*Photo from the Houston Chronicle*
It was a position of need, so they brought in a notable name to stabilize it. The Minnesota Twins and C Christian Vazquez have agreed to a 3 year, $30 million deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Twins have confirmed.
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said that "I can tell you we continued to hear over and over again, 'Vázquez is the guy that's going to make your pitching staff better.'Obviously, on the offensive side, he contributes on that side, too. I don't want to minimize that. But what he can do as a leader, as a catcher and how much pride he takes in that really allowed him to stand out from the group. We're thrilled to have him."
During the 2022 season, Vazquez became the longest tenured player on the Boston Red Sox, but was traded at the trade deadline to the Houston Astros, where he caught a combined no hitter in the World Series to help the Astros win their second title and first since 2017.
Split between the Red Sox and Astros, Vazquez had a .274 batting average, .399 slugging percentage, and .714 OPS, hitting 9 home runs with 52 RBI's, drawing 22 walks in 119 games. He had 3 RBI's and a .235 batting average in 6 games last postseason.
Vazquez has spent 8 years in the majors, split between Boston and Houston. In that time, Vazquez has racked up a .261 batting average, .310 on base percentage, and .386 slugging percentage, hitting 55 home runs while driving in 276, adding 28 stolen bases in 733 games. He has a .250 batting average with two home runs and 11 RBI's in 31 playoff games.
Asked about signing with the Twins, Vazquez said that "They're very close to winning a championship. That's very important to us, and I can help them a lot behind the plate to bring a championship to this city. I think that's the main goal for everybody, is to win championships, and we're here. We're here to start this ride together. It's going to be fun."
The signing of Vazquez will put him in a platoon behind the plate with Ryan Jeffers, with Vazquez likely to receive more starts.
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