Ryan

Jeffers

Jeffers is on a nice roll at the moment. His two outs today both left the bat at 105 mph and had xBAs of .800 and .730. He also wound up 1-for-2 with three walks in Monday’s suspended game that was completed today. He’s 7-for-15 with a homer in his last four games, and he’s at .296/.387/.444 for the month of May.

Jeffers had two chances to get a triple to complete the cycle, but he wound up with a groundout and a second single. That last knock gave him the first four-hit game of his career. He’s batting .270/.350/.418 with three homers this season.

Jeffers laced a single off of Garrett Whitlock that tied the game at three and now has 13 RBI on the season. He went 5-for-12 in the three-game series against Boston with one home run and three RBI. He’s picking up some extra DH at-bats given the injuries in the Twins’ lineup, and that puts him on the radar in one-catcher leagues if you don’t love your catching situation.

Jeffers is finally on the board with his first homer. The caveat is that it came off a 50-mph lob from Will Wilson, as the Guardians finished with a position player pitching for the second game in a row. Jeffers has started 11 of the last 12 games, including two at DH, as the Twins have abandoned their catcher rotation that had seen Jeffers and Christian Vázquez mostly alternate starts the last two years. It wasn’t because Jeffers had been particularly productive, either; this is the first time all year that he’s finished a game with an OPS above .690. Vázquez, though, is currently at .450.

Vázquez is probably going to need a couple days off after taking a foul tip to the right hand during the late stages of Monday’s loss to the Mets. Mickey Gasper will serve as the primary backup to Ryan Jeffers during that span.

Jeffers is back handling the catching duties on Sunday afternoon following a two-game absence due to a cut on his right thumb that required treatment. It doesn’t sound like a serious concern moving forward.

No word yet on if Jeffers is banged up, but it’d be a true rarity for him to be on the bench in back-to-back games otherwise. He and Christian Vásquez have been alternating starts exactly at catcher this year, with Jeffers also making one appearance as a DH. Neither player is hitting much yet; Jeffers has a .515 OPS in 34 plate appearances, whereas Vásquez is at .455 in 23.

The 27-year-old backstop had been projected by MLBTradeRumors.com to earn $4.7 million through the arbitration process, so it looks like a fair deal for both sides. The 2024 season was a tale of two halves for Jeffers, as he absolutely crushed the ball in the first half of the season before limping to the finish over the final couple of months. He has been a fringe top 20 catcher in early fantasy drafts for the 2025 season.

Jeffers was able to break up a shutout in the ninth inning with a two-run homer off Keegan Akin. Zero impact on the game, 100 percent counts the same. Jeffers has been streaky — as always — in 2024, but now has 64 RBI and 21 homers. You can do a lot worse.

So very streaky. Jeffers is 5-for-33 in his last 10 games, dropping his OPS from .787 to .754. He seemed to have things turned around for a time last month, but he’s mostly been a bust since peaking with a 1.020 OPS on May 9.