The Yankees may need to keep looking for help behind the plate, and one of their most obvious targets might not be going anywhere.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter is predicting that Ryan Jeffers, who drew interest from New York at the trade deadline, will stay with the Minnesota Twins instead of changing teams this offseason. Jeffers turned in a strong year at the plate, finishing with a 127 OPS+, 35 extra-base hits, 14 home runs and 2.8 WAR, production that made him one of the most productive catchers in baseball.
For the Yankees, that kind of bat would fit. Jeffers has real damage against left-handed pitching and brings above-average power for the position.
That would make him a clear upgrade over the current setup, even with Austin Wells showing life late in the regular season and collecting two of New York’s five hits through the first two ALDS games. Ali Sanchez has held down the backup role, but Jeffers would represent a much bigger threat in the lineup and would likely push Wells out of the starting job.
Reuter doesn’t see that happening, though. He wrote that the Twins kept Jeffers at the deadline and could use him as a bridge while catcher Vahn Lackey, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 draft, moves through the system. In Reuter’s view, Jeffers could be the ideal veteran on a two- or three-year deal.
That leaves New York still short on catching depth in the pipeline. The Yankees have only one catcher on MLB Pipeline’s top 30 prospect list, Omar Alfonzo, and the 23-year-old’s projected MLB ETA is 2028.
In Other News...
Royce Lewis Now Faces A Twins Question He Cant Avoid
Royce Lewis has spent much of the last two seasons trying to live up to the standard he set in 2023, when his postseason run made him look like the kind of middle-of-the-order force the Twins could build around. Since then, the offensive profile has shifted in a way that is hard to ignore. His slugging percentage and overall run production have slipped, and the underlying contact numbers point to a hitter who is still capable of impact but not nearly as consistently as before.
The concern is not a lack of bat speed or raw pop, because those traits are still there and show up in the barrel rate. The issue is more about how often Lewis is making the right kind of swing decisions, especially against breaking and offspeed pitches, where the whiffs have piled up. For Minnesota, that leaves an uncomfortable question hanging over one of its most talented players: whether the next step is a return to form, or a longer stretch of figuring out how to turn loud tools back into dependable offense. [Read more 🡒]
Travis Adams Just Made The Twins Bullpen Battle A Lot Tougher
With six relievers already looking secure for Minnesotas Opening Day bullpen, the last two spots are turning into a real competition, and Travis Adams has pushed his way back into the mix. Adams had an uneven start to the 2026 season, but he finished much stronger in September, enough to keep his name in the conversation as the Twins sort through the final pieces of the relief corps.
Adams year also offered the kind of mixed rsum that makes these decisions tricky. His 4.58 ERA tells part of the story, but the usage and effectiveness numbers suggest a pitcher whose stuff can work, even if some offerings were hit harder than others. For a Twins club that still has room for only two more bullpen arms, that late improvement may be enough to keep Adams in the hunt a little longer. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Still Have One Contender Problem They Can't Ignore
The Twins reached October with plenty of reasons to believe they belonged in the playoff mix, but their relief work was not one of them. Minnesotas bullpen finished 26th in ERA and spent too much of the postseason putting extra runners on base, a problem that stood out even more next to the deeper, cleaner late-game pitching staffs used by other contenders.
If the front office wants to close that gap, it cannot treat the bullpen as a single add-on. The need is for at least two dependable relievers, including a left-handed option, with strike-throwing as the main filter after a season in which walks kept turning tight innings into stressful ones. Some current arms are headed for free agency or may not be back right away, which only raises the urgency of getting that part of the roster right. [Read more 🡒]