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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The smackdown in St. Paul is back for another edition, with the state wrestling tournament again gracing the downtown scene — this time a day earlier.

Four days of grapples, reversals and takedowns are on deck at Grand Casino Arena. If you can’t make it in person, you can stream the action for a fee on prepspotlight.tv/MSHSL.

Here are answers to a few burning questions ahead of the state wrestling tournament:

It’s a four-day event now?

Yes, the Minnesota State High School League secured an extra day at Grand Casino Arena to better space out the state wrestling tournament. Here’s the new set up:

Wednesday: Team state quarterfinals, team consolation semifinals and team state semifinals.

Thursday: Round 1 of the individual tournaments, team consolation finals and third-place matches, team state championships.

Friday: Individual quarterfinals, Round 1 of wrestlebacks, individual semifinals and Round 2 of wrestlebacks.

Saturday: Round 3 of wrestlebacks, individual consolation semifinals, individual fifth-place matches, individual third-place matches, and individual state championship matches.

Note: The final session on Saturday is from 1-5 p.m., putting the individual state championship matches around 3 p.m. versus the traditional Saturday night conclusion. The Wild have an afternoon game on Sunday, creating a short turnaround for the St. Paul arena crew.

Was the Class 2A state championship 10 days ago?

Simley is the top seed in Class 2A as it searches for a seventh state title in eight years. The Spartans are also the top-ranked team in the class. The second-ranked team won’t be in St. Paul when the team competition opens Wednesday because the Spartans defeated it earlier this month.

Simley was placed back in Section 1 this year, meaning its showdown with Kasson-Mantorville took place in the section final. The Spartans won 33-24 in a hotly contested dual that wasn’t determined until the 215-pound match.

In fact, Simley is the only team ranked in the top seven of The Guillotine’s final team rankings released Feb. 5 to reach the state tournament. Yet there are a number of quality teams in the field, with a number of ranked wrestlers throughout their lineups such as undefeated New Ulm and fourth-seeded Scott West.

Each of the five seeded teams in the class could prove frisky come semifinal time. But, yes, the Spartans are the favorites.

Can anyone beat St. Michael-Albertville?

Maybe in the final. The Knights has beaten second-seeded Stillwater twice already this season. There’s a reason they’re undefeated: Everyone in their first seven weight classes is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 individually in Class 2A.

But Stillwater has a lot more talent up top, and the quality of their wrestlers in the lighter weights — traditionally dominated by the Knights — will at least make it interesting.

The path to an upset of the Knights is likely the same as the Hastings used in the 2023 title match, when the Raiders won the final five matches of the dual to eke out a one-point victory.

Third-seeded Shakopee also is a threat given their high-end guys in the heavier weights. The Sabers and Ponies figure to put on a show in the semifinal, and whoever advances could at least give St. Michael-Albertville a run for its money Thursday night.

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police are investigating after officers were pelted with snowballs while responding to a massive snowball fight at Washington Square Park in Manhattan, as a winter storm blanketed the Northeast in snow.

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A video of the fracas shows two uniformed officers pacing a walkway in the park Monday as snowballs fly at them from all directions, hitting the officers and covering them in snow.

The officers, growing visibly frustrated, shoved at least two people to the ground as snowballs continued to whizz by. At one point, a person runs up behind an officer and mushes some snow onto his head. One of the officers can be seen rubbing his eye toward the end of the video.

In a statement Tuesday, the New York Police Department said multiple uniformed officers were struck in the face with snowballs and were “removed by EMS in stable condition” to a nearby hospital, but did not disclose additional information on their injuries. No arrests have been made.

Jessica Tisch, the city’s police commissioner, called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal” and said the department is investigating.

Several political figures in the city were quick to denounce the dust up, with many of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s critics seizing on the incident as evidence that respect for law enforcement has declined under the new mayor, who faced attacks during his campaign over criticisms he made of the department in 2020. Mamdani has walked back those past remarks.

Mamdani, in a post on X on Tuesday, wrote “Officers, like all city workers, have been out in a historic blizzard, keeping New Yorkers safe and cars moving. Treat them with respect. If anyone’s catching a snowball, it’s me.”

At a news conference later in the day, Mamdani was asked whether he thought anyone should be criminally charged over the snowballs and appeared to downplay the situation.

“From the videos that I’ve seen, it looks like a snowball fight,” he said.

In the heat of their on-ice battle in Italy last week, Team Sweden forward Joel Eriksson Ek barely noticed that he had Minnesota Wild teammates wearing red, white and blue on the other side of the faceoff circles.

But when he saw and spoke with Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes during warmups before their game — eventually won by the Americans, 2-1, in overtime — it was a little bit of a strange feeling.

“I don’t think you really think about it once you start playing and once you get going, you’re just kind of so into the game,” Eriksson Ek said on Tuesday after the Wild’s practice at TRIA Rink. “But, yeah, seeing them before the game was a little bit weird.”

From the USA-Sweden clash at the Winter Games, optimistic Wild fans will remember Hughes’ overtime goal that propelled Team USA one step closer to their eventual gold medal. The more pessimistic Minnesota fans will recall a hard hit Eriksson Ek took in the third period of that game, which had him getting up slowly.

But on Tuesday, after flying home from Milan and getting a few days away from the rink, the Wild’s second-line center said he is physically fine heading into the re-start of the NHL season on Thursday at Colorado. While head coach John Hynes will be back at practice on Wednesday, the travel plans for Boldy, Faber and Hughes are more up in the air — although the trio is expected to re-join the team in Denver in time to face the Avalanche.

They were pictured celebrating with the rest of the men’s team at a Miami nightclub on Monday, and several were planning to attend the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, after being invited by President Donald Trump in a postgame phone call.

“The (Americans) probably injured themselves partying more than on the ice,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno joked. “But I think it’s great. The first thing I did was went to Ekky and said, ‘How you feeling? Everything good?’ And he said everything’s great, so that’s a huge plus for us.”

Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin, who had surgery for a lower body injury last month and missed playing for Team Sweden in the Olympics as a result, skated on his own before practice on Tuesday but his timeline to return remains unclear.

“He’s still quite some time away, but at least he can get out there with us now,” said Wild assistant coach Jack Capuano, who has been running practices while Hynes has been away. “The surgery went well. Non-contact, then we’ll just assess it nice and slowly and move forward.”

Briefly

Offered congratulations on his home country, Norway, winning the medal count in Milan/Cortina, Wild forward Mats Zuccarello responded with a prideful smile.

“We do that every Olympics,” said Zuccarello, who skated for the Norwegians in the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games. “Then everyone forgets about it, and four years later everyone is surprised when we do it again.”

Indeed, a check of the year-by-year medal count shows the Norwegians with either the most medals overall or the most gold medals, or both, for every Winter Olympics dating back to 2014.

Norway, which has a national population that is slightly smaller than that of Minnesota, is a world power in skiing and sliding sports, but the nation failed to qualify for the 2022 and 2026 Olympic hockey tournaments.

In stark contrast to the on-ice success of Scandinavian neighbors Sweden and Finland, Norway lags behind in hockey. Zuccarello is one of just three Norwegians to play in the NHL this season.

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