Minnesota Twins Catcher Exits With Injury

The Minnesota Twins have been in something of a freefall since their 13-game winning streak. Another loss on Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds made it four-straight for the Twins, and nine losses in their last eleven games, tanking their 2025 record back to .500, at 36-36.

Of course, injuries play heavily into this run of bad baseball. In fact, the injured list has become a rite of passage for the Minnesota Twins lineup, of late. Pretty much every player on roster who matters has been on it at some point.

As of now, both Pablo Lopez and Zebby Matthews are taking their turns, after pitching on a bad mound against the A’s two weeks ago. More recently, Royce Lewis joined them after straining his hamstring running down the first base line (again).

Ryan Jeffers leaves Minnesota Twins lineup with injury

Then Tuesday night, it was Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers who exited the lineup early, after he took a foul tip off his hand early on. Initially, he remained in the game. But not long after that foul tip, Jeffers dropped a third strike that allowed two more runs to score.

That forced David Festa from the game. It’s not a coincidence that, when Jeffers spot in the lineup came around for the third time in the fifth inning, it was Vazquez who checked into the game and took over behind the plate, not Ryan Jeffers, who was diagnosed was a right hand contusion. Thankfully, X-Rays were negative.

Ryan Jeffers exited with a right hand contusion. X-ray was negative. #MNTwins

— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) June 18, 2025

The play that changed the game for the Twins… pic.twitter.com/zvjLGXWU4l

— Ted (@tlschwerz) June 18, 2025

Sure, gutting out an injury to try and help your team seems like the commendable thing to do… until it backfires, and you wind up costing your team instead. Then, that admiration turns to frustration.

Once Jeffers realized he was having issues catching the baseball, he should have pulled himself out of the game immediately, especially given the circumstances. With guys on base, two outs in the inning and two strikes on the current batter, catching strike three becomes pretty important.

The misplay resulted in two more Reds runs being scored, which surrendered the Twins’ lead. In fact, all six of the Cincinnati Reds runs in game one of this three-game series came with two outs. That’s pretty incredible.

Jeffers optimistic about injury

After the game, Jeffers seemed confident that he will be back in the lineup soon, even vowing to be available for Rocco Baldelli on Wednesday night, should the Twins manager need him.

“It swelled up pretty bad. But no break. Grip strength is fine, so we should be good to go (Wednesday) in whatever capacity Rocco wants me in.”

Ryan Jeffers on hand injury suffered Tuesday vs Reds (quote via The Athletic)

Unfortunately, Jeffers’ exit exposed the Minnesota Twins lineup further. His replacement, Christian Vazquez, has been truly terrible offensively pretty much since joining the team two years ago.

Related: Royce Lewis Return Timeline Coming into Focus

He’s slashed .218/.265/.319 as a Twin. Tuesday night, Vazquez went 0-for-3 in the two-spot, including a game-ending strikeout. After the game, Ryan Jeffers