The Minnesota Twins are back in the market of signing players to multi-year deals. On Friday, the Twins signed switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini to a 2-year, $14 million contract, making the first free agent they’ve signed to a multi-year deal since Carlos Correa on January 11, 2023.
Caratini, 32, is a nine-year veteran who has spent the last two seasons with the Houston Astros. Caratini hit a career-high 12 home runs and 46 RBI in 114 games last season. Notably, Caratini has started fewer than half of the games at catcher in a season since 2021, when he made 87 starts behind the dish.
Victor Caratini joins a catching core currently led by Ryan Jeffers, who is in his final year of arbitration, making around $6.5 million in 2026. Jeffers entered the off-season expecting to take on the full-time catching role for the Twins. Christian Vázquez entered free agency last year after the end of his 3-year, $30 million contract.
Jeffers and Vázquez split playing time almost equally at catcher over their tenure, and the Twins never needed another catcher from Opening Day 2023 until August 10, 2025. The duo made 440 consecutive starts behind the dish before the Twins needed a third catcher for a season, a mark that may never be seen again in Major League Baseball.
However, the Twins traded for catcher Alex Jackson for prospect Payton Eeles, seemingly lining up Jeffers to get three out of every four starts at catcher for 2026. However, by signing Caratini, the Twins will opt to return to a more balanced 60/40 split between him and Jeffers at catcher.
That is, if the Twins don’t intend to trade Jeffers before Opening Day. With Minnesota’s payroll limitations dating back to the 2023-24 offseason, their signing of Caratini to a two-year deal with a $7 million average salary per year seems to indicate that Jeffers may not be staying much longer. The two-year deal could be insurance for 2027, assuming Jeffers does not re-sign and has more of his $14 million deferred for the second year of the agreement.
However, as the offseason began, Jeffers was floated around as a trade candidate around the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline. While Minnesota’s President of Baseball Operations has since said that the Twins will not trade stars Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan, and Pablo López this offseason, Jeffers’ name was not included in those comments, leaving him still a likely candidate to be moved.
But if the Twins keep Jeffers for his final year of team control, then the Twins should have a stronger hitting platoon behind the plate in 2026 than they had the last three seasons with Jeffers and Vázquez.
Vázquez experienced a significant decline in his offensive production since the Twins signed him in December 2022. There were flashes of the hitter Vázquez once was over his tenure with the Boston Red Sox, but he hit a collective .215/.267/.311, a 60 OPS+ with 16 home runs, 73 RBI, a 20.6% strikeout rate, and 6.1% walk rate over 884 plate appearances with Minnesota.
Victor Caratini arrives with a better track record as a hitter over the last two seasons with the Astros, hitting .263/.329/.406, a 105 OPS+, 20 home runs, 76 RBI, a 17.9% strikeout rate, and a 7% walk rate. His splits are much more favorable as a left-handed hitter, as he hit .268/.327/.399 in 324 plate appearances from the left side in 2025, compared to .208/.306/.434 in 62 plate appearances as a righty.
The upside of keeping Jeffers alongside Caratini is how they can split their roles between catcher and DH, depending on whether they’ll be facing a right or left-handed starter. Jeffers’ numbers against righties in 2025 were not spectacular, nor were they terrible. He hit .248/.305/.388 in 318 plate appearances.
Caratini’s signing bolsters Minnesota’s options at catcher, not only for 2026, but also 2027, as many of their top catching prospects are still a few years away from being Major League-ready. It also provides the Twins options to be flexible at other positions, such as first base and DH. Jeffers will not have to take on the bulk of catching duties, nor will Josh Bell need to play every day at first base.
With Caratini’s addition, the Twins will have a better chance to climb out of the 70-92 hole they found themselves in to end the 2025 season.