Backup backstops

 Bobby Wilson's
the same age as Joe
Mauer.

Jason Castro went on the disabled list with a "slight" tear in the meniscus in his right knee. I put the word "slight" in quotation marks because I dislike minimizing somebody else's pain or discomfort.

It's bad enough to make him sit for a week-and-a-half, not bad enough for in-season surgery.  Cortisone shot and rest, that's the treatment. I've had a couple cortisone shots in my left knee for a similar injury in the past, but I wasn't trying to catch 150 major league pitches a day at the time.

So Bobby Wilson, peripatetic backup catcher, is back in the majors. This is the ninth season that he's had all or part of the year in the majors, and the Twins are his seventh team. They had him stashed in Triple A for just this eventuality. He hit (not a typo) .042 in Rochester -- one hit in 24 at-bats. It was a homer, but still, 1-for-24 in Triple A is more likely to get a 35-year-old released than called up.

But there he was Sunday, catching Kyle Gibson and putting up an 0-for-3 line in the box score.

Some 30 years ago I had a notion that the best job in baseball was backup catcher. Sal Butera was the inspiration for that notion. Guys with the defensive chops to avoid glaring mistakes behind the plate and the ability to get along with everybody in the clubhouse (especially the pitchers and the stars) seem to be hang around forever even if they can't hit. Sal Butera never had 200 at-bats in a season, but he spent nine seasons on the fringes of major league rosters.

It's not hard to find similar examples. One would be Butera's son, Drew, now in his ninth major league season. Another: Chris Gimenez, Castro's caddy last season.

But there's a pretty obvious numbers squeeze coming for Wilson. Castro isn't expected to be out long, and Mitch Garver probably -- and should -- rank ahead of Wilson. Backup catcher is a good job, but it's not easy to find the right berth.

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.

Adding a catching contender

I said here a few days ago that the Twins would bring in at least one more non-roster invitee catcher, basing that on the slim number of receivers scheduled to be in training camps (five). The guy they signed Thursday is a bit more than another body.

The Twins signed catcher Chris Gimenez to a Minor League deal with an invitation to Major League camp

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) January 12, 2017

Gimenez is a catcher, not a hitter -- 34 years old, eight years with MLB time, a career high of 155 plate appearances last season, and a lifetime .632 OPS. He has never spent more than two years with the same team. but he's had three different stints with Cleveland (Derek Falvey) and two with Texas (Thad Levine). Last year he was with Cleveland, splitting the catching chores with Roberto Perez after Yan Gomes' injury and serving as the No. 2 catcher in the first round of the playoffs.

It's his links to Falvey and Levine that make me suspect that, even though Gimenez is not on the 40 and John Ryan Murphy and Mitch Garver are, that Gimenez may be the favorite now for the No. 2 role. He's right-handed, which fits the concept of a platoon with the left-handed hitting Jason Castro, and his career splits suggest that he may even be a competent hitter against lefties (.750 OPS, albeit it less than 250 at-bats).

My belief is that Garver and Murphy offer more ability at the plate than Gimenez. But that's not necessarily what Falvey and Levine are looking for in a backup catcher, and neither has proven it yet anyway.

Chris Herrmann, catcher

Chris Herrmann  is now
27, the theoretical
prime year for a baseball
player.

Chris Herrmann is listed on the Twins 40-man roster as an outfielder. This apparently irks him; he views himself as a catcher who happens to play other positions as well.

But Ron Gardenhire used Herrmann for all of one inning behind the plate last season. He essentially split his major league playing time between right and left fields. Even in Triple A, he caught in 26 games, played left in 23, right in eight. (There was chatter last year about trying him in center field, but that doesn't appear to have happened on any level.)

Still, Herrmann is right, at least in terms of what he might do to help a major league team. If he has a big league future ahead of him, it's as a catcher. Everybody needs a backup catcher. And Herrmann has a mix of attributes that theoretically play well for a bench role.

He hits left-handed, and hit rather well at Rochester (.304/.373/.505). He his, unlike his compettion for the backup job, experience at other positions.

He's a better defensive catcher than Josmil Pinto but not as good as Eric Fryer. He's a better hitter than Fryer but not as good as Pinto. Whether he's good enough at either to justify putting him into games to do it is unproven.

Paul Molitor appears more interested than Gardenhire was in taking advantage of platoon opportunities. That gives Herrmann a leg up on Pinto and Fryer for the backup job. Kurt Suzuki, the regular, hits right; so do Pinto and Fryer.

One aspect to Thursday's game that got some comment afterwards was the performances of \Herrmann and Eddie Rosario, a pair of left-handed hitters, against left-handed pitchers late in the contest.

Herrmann apparently impressed Molitor with the quality of a late at-bat in which he fell behind a left-handed pitcher but extended the at-bat before driving home the eventual winning run with a sac fly.

Patrick Reusse has said that he believes Molitor really wants Herrmann to win a roster spot. But what we haven't seen, at least so far, is much use of him behind the plate. Herrmann played left field Wednesday; he was at first base Thursday. To be sure, there are plenty of other catchers in camp, and getting Kurt Suzuki ready is priority one.

Minor league camp has opened now, and presumably Molitor will start to thin out the crowd of pitchers and catchers on the major league side. Also presumably, Herrmann will then start to get some time receiving. If he doesn't, it's hard to see what role he can have on the roster.

Eric Fryer's roster spot

Eric Fryer: Do the
Twins really have a
major-league role
in mind for him?

The Twins, as noted in Monday's post, list four catchers on their 40-man roster: Ryan Doumit, Eric Fryer, Chris Herrmann and Josmil Pinto.

Doumit is an established hitter with a contract. Herrmann is a lefty bat who can play a competent corner outfield. Pinto is raw behind the dish but a promising hitter. And Fryer is ... well, he's probably a good comp for Drew Butera: a good defensive catcher, no real reason to believe he can hit in the majors. (Yeah, Fryer's major league slash line is .302/.400/.395; that's just 50 plate appearances. His Triple A batting average, over three seasons, is .208.)

Fryer is 28, and this is his fourth organization (Milwaukee, Yankees, Pittsburgh, Minnesota). Presumably he's out of options. Organizational depth guys like him lose a lot of value if they can't be organizational depth — if they can't be assigned to the minors. Fryer's on the 40, so to ship him back to Rochester will require passing him through waivers.

Which is why I have spent the offseason so far expecting the Twins to outright Fryer to Rochester. If he opts for free agency instead, so be it. This is probably as good an opportunity for a player of his ilk as he'd find anyway.

Instead, the Twins have kept him on the 40. (For that matter, the Dodgers have hung on to Butera as well, and I know he's out of options.)

Why? Here's a theory.

As matters stand — and the roster certainly is up for change — at least two and quite probably three of those four will be on the Opening Day roster. Doumit has seen a good deal of his Twins action as the designated hitter, and catching is such a specialized job, and so subject to injury, that managers are often loathe to skip having a reserve catcher on the bench.

Let's say that:

• The Twins decide that Pinto will benefit from time in Triple A to polish his defensive skills; and
• The Twins don't sign a free agent catcher.

In that case, there's a role for Fryer. Of the four catchers, he's probably the strongest defensively; with Pinto out of the mix, he's the one true right-handed hitter of the remaining trio (which isn't to say he's a better righty hitter than the switch-hitting Doumit). Doumit catches about 50 games a year, and Herrmann and Fryer split the rest.

I suspect that if the Twins do sign someone like A.J. Pierzynski, it will be Fryer who gets lopped from the roster. But if they need to make room for a starting pitcher, it'll be somebody else who loses their spot.

All the multi-position catchers

Dan Rohlfing has
had a good spring:
.296/.367/.593 in
30 plate appearances.

 

The Twins on Monday optioned out Drew Butera, which means they'll carry two catchers — Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit — who'll both be in the lineup at five to six days a week. Catching, DHing, corner outfield, first base — flexibility is the byword.

Flexibility and hitting. Mauer's a gifted defensive catcher and Doumit is not, but they both hit well enough to be used at less important defensive positions. Butera is a good receiver, but he's not a quality hitter; there's no gain to have him play first base or left field.

The Twins also on Monday officially reassigned Dan Rohlfing, the last of the many non-roster catching invitees, to minor-league camp, but kept him on the major league side for depth. I'm not sure what, as a practical matter, the difference is between being a non-roster invitee and being a minor-leaguer on the major league side, but Butera's gone from the clubhouse and, at least as of Monday, Rohlfing was not.

Rohlfing's minor league record doesn't scream prospect, but he appears to have made an impression in camp, even if (or perhaps because) he played quite a bit at other positions than his native catcher.

Multi-position catchers seem to be proliferating in the Twins organization. Mauer. Doumit. Chris Herrmann, who figures to play at lot at Triple-A Rochester, has played considerable outfield in the Twins system and was a third baseman in college. Rohlfing, who has split the past two years between high A and Double A, has a few dozen games in the outfield in the minors and has played considerable first base this spring.

Catcher is a specialty position, and as illustrated by the fact that Drew Butera has almost three years and more than 500 plate appearances in the majors with a  .183 career batting average, defensive chops behind the plate are valued. Most catchers are strictly catchers.

The Twins appear to be making a conscious effort to break that mold.

But Herrmann and Rohlfing and any other multi-position catcher — perhaps Mike Kvasnicka, the Minnesota native and former Gopher the Twins traded for Monday — have to hit to make their multi-position ability meaningful.

What to make of all these catchers

Ryan Doumit started
56 games at catcher in
2012, 48 as the DH,
16 in left field
and six in right field.

One of my Tweeps expressed surprise last night that the Twins would have nine catchers in training camp. My response was that, with 34 pitchers scheduled to be in camp as well, they need a lot of catchers to handle all those throwing sessions. (Last year they also had nine catchers in camp.)

The truly noteworthy thing is that so many of the nine -- five -- are on the 40-man roster:

• Joe Mauer, three-time batting champ, former MVP, perennial All-Star, future Hall of Famer -- and the starter of just 119 games the past two seasons behind the plate;
• Ryan Doumit, whose left-handed bat is strong, whose right-handed bat is relatively weak and whose defense (at catcher, in the outfield or at first base) is weaker still;
• Drew Butera, a fine receiver who cannot hit;
• Chris Herrmann,who had a good season in Double A and is probably ticketed for Triple A Rochester; and
• Josmil Pinto, who made Baseball America's Class A all-star team for his .295/.361/.473 season at high-A Fort Myers and matched those numbers in a brief Double A stint.

The four non-roster invitees, who will be there to handle bullpen sessions and ease the strain on the other five:

Danny Lehmann
hit .185 in 164
plate appearances
last season in
Double A and
Triple A combined.

• Eric Fryer, a minor league free agent and Triple A veteran;
• Danny Lehmann, a Butera type who split 2012 between Double A New Britain and Triple A Rochester;
• Dan Rohlfing, who split 2012 between Fort Myers and New Britain; and
• Kyle Knutson, a former Gopher who spent 2012 at low A Beloit and figures to move up to Fort Myers.

A few years ago, when the Twins were carrying Mauer, Butera, Mike Redmond, Jose Morales and Wilson Ramos on the 40, they were the only team with so many backstops on the roster. It's not so unique now -- both Boston and Tampa Bay currently list five catchers on their 40-man rosters, and I only checked the one division -- but it still seems like a lot of catchers. Five catchers is 12.5 percent of the roster space.

In the Twins case, at least two of the five -- Doumit and Herrmann -- figure to see considerable time in the outfield. Mauer is supposed to see his time behind the dish escalate, and it will be worth watching to see who loses time as a result, Doumit or Butera. One hundred twenty starts for Mauer leaves 42 for the reserves, and that's a fourth of the season. That's a good slice, but it's about half the load they had to carry in 2012.

Drew Butera has a
$700,000 contract for
the coming season.

Butera, we can easily see from his stats, is a terrible hitter. It's less easy to see in the stats that Doumit is a terrible catcher, but that's his reputation. And the sabermetric research into catching, primitive as it is, backs his reputation as a lousy receiver.

If Mauer is really going to start 120 games behind the plate, do the Twins need to carry three catchers? My guess is that Doumit would see most of his playing time at designated hitter, and given the uniqueness of the catching job, Ron Gardenhire's going to feel a lot more comfortable with Butera as his defensive insurance policy. If Doumit truly gives away as many runs as the piece linked to above surmises, the pitchers will be a lot better with Butera getting the bulk of those 42 games anyway.

These, then, figure to be the catching battles to come in training camp:

• For playing time behind Mauer, between Doumit and Butera;
• For a roster spot, between Butera, Herrmann and every option that doesn't include a third catcher (the two-catcher approach being more of a threat to Butera this March than Herrmann is);
• For jobs in the high minors behind -- probably -- Herrmann at Triple A and Pinto at Double A, between Lehmann, Fryer and Rohlfing. Their positions get all the weaker if Butera doesn't stick in the majors.

Doumit and the three catcher roster

Ryan Doumit figures to stick around
Minnesota for a while.

Ryan Doumit and the Twins on Friday agreed to a two-year, $7 million contract extension.

This has been pretty well received in Twins land, perhaps less so elsewhere. Here's the case against re-upping him, as laid out by Hardball Talk's Matthew Pouliot, who makes some good points.

I'm not strongly opposed to the deal, but I'm not expecting big things from him either. Pouliot is right in this respect: The Twins have a good niche for Doumit, who broke down physically as a regular catcher in his time with Pittsburgh. I'm not sure there's another player available who fits that niche quite so well, and that is reason to hang on to Doumit.

With the Twins, he's basically a two-third-time player -- one or two days a week behind the plate, three or four days a week at DH. (He hasn't played in the outfield since May 4.)

One thing this usage pattern has meant is a job for a third catcher, since on most days either Doumit or Joe Mauer is the DH. Drew Butera is the mirror image of Doumit -- Butera a strong defensive catcher and a liability in the batter's box, Doumit a productive hitter (at least left-handed) and a poor receiver.

These days, Butera catches when Francisco Liriano pitches, which (a) puts a strong receiver back there to deal with Frankie's wildness, something Doumit struggles with, and (b) protects Mauer from having to deal with multiple sliders in the dirt. It's the catching equivalent of being a tackling dummy.

Why the deal now? I think the timing is related to the July trading season. As matters stood, Doumit was a free agent-to-be, and the Twins might well have shopped him around . I assume there was a tacit understanding between the two camps: Sign and stay. There probably isn't a no-trade clause, but Doumit's now officially in the Twins plans for a while.

Camp battle: Extra catcher

Drew Butera had
the most time behind
the plate for the
2011 Twins.

The Twins have nine catchers in camp: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Drew Butera, Rene Rivera, J.R. Towles, Danny Lehmann, Chris Herrmann, Dan Rohlfing and Danny Rams.

The first two are assured spots on the 25-man roster. The second three are duking it out for a likely roster spot, with the two losers going to Rochester to await a call. The other four are around to catch bullpens, fill in at the end of exhibitions and try to leave a positive impression on Ron Gardenhire and Co.

Of those four, Herrmann is the one with the brightest future, but he remains a bit raw behind the plate. For this spring, he's not in the running; by next year, he might be the frontrunner to the backup catcher job.

For now, it's Butera, Rivera and Towles. A quick summary:

The Twins outrighted
Rene Rivera after the
2011 season, but
he opted to return on
a minor-league deal.

Butera has the advantage of being on the 40-man roster. He still has an option. A good defensive catcher (which Doumit emphatically is not) but no hitter.

Rivera is somewhat like Butera, except slower and not on the 40-man roster. Rivera put up even worse numbers in 2011 than Butera.

Butera's OPS+ -- a figure that adjusts On-base Plus Slugging for park effects and league -- was 24, which means he was 24 percent of league average at the plate. Rivera's OPS+ was 13. It is astoundingly difficult to hit that poorly and remain in the majors.

Which brings us to Towles, a thus-far failed prospect signed as a minor-league free agent after years in the Houston organization. He burst through the Astros system in a rush, but was unable to hang on to the job there in three opportunities.

While his minor league numbers generally look good, it should be remembered that the Texas League (Double-A) and Pacific Coast League (Triple A) are generally better for hitters than the Eastern and International Leagues, where the Twins have their affiliates.

J.R. Towles signed
in mid-December as
a minor-league free
agent.

I will take it for granted that Towles is a better hitter than Butera or Rivera; he can hardly be worse. And I will also take it for granted that Towles is a better receiver than Doumit; again, he can hardly be worse.

This may come down to how much the Twins really want Doumit to catch. He's supposed to do the bulk of the DHing, but the Twins under even the most optimistic scenario need someone other than Mauer to catch 30 to 40 games. If they are willing to live with Doumit's defense in most of those games, a defensive specialist might make sense; Butera or Rivera would be around to serve as a defensive sub for Doumit or a caddy for Mauer (taking the final few innings in blowouts).

But if Doumit is to be more tightly limited than that, the No. 3 guy might wind up with 200 or so plate appearances, and the Twins may well prefer Towles for that job.

On backup catchers and Scott Boras

Scott Boras, baseball's most renowned/notorious player agent, was roaming the site of the general managers meeting this week even before the GMs arrived, and he apparently rehearsed his pitch for two of his clients on the Star Tribune's Joe Christensen.

The Twins are actively
looking for an
alternative to
Drew Butera.

The clients in question, Pudge Rodriguez and Jason Veritek, are a couple of faded stars now looking for a backup gig someplace. The Twins are looking for a No. 2 catcher who'd be an upgrade on Drew Butera, so theoretically there's a fit there.

Theoretically. I'm not trying to needle Joe C. for taking the notion of either with the Twins seriously; I did a post on the same possibility recently. I am wondering what the point would be for the Twins, however.

Terry Ryan told Christensen that Joe Mauer's goal is to catch 130-plus games in 2012, and Mauer is Plan A. If all the Twins need is some one to handle the other 32 -- the equivalent of catching Carl Pavano's starts, basically -- Butera is sufficient, and probably cheaper than either of Boras's clients.

The problem, of course, is that Mauer didn't catch even 50 games in 2011, and you don't want to have the weak-hitting Butera catching 110-120 games. The Twins want to have a superior Plan B, somebody they can turn the job over to if need be. And at this point to their careers, I don't think either Rodriguez or Veritek fits that bill. Once a week, OK; five games a week, I don't think so.

But then, that's the deal with backup catchers. They're backups because they're flawed. Butera can't hit; Rodriguez is broken down but hanging on in pursuit of 3,000 hits; Ryan Doumit is a defensive butcher. Catchers one can rely on to handle the job for a full season are relatively rare and priced accordingly.

Rod Barajas, for example. Christensen had named him early on as a possible target for the Twins, and he's not a particularly outstanding player. He's 36, and he hit .230/.287/.430 last season for the Dodgers in 99 games. He got $4 million from the Pirates to be their No. 1 backstop.

The Twins are not, and should not be, eager to spend that much on somebody they hope doesn't get 150 at-bats. If they're going to spend that kind of money, it ought to be on somebody they can still use if Mauer bounces back. Somebody like Doumit.

---

The Twins haven't had a lot of dealings with Boras over the years, and when they have it's generally been situations in which Boras has little leverage.

I can only think of three Twins-Boras encounters in more than 25 years. Kyle Lohse is and was a Boras client; he's the only Twins player to go to an arbitration hearing since Andy MacPhail became the Minnesota general manager back in 1986. Veritek was a Twins draftee in 1993 and, with Boras as his "advisor" (a legal fiction designed to placate the NCAA), declined to sign. And the Twins scooped up Kenny Rogers after training camps opened in 2003 when they decided they needed a veteran to fill out their rotation and Rogers was still looking for a job.

This is another situation in which Boras' clients probably need the Twins more than the Twins need the Boras clienst. I can't help but wonder how he'd handle a situation in which the Twins (or somebody else) effectively say, We'll take either of them -- whichever costs less. Does he take the bird in the hand for Pudge, or for Veritek? Does he seek a bigger payout for Pudge, or for Veritek? There is a potential here for a conflict of interest.

Whether or not they deal with Boras this winter in their search for a catcher, Boras looms over this summer's amateur draft. The Twins have the No. 2 pick in June, and Boras is likely to be the advisor to a good portion of the likely top picks. Be it by luck or design, the Twins haven't had draft day collisions with Boras for some time. That may well change come June, and may remind Ryan of why he wanted out of the general manager's gig four years ago.

More free agent catchers

Pudge Rodriguez, on the downside of a brilliant career,
is looking for a catching job.

The free agent season officially opened Thursday morning. Earlier this week I posted a piece on three free agent catchers I thought looked particularly intriguing as the backup to Joe Mauer -- Jose Morales, Chris Snyder and Ryan Doumit.

It wasn't a comprehensive list of free agent catchers, not was it intended to be. It was three guys who weren't all that old who appeared to have different strengths and different flaws (and when you're talking about No. 2 catchers, you're talking about guys with flaws.)

There are some other possibilities out there -- in particular, the over-the-hill gang.

I will skip Ramon Hernandez, who is a Type A free agent and thus would cost the Twins a draft pick if the Reds offer arbitration. Hernandez should be seeking a regular job somewhere, as will A.J. Pierzynski. So might Rod Barajas, who has gotten some mention in the metro media as a possible Twins target.

Kelly Shoppach is just a bit older than Doumit and Snyder. Decent enough defensive catcher, some long ball pop, has been under .200 each of the past two years. Is he an upgrade on Drew Butera? Probably.

Then there are the really old farts -- Pudge Rodriguez and Jason Veritek.

Rodriguez turns 40 later this month. He isn't the great player he used to be, and he's hanging on in hopes of becoming the first catcher to 3,000 hits (he's 156 short). He's still got defensive chops, he hits better than Butera, and his son is an outfielder in the Twins farm system, which may hold a certain appeal for him.

Veritek turns 40 in April. The Boston icon has been a definite part-timer the past two seasons, and the Bosox may decide that it's time to turn the page on his era. Veritek has a sour history with the Twins, who took him in the first round of the 1993 draft (21st overall) but didn't get him signed. He instead went back to Georgia Tech for his senior season.

There are other possibilities, but really: Matt Treanor? Gerald Laird? Might as well stick with the minimum wage Butera and hope Joe Mauer stays healthy.

I like Doumit because he can do the most things. He can hit enough to justify using at DH or first base or right field. But he may also be the most costly, for the very same reasons, and money matters.

Some catching alternatives

Drew Butera hit .167/.210/.239 in 254 plate appearances last season, which is pretty putrid but not quite as bad as Rene Rivera's .144/211/.202 in 114 plate appearances. And both looked like Babe Ruth next to Steve Holm .118/.167/.176), but at least the Twins invested just 18 PAs in him.

Rivera has been taken off the 40-man roster. Butera is still on the 40, but considering how poorly he performed both at the plate and behind it -- he had seven passed balls, which is a lot for someone who (a) caught less than half his team's innings and (b) wasn't dealing with a knuckleballer -- his job is hardly secure.

A meeting early in the season
between two subjects of
this post: Ryan Doumit
tags out Jose Morales.

There are, or will be, some interesting (and flawed) alternatives to back up Joe Mauer available this winter, starting with the guy who lost out to Butera in 2010.

Jose Morales was traded after the 2010 season to Colorado, a move that opened a roster spot to re-sign Carl Pavano. (The minor league pitcher acquired in the the deal, Paul Bargas, was found during spring training to have a brain tumor; in a season marked by a seemingly endless string of health issues, Bargas' was simultanously the lowest profile and the worst.) Morales opened the season as the Rockies back-up catcher, but he fractured his thumb and was limited to just 22 games, 71 plate appearances. He didn't play anywhere, majors or minors, after June.

Colorado outrighted Morales earlier this month. He's 28, he's had plenty of injuries, he's out of options, he doesn't have a great defensive reputation, he doesn't have much power -- but he's a good contact hitter, especially left-handed (he's a switch hitter).

Will the Twins bring him back? I doubt it, if only because it would imply an admission of error in choosing him over Butera. Still, if they want a low-cost bat-first catcher, he's a possibility.

Two other guys, likely to be pricier than Morales (or Butera), who caught my eye last month are Ryan Doumit and Chris Snyder, both now of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pittsburgh GM has said that he is unlikely to pick up the options on either man.

Doumit is a good hitter -- not just a good hitter for a catcher, but a good hitter, period. As a catcher, he's pretty brutal, and the Pirates ran him out in right field and first base some last season before he went down with an injury, which isn't unusual for him (he's spent time on the DL every season since 2006).

I think the switch hitter would be particularly attractive if the Twins lose both Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel in free agency; Doumit could be used to DH, back up Mauer and play some right field (or first bas) as well. He'll turn 31 in April.

Snyder isn't as good a hitter as Doumit but is a superior defender. He'll turn 31 in February. His problem: He had back surgery during the season. He is said to be recovering well, but catching is tough on backs.

These are three different types of catcher. I would think the Twins would be more interested in somebody like Snyder is they fear Mauer can't catch 130 times in 2012. Doumit would make sense if the Twins want to carry Butera as a defensive catcher, freeing Doumit to DH or play other positions. And Morales, or his ilk, would be a bat-first backup.

And, of course, cost matters.

The catcher shuffle

With Joe Mauer on the shelf, the spring training question of "who is the Twins No. 3 catcher" has taken an importance that wasn't fully appreciated in March.

Rene Rivera was the
Mariners' 2nd-round
draft pick in 2001,
the same year the Twins
signed Joe Mauer.

It also, it would appear, wasn't correctly answered.

The answer the Twins came up with in Fort Myers was Steve Holm. The 31-year-old career minor leaguer got the call, went 2-for-17 and failed to throw out a basestealer. He started five games; the Twins lost four of them and gave up double-digit runs in the last two.

To say that Holm wasn't the correct answer to the question implies that there was a correct one. Rene Rivera is getting his chance now; there's little reason to believe that he's any better than Holm.

Of the three upper level catchers who got serious looks in spring training, the one who has the best chance of carving out a career in the majors is Danny Lehmann, who is younger and less experienced than Rivera and Holm. And Lehmann profiles as a Drew Butera type — a catch-and-throw guy without much to offer at the plate.

The Twins this spring made a pair of moves — Pat Neshek to the Padres and trading for Scott Diamond's Rule V rights — designed to open a pair of spots on the 40-man roster. The catcher moves have filled both those slots — Holm remains on the 40-man roster— and that seems a high price to pay for misjudging the quality of Holm as a hitter. Ron Gardenhire said Holm "can swing it," as assessment that had to have been based on 15 spring training at-bats rather than totality of his record.

6.66: The mark of the Blackburn

I'm not getting too giddy about the past weekend; the Twins went 4-3 in the past week, but they were playing Cleveland and Baltimore, and 4-3 playing those teams is a disappointment, even though they've gained ground on their rivals.

Being in a glass-half-empty mood this morning, I'll note that Nick Blackburn gave no indication that whatever's wrong with him has been fixed. The Twins seem to believe the problems are from the neck up. I think the problem is deeper than that, that he's failing as a pitcher because (a) he's not good enough to get outs without a lot of help and (b) this team is too slow afield, especially in the outfield, to supply that help.

Blackburn gave up three runs in two innings mopping up Sunday's win and now has a devilish ERA of 6.66.

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Contrary to my speculation earlier in the day, the Twins filled Orlando Hudson's roster spot with a catcher, Jose Morales.

The implications: We may be seeing more of Joe Mauer as DH with Drew Butera catching, at least until either Hudson or Justin Morneau returns. There's not a lot of other reason to carry three catchers, and despite the report that Morales has been taking grounders at first base in recent days, I have difficulty imagining him getting playing time there other than in an emergency.

A backup catcher

Somewhere around the mid-'80s I decided that the best job in baseball was that of backup catcher. They last forever, and the expectations are low.

Of course, it's not that easy to get the job.

I haven't attempted to prove this statistically, but it's my notion that the Twins organization generates a lot of career backup catchers. One such is Chad Moeller, now with the Baltimore Orioles. (Moeller's the tall guy in the photo; the other is Dave Trembley, the Baltimore manager.) Moeller started his career in the Twins system, caught briefly for them in the majors (48 games in 2000), and is now with the Baltimore Orioles, his seventh major league team.

Here, from the New York Times, is Moeller on some of the various pitchers he's handled over the years. I'm struck by the difference between Brad Radke and Curt Schilling. Radke was about keeping it simple, Schilling anything but.

It worked for each.

Seven out and sinking

The Twins tragic number — the total of Minnesota losses and Detroit wins needed to eliminate the Twins from the AL Central title — as of Monday morning: 20.

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A couple of items worthy of comment:

*Ron Gardenhire, at least for public consumption, has been critical of Jose Morales' receiving skills. But the manager did have something good to say about his pitch calling.

The Twins catching hierarchy is fairly obvious: Joe Mauer catches as many games as he can. If the Twins are carrying two catchers, Mike Redmond is the wise choice as the number 2 guy because A) he has an extensive track record that says he can handle the job and B) the Twins can't send him to the minors without exposing his to waivers. Jose Morales has options, so the Twins could (and did) demote him while retaining him.

But it is becoming increasingly certain that Morales is now a better player than Redmond. With September's wins and losses becoming meaningless in terms of making the playoffs, Gardenhire is likely to continue to uphold the fiction that Redmond's the No. 2 and Morales the No 3, but the reality is the reality.

* Glen Perkins apparently won't be recalled this month. Leaving him in the minors is likely to cost him arbitration eligibility, which has led to talk of him filing a grievance.

Perkins has an ERA this season of 5.89 and an career ERA of 4.93. He's been on the disabled list twice, this after a 2007 that saw him spend most of the season idle with a shoulder injury that supposedly would take a couple of weeks to heal.

Perkins' major league future may now hinge less on his potential than on his price tag. He has a real chance of pricing himself out of the game. Pushing for super two status would be a mistake.

* Jesse Crain has shaved 2.33 runs off his ERA since returning from the minor leagues in late July. It's still an ugly ERA — 5.82 — but he's re-establishing himself as a relief option.

Which would give the Twins four usable arms in front of Joe Nathan: Matt Guerrier, Jose Mijares, Jon Rauch and Crain. If Pat Nesheck can come back next year, they figure to have real depth in the pen in 2010 for the first time since the 2006 season.

If they hadn't bungled the Craig Breslow situation this spring ...