With the catcher market drying up, the Minnesota Twins jumped at the opportunity to sign former Boston Red Sox backstop Christian Vazquez.
The catcher market is beginning to dwindle this offseason. The big move in free agency was former Chicago Cub Willson Contreras signing a five-year, $87.5 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Then on Monday, the Atlanta Braves acquired Sean Murphy from the Oakland Athletics in a three-team trade also including the Milwaukee Brewers.
With the top options gone, the Minnesota Twins opted to make a move for one of the better free agents available at the position.
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman was first to report that the Minnesota Twins are signing former Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez.
Christian Vazquez contract details: Twins ink catcher, move on from Gary Sanchez
As for the term of the deal, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that Vazquez’s contract with the Twins is for three years. There are no financial details known as of this writing.
This move for Vazquez comes one year after they acquired Gary Sanchez from the New York Yankees, alongside infielder Gio Urshela in exchange for shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and third baseman Josh Donaldson. Sanchez struggled at the plate, batting just .205 and striking out 136 times.
Vazquez is a very solid hitter, as his numbers this past season show. In 108 regular-season games split between the Red Sox and Houston Astros, Vazquez recorded a .274 batting average, a .315 on-base percentage, a .399 slugging percentage, nine home runs, 52 RBI, and 109 hits.
In the postseason, Vazquez showed that he can call a game behind the plate, as evidenced by him catching Houston’s combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series.
With Murphy officially off the board, the Twins wasted little time in ensuring they addressed the catcher position this offseason by bringing in Vazquez.