FORT MYERS, Fla. — Ryan Jeffers has long believed that his body could handle the rigors of an increased workload behind the plate. Now, it seems he’ll finally get his chance to prove it.
Ryan Jeffers #27 of the Minnesota Twins poses during the 2024 Minnesota Twins Photo Day on Feb. 22, 2024 at the Lee County Sports Complex in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
For the past three seasons, the Twins have been committed to splitting the workload between Jeffers and Christian Vázquez evenly, alternating between the two to keep each fresh. But Vázquez’s three-year contract expired after last season, and now Jeffers, coming off what he called his “smoothest offseason” from a health standpoint, is ready to become the Twins’ No. 1 catcher.
“Every year, I’ve grown up in this game,” Jeffers said. “I’ve gotten better at the routine and what I do in the offseason to prepare for the year. I’ve always prepared to catch a full workload, so nothing for that really changed for me this offseason.”
With Vázquez gone, the Twins first brought in Alex Jackson in a minor trade and later signed Victor Caratini to a two-year deal. But while Caratini has plenty of major league experience, the Twins don’t seem to be planning on going back to the set-up they’ve used in recent years.
Hours before the Twins brought in Caratini, manager Derek Shelton called Jeffers to give him some assurances.
“Jeffers is going to be the C1,” Shelton said last month. “We’ve talked to Victor about it. The thing we thought about there is get a guy we think … is going to play behind Ryan, but he can also play first, he can also DH.”
Jeffers got a little taste of that last season when Vázquez had an infection in his shoulder and ended up on the injured list and he caught 21 games in August. But his chance to show that his body could adapt to the added workload was cut short in early September by a concussion that forced him to the injured list, too.
“My body arguably felt better some of those days than it did when I was catching every other day,” Jeffers said. “Physically, it felt really good. … I felt great and was playing well. The body was not struggling at all. Over 162 (games), how does that change? I’m not sure.”
Jeffers said he has prepared himself to catch 120 games but doesn’t expect that to happen. Last year, he played in 119 games, 88 of them at catcher. He caught right around 700 innings last year; 120 games would be roughly 1,080 innings caught, a number eclipsed last year by only Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto and Milwaukee’s William Contreras.
Instead, Jeffers is shooting for somewhere in the range of 105 to 110 games, which would be two thirds of the season. He has gotten a fair share of his at-bats at designated hitter in recent years, which should continue this year.
“That’s who I am, is a catcher,” Jeffers said. “A full catcher workload is 110-ish games, so if I want to be a full-time catcher, that’s where I want to be.”
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