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.