Young catcher Jeffers shining in 1st MLB spring
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Twins crushed left-handed starters last season thanks to the might of their right-handed stars like Mitch Garver and Nelson Cruz hitting near the top of their lineup. In Sunday’s home opener at Hammond Stadium, catching prospect Ryan Jeffers found himself right up there with those sluggers.
Even though it's Jeffers' first Spring Training on the Major League side, the Twins have prominently featured the 22-year-old backstop alongside established regulars throughout camp. Before the onset of Spring Training games, Jeffers participated in live batting practice with the big leaguers -- even homering off Taylor Rogers.
Then, even with many regulars in Sunday's lineup, Jeffers set up Josh Donaldson, Garver and Sanó in the batting order.
Don't be surprised if he's also featured alongside those stars at Target Field sooner rather than later.
"I think he's getting to the point where he becomes an option for our Major League team if we need him at some point in the near future," Baldelli said. "We don't know when that's going to be. It could be any time. He's kind of earned this opportunity by the way he's gone out there and played. So we're going to let him continue to progress."
He's earned that opportunity awfully quickly. It was less than two full years ago when Jeffers was selected by the Twins in the second round of the 2018 MLB Draft, and it's taken him little time to shoot all the way up to Double-A Pensacola, validating the trust the Twins put in him during that Draft process.
"I think he was projected to go a little deeper in the Draft," Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. "We were really on him early. We looked at him, we said, 'We think this guy is going to be a really good player for us down the line,' and we didn't want to let that chance of him slipping to another team go for us."
Some Draft prognosticators questioned Jeffers' defensive ability behind the plate when he first entered pro ball, but the Twins believe that Jeffers' continued work with the organization's catching program has him primed for plenty of success as a receiver -- much in the way that Mitch Garver's defense was originally in question before his work paid off with a marked improvement in '19.
"I took it and really ran with it last year and it really paid off for me, so now it’s just kind of refining," Jeffers said. "Last year was more of the really getting comfortable with the big steps with the legs out and stuff like that."
That program is now run by Minor League catching coordinator Michael Thomas, who picked up the reins after Tanner Swanson was picked up by the Yankees during the offseason. Jeffers, like Garver and the other backstops in the organization, have practiced with weighted balls, resistance bands, a one-knee stance and other techniques that reinforce the proper receiving motions.
Jeffers didn't have a catching coach in college and had to largely teach himself the techniques to keep improving behind the plate. Now that he has support, the former physics major is rather quick on the uptake.
"It’s just those stances," Jeffers said. "A lot of receiving -- Tanner preached a lot of timing because a lot of it is timing with your glove and how you kind of match the plane of the pitch and all that stuff. I’m getting really good at that and getting comfortable with that. That’s really paid off for me."
Twins scouting director Sean Johnson cited some Garver comparisons when the club drafted Jeffers in 2018. If the younger catcher's career trajectory -- on offense and defense -- is anything like that of Garver, he and the Twins should be in pretty good shape.
"He's much like me in that aspect," Garver said. "He's very much unlike me in the aspect that [the catching program] was here when he got here. So he's been learning how to receive for a few years and I had not. He's already got a head start, and the program that the organization has implemented for all of the catchers is impressive.
"There's no reason not to be excited about that."