillo will play less third base-outfield-first base.

Meanwhile, Nelson Cruz nurses a sore wrist -- Rocco Baldelli has shuffled Garver and Astudillo through the DH role the last two games -- and Miguel Sano is nearly ready to come off the injured list. I rather expect that will be the move, Garver on the IL and Sano activated.

We're already seeing Marwin Gonzalez start to move around the field some after a more than a month of being pretty much locked into third base. His multiposition versatility is a big part of his value, and we haven't seen it in action much because of Sano's absence. Garver's injury figures to reduce Astudillo's use at other positions, so even though Gonzalez isn't a catcher, Garver's injury makes it more necessary to move Gonzalez around.

Where they stand: Catcher

The Twins have not yet made the signing of Nelson Cruz official. Presumably they are waiting for the results of his physical; they are, quite likely, also looking for the best way to open a roster slot. They would probably like to trade Tyler Austin, but there may not be a market for him. Remember, they got him on waivers last summer.

But assuming that Cruz is indeed signed, the Twins have their Plan A lineup in hand for 2019. Let's go though that set of regulars, position by position, starting with catcher.

Presumed regular: Jason Castro.

Others on the 40: Mitch Garver and Willians Astudillo

Nonroster contenders for the active roster: none

One of the many things that went wrong for the Twins pitching staff last season was Castro's prolonged absence from the lineup. He played just 19 games and hit .143 in 74 plate appearances before having knee surgery that took him out for the remainder of the season.

We know the drill on Castro: Strong defensive catcher, marginal hitter. (It's hard to believe that he routinely hit third for Houston in 2013.). He's expected to be fully ready for spring training and the third and final year of his contract.

Garver is pretty much Castro's mirror image: A good hitter for a catcher but with noticeable limitations behind the plate. He was charged with nine passed balls and was involved in 33 wild pitches; that's way too many pitches being chased to the backstop. He threw out just 18 percent of basestealers (league average was 28 percent). He didn't catch in September after sustaining a concussion.

I think Astudillo is the better player -- a superior defensive catcher and probably equally productive at the plate, although the production is in a different shape than Garver's. Astudillo is also a lot more fun to watch play ball than pretty much anybody on the roster. But he's unlikely to be on the active roster unless and until either Castro or Garver gets hurt.

The biggest problem for Astudillo's chances of making the roster is that Garver is out of options and thus cannot be readily sent to the minors, and that's not a problem for Astudillo. The Twins aren't likely to discard Garver, and I'm not sure that Astudillo is going to convince the decision makers that he's a guy they want to carry as a multi-use player, although that is a possibility.

Mitch Garver's future

The Twins sent two injured players, Eddie Rosario and Mitch Garver, back to the Twin Cities on Wednesday rather than have them make the long haul out to Oakland. Not only was it obvious that neither would play in Oakland, it's quite possible that both are done for what remains of the season.

This is not the first notable concussion Garver's sustained; he had one a few years ago when he was in Cedar Rapids. And he's a catcher, the position most vulnerable to head injuries because of the foul tips and occasional bat backlashes.

Two tweets:

Doesn't seem to be any consideration at this point of moving Garver off catcher next year due to concussion history and offensive potential. Molitor said it would be hard to carry him on #mntwins roster if not a backup catcher.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) September 19, 2018

So basically, @Twins are telling him, "Choose between endangering your future health by risking another concussion or give up on your career b/c you have no place with us anywhere else." Real nice message. https://t.co/QvugW13nZG

— Steve Buhr (@JimCrikket) September 19, 2018

I get what Steve's saying, but: Where else other than catcher is he going to play?

Garver is 27, so he's already in the peak phase of his career. His hitting is -- good for a catcher, but his OPS+ is a tick under league average, which means it's not really good enough to play a corner position such as first base or left field. 

The "offensive potential" Berardino cites is based almost entirely on being a league-average hitter at catcher. The Twins have better hitting options at any other postions Garver might reasonably play.

Not that Garver is a stellar defensive catcher either. Another tweet:

Top 5 catchers by framing (per @SportsInfo_SIS)
1. Max Stassi
2. Tyler Flowers
t3. Austin Barnes
t3. Yasmani Grandal
t3. Austin Hedges

Bottom 3:
1. Tucker Barnhart
t2. Nick Hundley
t2. Mitch Garverhttps://t.co/VvlM2i4AhU

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) September 19, 2018

Yeah. A poor pitch framer who has been behind the plate for nine wild pitches and 33 passed balls in just under 670 innings and has thrown out just 18 percent of the base stealers. He'd better hit.

All of which leads me to suspect that those of us trying to project Willians Astudillo as a utility man for the 2019 Twins might be missing a more significant point: He may be a better choice as the No. 2 catcher (behind Jason Castro) than Garver.

Catching on (and off)

I grumped a while back that I was uninterested in seeing Chris Gimenez behind the plate the rest of the way. I now must swallow my objections, because I now doubt that we'll see Mitch Garver at all these final two weeks.

Garver left Wednesday's game after getting hit in the head by a foul tip. Apparently trying to watch Friday's game from the bench set off concussion symptoms. I'm quite sure that if this weren't the month of expanded roster that Garver would be on one disabled list or another. The practical result is the same: He's not going to catch.

Which creates more opportunity for Willians Astudillo, certainly. but I don't think Paul Molitor is eager to have anybody catch every game for two weeks. Speaking of Astudillo -- he went hitless Monday night but drove in a run with a hit-and-run ground out. One of the plusses of a catcher who is an extreme contact hitter is the ability to avoid double plays by sending runners one knows can't steal.

And then there's this comment on Astudillo behind the plate:

Stewart on Astudillo's catching: "Love him. Unbelievable. It seems like just the way he receives the ball, I’m not really shaking (him off). I shook maybe once tonight. Willians just called a good game." #mntwins

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) September 18, 2018

Molitor didn't have Astudillo catch his first time up, which might suggest that the skipper doesn't think much of Astudillo's receiving skills. But he looks pretty good behind the dish to me, and he certainly hasn't been as prone to passed balls/wild pitches as Garver.

Meanwhile, Bobby Wilson -- remember him? -- has yet to appear in a game for the Cubs.

The catching situation

Let us hope that the news arc on Jason Castro halts its direction here, because it seems that every development about his right knee becomes increasingly dire. In the last two weeks or so we've seen it go from:

• Sound enough to play on, to
• Cortisone shot and a short DL stint, to
• Surgery and a month or so of rehab, to
• Out for the season

The next step in this progression is probably something like amputation.

Castro has another season left on his contract, and the way Paul Molitor worded Castro's 2019 outlook Wednesday morning was open to interpretation: "I think there's some real optimism." Yes, sir, but is there some real pessimism? 

Let us assume for the moment that the Twins are indeed confident that Castro will be capable of carrying his 2017 workload in 2019. That still leaves them about four-and-a-half months of 2018's regular season, plus, they hope, some playoffs. And their catchers are a relatively old rookie in Mitch Garver (27) and the well-traveled veteran Bobby Wilson (35).

LaVelle Neal said on Twitter that it's time to see what Garver can do. My expectation is that Garver will hit well enough to justify the bulk of the playing time, but he's no Castro behind the dish. So far Molitor has split the catching time pretty evenly between Garver and Wilson in Castro's absence.

Nothing's going to happen, barring further injury, for the next month or so. Once past the June draft, however, the Twins might start sniffing the trade market for a veteran backstop, especially if Garver doesn't perform well enough over the next month to merit the regular job. (There should be no expectation that Wilson can be anything more than a backup.)

 If they truly expect Castro back in form next season, their interest will probably be in a rental, a free-agent-to-be. If they are wary about his chances -- and this is his third operation on that knee -- they'll raise their sights.

Believe what they do more than what they say.

A bench of role guys

There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of bench players. There are players -- typically veterans -- who have specific in-game roles.  And there are players -- typically younger -- who are waiting for a regular to get hurt or slump his way to the bench.

Leo Durocher, Hall of Fame manager, was notorious for dividing his teams into the guys who play and the guys who sit. Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver, also Hall of Fame managers, platooned everybody but their superstars; it was hard to tell who was their bench guys some years.

Rosters are shaped differently these days; benches are thinner when about half the roster is pitching. But the Twins bench under Ron Gardenhire tended strongly toward the Durocher model. Gardy didn't platoon much, and he liked a set lineup.

Paul Molitor has edged away from that, and it really shows in the bench the Twins expect to open with today. There are four players, and it's not difficult to identify their in-game roles:

• Mitch Garver is the backup catcher. He's a right handed hitter, which gives Molitor a platoon option with starter Jason Castro. 
• Ehire Adrianza, utility infielder, is a superior gloveman who started games last season at five different positions. He's a switch hitter.
• Robbie Grossman, switch-hitter, is an on-base percentage specialist. The more he plays in the outfield, the less his bat helps. 
• Ryan LaMarre, right handed hitter, is something of a mirror image to Grossman. Despite his gaudy spring training numbers, he's never been much of a hitter, but he's fast and a good defensive outfielder.

The Twins' nine regulars tend heavily to the left side. The bench is all right-handed or switch hitters. Molitor has some bat-first options and some glove-first options. There is nobody on this roster like Luis Rodriguez a few years ago, where one wondered what function he had. There is an obvious purpose to each of these four, and I applaud that.

Low-key competitions: Catcher

The conventional wisdom has it that the Twins bench is pretty much set: infielders Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza; catcher Mitch Garver; outfielder Robbie Grossman. That was the presumption when camp opened, and it's the presumption today.

Garver had a big 2017 at Triple A, slashing .291/.387/.541 for Rochester. With Chris Gimenez gone to the Cubs, the job of backing up Jason Castro should fall to Garver, who is now 27.

But Garver has has a rough spring at the plate, with just one hit in his first 21 plate appearances (a home run), and while the Twins say every year that his receiving skills have improved, that they keep saying suggests that he's not a particularly good defensive catcher. So there might be an opening.

The Twins have a pair of nonroster catchers in camp worth noting as potential alternatives to Garver. Bobby Wilson, 34, has in the majors for all or part of eight seasons with five different clubs. always as a back-up. He spent last season at the Dodgers' Triple A affiliate. He won't hit, but is presumably a superior defensive catcher to Garver.

A more interesting option is Willians Astudillo, who captivated the internet with this no-look pickoff throw during the one weekend Twins exhibition I didn't attend:

No-look pickoff? This is crazy! 😱 pic.twitter.com/8LCb1Mx0JM

— MLB (@MLB) March 14, 2018

Astudillo, 26, is a better hitter than Wilson (probably), and not as good as Garver. He's definitely an odd hitter; he seldom takes pitches and has excellent bat-to-ball skills. I saw him get at least three at-bats during my Ft. Myers jaunt, and none went longer than two pitches. Call him Mr. Pace-of-Play.

I expect Garver to be the back up; 21 plate appearances in spring training mean nothing. He's hit at every level. If he isn't, I would rather have Astudillo, if only for entertainment value.

Spring training trip: Day One

Officially, Saturday's exhibition game didn't happen. The Twins scored nine runs in the first inning, and they all went away when the game was called in the third inning. Which happened a few minutes after I decided we'd been rained on long enough and we left the park. The game was probably called as I was trying to turn left out of the parking area onto Three Cypress Road  Six Mile Cypress.

The big news broke sometime after the game: The Twins have a one-year deal with free-agent pitcher Lance Lynn, pending a physical.

A low-priced, short-term contract (one-year, $12 million) was certainly not what Lynn was expecting out of his free agency, but as with Logan Morrison, the Twins got themselves a bargain with a spring training signing.

The addition of Lynn almost certainly ends the rotation battle. There's Lynn, Jake Odorizzi, Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson to start the season, with Ervin Santana added around the end of April. There's not a Cy Young favorite in that bunch, but if Kyle Gibson is your No. 5 starter, your rotation is pretty darn solid. Phil Hughes, Anibal Sanchez and Aldaberto Mejia are destined for the bullpen or off the roster.

A few other random observations from Saturday:

* Mitch Garver, the frontrunner for the backup catcher job, played left field.

He played it ... cautiously. Which makes sense; he's out of position, and the field was wet and the ball undoubtably slippery. There was a liner hit his direction that I thought was catchable, but Garver made no real effort to come in on it and conceded the single. Again, it was sensible; the Twins had a nine-run lead, and let's just not screw things up.

The fourth outfielder slot is not guaranteed to Robbie Grossman, who has his own defensive shortcomings. Paul Molitor may be looking for a right-handed hitter he can feel comfortable with in the outfield. I don't think Garver fits that bill.

* I watched Miguel Sano, Kennys Vargas and a few others who weren't slated to play take batting practice on a side field. Everybody opened BP with the traditional two bunts, including the two big men. Vargas actually appeared to take his second bunt seriously, laying it down toward third and taking off for first base out of the left-handed batters box. The way teams shift him, it makes sense for him to work on that bunt.

* Kyle Gibson allowed a lot of baserunners but also got two double plays, one of which he started himself. I no longer have high expectations for Gibson, but I do think he's one of the better fielding pitchers the Twins have had in the past decade or so.

* I was favorably impressed with the new barbeque stand at Hammond Stadium.

Notes, quotes and comment

Remember my (no doubt silly) notion of including catching prospect Mitch Garver in a starting pitcher deal? Much less likely now ...

Source confirms ex-#mntwins catcher Chris Gimenez is signing with #Cubs. I'm told it's a minor-league deal. @ChrisCotillo 1st.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 23, 2018

The Twins have signed some other catchers to minor league deals, but Garver is clearly (and correctly) ticketed for the backup role now. Bringing back Gimenez was almost certainly the preferred fallback.

---

Does this imply that the Twins are out on Yu Darvish? I doubt it. The personal connections stuff we've heard about -- Thad Levine in the front office, Gimenez behind the plate -- is nice, but the real reason Darvish is still a free agent some three weeks before pitchers and catchers report is money. Nobody is offering (yet) the years and total he's looking for, and he isn't settling for less (yet).

----

#mntwins lose LHP Bully Bouch (aka Buddy Boshers) on waivers to #Astros. Held lefties to .258 OBP last season. https://t.co/q6idVTJ0mS

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 22, 2018

And good for Boshers, who gets to remain on a 40-man roster, at least for a few more days.

Berardino noted later that the last two World Series winners have this offseason claimed lefty relievers off the Twins, the other being Randy Rosario by the Cubs. I think the Twins are more likely to regret losing Rosario than Boshers, but that may well be me being fascinated by bright shiny objects.

The Twins have no shortage of lefty relief possibilities without them.

---

The Twins have five prospects on Baseball America's Top 100 list, released Monday,. Royce Lewis leads the way at No. 24, and the other four (Brent Rooker, Nick Gordon, Wander Javier and Stephen Gonsalves) are in the 90s.

Of note: The BA overall list includes Gordon, who was No. 8 on the Twins list compiled by Beradino, and not several guys Beradino had higher.

Roster moves and new roles

A  newsy weekend out of Twins camp. Let's start with the lesser stuff:

ROSTER MOVES: @Twins option Garver, Vielma, Granite, Palka to AAA. Rohlfing, Goodrum, Gordon & Reginatto reassigned to Minor League camp.

— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) March 18, 2017

The closest thing to a surprise among those eight Saturday demotions is Mitch Garver, who was supposedly in contention for the backup catcher job. But he didn't get much playing time in exhibitions. Priority one among the catchers appears to be giving Jason Castro a chance to learn this pitching staff, and they are giving veteran Chris Gimenez a real opportunity to make the team as a non-roster invitee. Garver has plenty of options, and he has a future.

On to the more important decisions:

LHP Tyler Jay has indeed moved full-time to bullpen, #mntwins farm director Brad Steil confirmed. Decision was mutual.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 18, 2017

Nick Gordon will continue playing SS/2B this year, Molitor said. Matter of keeping more doors open for "one of our best hitting prospects."

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 18, 2017

Nick Gordon was taken with the fifth overall pick in 2014. Tyler Jay was taken with the sixth overall pick in 2015. These decisions suggest that both were overdrafts.

Start with Gordon, He's been a shortstop, but the decision to have him start splitting time at second base suggests that the Twins are skeptical of his defense at short, particularly his arm. The problem with Gordon as a second baseman: He's not a strong enough hitter for the keystone. He has almost no power.

I keep coming back to this: The Twins have not signed and developed a quality shortstop since setting up operations in Minnesota in 1961. Their best homegrown shortstop in more than a half century was probably Pat Meares.

Jay is a lefty drafted out of college, one of the many collegiate relievers the Twins have drafted in the last three years or so. The idea was that Jay has the pitches to be a starter. But he didn't make it through a full season last year and only threw 83 innings, and the new regime has pulled the plug on that notion.

It's possible for Jay to shoot quickly to the majors as a relief pitcher. Indeed, when the Twins signed in in 2015, when they were in a pennant race, there was chatter that he could get to the majors that year.

But they didn't spend the sixth overall pick with the intent of getting a reliever, even if he proves the equal of Glen Perkins at his best. They took him with the intent of getting a quality starter. And the very next player taken was Andrew Benitendi, who will be the Red Sox' starting left fielder this year.

Deron Johnson, the scouting director whose name is on the decisions to draft Gordon and Jay, won't be making the decisions this June. The Gordon and Jay selections may have had something to do with that.

Turnover among the catchers

Mitch Garver caught
in the Arizona Fall
League for the second
straight season.

The Twins spent most of 2016 with Kurt Suzuki and Juan Centeno as their catchers.

Neither remains on the 40-man roster. Suzuki is a free agent after the expiration of his contract, and Centeno was outrighted Friday. Each was a better hitter than receiver last year, and the new regime appears to have defense as a priority behind the plate.

The Twins have two catchers on their 40 now: John Ryan Murphy and Mitch Garver. I wouldn't care to wager that either will be the main receiver in 2017, but it's possible.

I saw Garver in 2014 with Cedar Rapids. He was in his first full season of professional ball, hitting well and reportedly rather rough behind the plate. He's still got some bat, even though his raw numbers the past two years aren't quite as impressive as in the Midwest League, and the reports on his catching are improving. (Mike Berandino of the Pioneer Press had this piece recently about Garver's work on his defensive skills.)

Garver was the Twins ninth-round pick in 2013, a draft in which the Twins took catchers in the third (Stuart Turner), sixth (Brian Navaretto) and ninth rounds. Neither Turner nor Navaretto have hit, and neither was added to the 40, so Garver has clearly passed them on the depth chart.

But it seems pretty clear, both from what the new regime has said and from what their organizations have done in the past (particularly in Cleveland) that the priority behind the plate is going to be defense. Murphy had a miserable season hitting last year, both at the majors and at Triple A, but his defensive metrics score well. Garver may well be a better hitter, but that probably doesn't give him an advantage over JRM.

And it would hardly be a surprise if a veteran backstop were added this winter.

Plouffe, there he goes

Trevor Plouffe had
a series of injuries
that limited him to
less than 350 plate
appearances in 2016.

Friday was the deadline for teams to add Rule 5-eligible prospects to the 40 man roster.

In a related development, it was also the day the Twins released veteran third baseman Trevor Plouffe.

They also outrighted catcher Juan Centeno and lost slugging prospect Adam Brett Walker on waivers to the Milwaukee Brewers.

These moves opened three more slots on the 40-man roster, The Twins filled six of the seven vacancies with prospects: catcher Mitch Garver; outfielders Daniel Palka and Zack Granite; shortstop Engelb Vielma; and right-handed starters Fernando Romero and Felix Jorge.

Plouffe's departure is the biggest news, if only because manager Paul Molitor -- and Ron Gardenhire before him -- made the one-time first round draft pick a fixture in the middle of the lineup. He was always an ill fit in a key lineup role, with low on-base percentages and mediocre slugging percentages. He had made himself into a above-average defensive third baseman, but his varied injuries last year slowed his reaction to batted balls.

Presumably the new brain trust found little interest in Plouffe as trade bait, and the roster spot was deemed more valuable than the veteran. Certainly, with Miguel Sano's outfield venture deemed a failure last season, there wasn't an obvious role for Plouffe on the 2017 Twins. Sano's going to be the third baseman in Minnesota now.

Plouffe, who turned 30 in June, will land somewhere. I certainly don't wish him ill, but it was clearly time for him to move on.

The AFL selections

Catching up on "old" news: The initial rosters for the Arizona Fall League were issued Wednesday.

This year the Twins prospects will play for the Surprise Saguaros, Five of the six were identified Wednesday: catcher Mitch Garver, outfielder Tanner English, left-handed pitchers Mason Melotakis and Randy Rosario, and right-handed pitcher John Curtiss.

The Twins are to supply one more pitcher to the Saguaros, and presumably they are hoping Nick Burdi, who has missed almost the entire season with a bruised humerus bone, will be ready to get some innings. 

The most interesting of these guys for immediate purposes is Garver. He's a bat-first catcher who has reached Triple A and might possibly get a September call-up, although the Twins would have to open a spot on the 40 for him. Supposedly he has improved his defensive skills since I saw him play in Cedar Rapids a couple years ago, and he might figure in the Twins catching plans for 2017. 

Even without Burdi, the pitchers assigned to the AFL are a collection of rehab projects. Melotakis and Rosario are on the 40-man roster, but each is in their first full season after Tommy John surgery. Melotakis will end the Double A season with less than 40 innings worked, all out of the bullpen; Rosario is approaching 100 innings combined between High A Fort Myers and Double A Chattanooga. Curtiss split the season between Low A Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers and has 50-some innings, all out of the bullpen, after a 2015 marred by repeated injury issues.

I had had some hope during the offseason and spring training that Melotakis might be a factor in the major league bullpen this year. The Twins obviously took a more cautious approach, made easier by the fact that they weren't in contention. Rosario was a couple levels behind Melotakis and was never really a consideration.

English I don't take particularly seriously as a prospect. He had limited playing time this year, presumably because of injury. (The Twins moved him up to Triple A Rochester from High A Fort Myers last week, presumably to meet AFL requirements minimizing the assignment of A-ball players.)

Parsing the catchers, part three

Mitch Garver threw
out 38 percent of
base stealers last
year for Fort Myers.

Juan Centeno and John Hicks; Stuart Turner and Carlos Paulino. Four catchers who spent 2015 at Triple A or Double A and who, barring injury, have little opportunity to move up the ladder in 2016.

And coming up from behind, Mitch Garver and Alex Swim.

If Turner and Paulino are catch-and-throw guys who offer little hitting, Garver and Swim might be the opposite. Garver's raw numbers last year at High A Fort Myers don't look like much -- his OPS fell almost 200 point from his 2014 in Low A Cedar Rapids -- but Hammond Stadium is notoriously difficult for hitters. Garver led the Miracle (who finished with the best overall record in their division of the Florida State League) in RBIs and doubles, and he had the best OPS of the six position players with at least 100 games played.

Garver can hit. So, albeit with little power, can Swim, a left-handed hitter who gets much of his playing time in the outfield or at first base. Swim hit .311 in Cedar Rapids in 2014, and he hit .311 again in 2015 for Fort Myers, but with a total of 24 extra-base hits over the two seasons.

Alex Swim caught
264 innings in 2015
and played 341 innings
at other positions.

They were drafted in the same draft as Turner (2013), Turner in the third round, Garver in the ninth and Swim in the 22nd. Turner was slotted a level above Garver from the beginning and has remained there, while Swim and Garver have moved up the ladder roughly in tandem, with Garver getting the priority in at-bats and innings behind the plate.

Last summer, Terry Ryan said that if one could combine Turner and Garver -- Turner's defense and Garver's bat -- you'd have a pretty good catcher. That's not an option. Ryan and his colleagues will have a decision here soon, probably centering on Turner. Does he repeat Double A? If he does, what do you do with Garver? Garver is 25, and there's no point in him repeating High A (he was old for the league last year).

The Twins remade their catching depth this winter, and now they have to sort it out.

The catching future

The Twins this offseason have, as noted in Monday's post, shed three catchers who have bounced between Triple A and the majors the past three years -- Eric Fryer, Chris Herrmann and Josmil Pinto. They also, during the season, moved Dan Rohlfing to the Mets organization.

This essentially clears the deck for the trio of catchers the Twins selected in the first nine rounds of the 2013 draft: Stuart Turner (3rd round), Brian Navarretto (6th round) and Mitch Garver (9th round).

Turner, who turns 24 next month, figures to be the primary catcher at Triple A next year. He didn't hit much at Double A Chattanooga (.223 batting average with a .306 slugging percentage), and he didn't hit much the two previous years either. Drew Butera is probably a good comp to him: the defensive chops to catch in the major leagues, not enough bat to be a useful regular.

Garver can expect to move up a rung to Chattanooga. He'll turn 25 in January. He has shown a good bat in the past, but his production fell off notably when he moved from Low A Cedar Rapids to High A Fort Myers. That's not a plus, obviously, but some decline is always likely with that transition because Fort Myers is a notoriously difficult hitting environment, while CR is one of the more hitter-friendly venues in the Midwest League. Anyway: Garver is certainly a better hitter than Turner, and also said to be weaker behind the dish, He's also been consistently old for his level of competition.

Navarretto was the one high schooler of the three, which is why he's a level behind the other two.  He turns 21 next month. He will probably be the No. 1 catcher for Fort Myers. What he showed in Cedar Rapids was an excellent throwing arm and a weak stick -- .217/.256/.281. I happened to witness one of his two homers.

If there's a major league regular in that trio, my money's on Navarretto, but that's strictly on the basis of his youth, But the Twins can't count on any of the three emerging, which is part of why they traded for John Ryan Murphy. I think it likely that Murphy will split time with Kurt Suzuki in 2016, then become the regular in 2017, perhaps with Turner as the backup

I also think it likely that the Twins will be targeting catchers again in the 2016 draft.

Minor league trip: Additional observations

Engelb Vielma was limited to
coaching first base during my visit.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels take their home field to a song whose lyrics promise: And the world's gonna know your name.

In truth, even if Kohl Stewart matures into Jim Palmer, there will be millions of people who won't know the difference. And the bulk of the players in the Midwest League will never even  reach the major leagues, much less become stars.

This is particularly true of  the 2014 Cedar Rapids Kernels, a sub-.500 team in a low A league. As I said in an earlier post, there's aren't a lot of prime prospects among the position players. This team is all about the pitching.

There are a few guys of interest. "Jim Crikket," the CR blogger whose Knuckleballs blog is linked to on the siderail, is very impressed with Engelb Vielma, a scrawny 20-year-old shortstop who sustained a concussion in a collision with an outfielder a few days before I arrived.

I did notice Vielma in spring training, particularly as the second base partner to Jorge Polanco when Tom Kelly and roving instructor Sam Perlozzo were working Polanco as a shortstop on a side field. I figured at the time that Vielma was just there to give Polanco a second baseman to work around and with on double play drills.

It's entirely possible that the Kernels have some bats bigger than Vielma, but Crikket loves his defensive range and says Vielma, after not hitting at all in April, has started squaring some balls up.

There's not a lot of evidence in the stats to suggest that Vielma will hit, but Crikket tells me the Twins brain trust thinks very highly of the kid.

Mitch Garver is probably a
better hitter than receiver right now.

Mitch Garver, a catcher, was one of three backstops the Twins took in the first nine rounds of the 2013 draft. Stuart Turner, the third-rounder, is playing for high-A Fort Myers and sixth rounder Brian Navarreto is at Rookie ball Elizabethton. Garver, the ninth-rounder, is in between.

Garver hit cleanup in all three full games I saw, and he's hit quite well. His defense behind the dish apparently leaves something to be desired, however.

There are probably good things to be said about Chad Christensen, a first baseman-corner outfielder, and Alex Swim, another catcher who's getting considerable time in the outfield, but both are a bit old for the Midwest League. So is Garver, for that matter. All of them are 23.

This team has a lot of college guys for a Midwest League team, and several of them -- Christensen and Swim fit this description -- were signed after their senior seasons, not their junior seasons, as is common among collegians.

It's not a promising sign to have a lineup whose most productive hitters are old for the league and still be sub-.500.