Twins change catcher timeshare, give more at-bats to Ryan Jeffers over Christian Vázquez

For the last two seasons, the Twins generally have rotated between catchers Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vázquez in their lineup every other day.

That’s changed in the past week.

Vázquez was out of the lineup for three consecutive games and he sat in six of the last seven games. He was sidelined for at least a couple of games, recovering from a foul ball he took off the middle finger on his right hand, but the Twins want to give Jeffers more at-bats to boost the offense.

The 34-year-old Vázquez, who is in the final year of his three-year, $30 million contract, has totaled three hits in 30 at-bats (.100 batting average) and a .318 OPS.

“I think [Jeffers] is going to find a few more at-bats in the near term here,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli before Jeffers had three hits Wednesday. “We can see if we can get the offense going even more than we’ve seen. That’s a part of it. I’m not making a big deal about that topic or that conversation, but he’ll be ready to play. I think getting him a few more games and getting him a few more at-bats might be able to jump-start our group in some ways offensively.”

Vázquez, who was out for early batting practice Wednesday, has watched his offensive numbers dip in the last three seasons. After batting .274 with a .714 OPS in 2022, when he played for the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, he has hit .217 with a .575 OPS across 207 games in his Twins career.

When Trevor Larnach hammered a homer over the right field Friday in Atlanta, teammates crowded him as he prepared to wear the Gladiator-style helmet home run prop for the first time this season.

It took some time for Larnach to settle into the season with only one extra-base hit, a double, in his first 18 games and 73 plate appearances.

He’s now reached base in eight consecutive games, which includes a solo homer in Wednesday’s victory over the White Sox.

“Coming into the season, I felt like I was going to go off,” Larnach said. “The first game, I felt great. I had some good at-bats and good results. Shortly thereafter, for whatever reason, I started just noticing physically doing weird stuff in the box like hips popping up and coming off the ground, hands climbing super high.”

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The strange part about Larnach’s slump was he still had good plate discipline. His strikeout rate is down from last year, and he’s walking near the same rate. When he connected with pitches, however, he rarely pulled the ball in the air with too many ground balls.

“Sometimes you get punched in the face and that’s how it is,” Larnach said. “Every day in spring and the offseason, if something felt off, I knew myself so well to where, OK, it takes a round of flips here, some machine here or this drill, and I’m back. But baseball is tricky like that, man.”

The last few days, Larnach said, have been encouraging. He has hit four of his nine hardest-hit balls of the season since Friday.

“I expect a lot from myself,” Larnach said. “It’s not just because I’m in the middle of the order. I put a lot of work into this, man. It’s not like I show up, go through the motions and then there’s that. From the moment I wake up in the offseason to the moment I go to sleep, it’s for those at-bats.”

Louie Varland is in his first season as a full-time reliever, and he has made it look natural. After pitching a scoreless eighth inning Tuesday, Varland has posted a 2.25 ERA through a team-high 12 relief appearances with 15 strikeouts and four walks over 12 innings.

Varland, a 27-year-old righthander from North St. Paul, has been trusted to pitch in more high-leverage situations. Four of his last five outings came with the Twins leading by three or fewer runs.

“He’s blowing smoke out of the ‘pen,” Baldelli said. “His off-speed pitches play tremendously, they play up. He adds velocity. The command is good. He can still pound the zone with his stuff. I think you see a tremendous version of the guy.”

The St. Paul Saints split their doubleheader against Indianapolis on Wednesday, with a 5-1 victory in Game 1 and a 4-2 loss in the second game at CHS Field.

Mickey Gasper and Mike Ford homered in the win.