Twins just gave Yankees awful catching solution (and they'd better not take the bait)

For as much time as the Yankees supposedly spent this winter looking to diversify their handedness, it's pretty funny that they still plan to enter Opening Day with the same bizarre flaw they closed 2025 with.

Is employing two left-handed catchers the worst thing a team can do? No, of course not. What about three left-handed catchers? Yeah, that's marginally worse. But when your marching orders in the rumor mill involve taking advantage of JC Escarra's value and acquiring someone who does what he can do, but from the other side of the plate, it's kinda funny to end up with Paul Goldschmidt and Randal Grichuk and call it a day instead.

Of course, now the time for a change has almost passed. Escarra's having an awesome spring, using his torpedo bat to reach powerful new heights. If this was a Yankees priority in December, it shouldn't be in March. And they absolutely shouldn't take the bait the Minnesota Twins just laid for them on the trade market, placing "Alex Jackson" on the mousetrap where cheese should be.

Yankees shouldn't bail out Twins over trade mistake and dump JC Escarra

Jackson is certainly a right-handed catcher. He is not Escarra's equal offensively, either in reality or the world of projections.

He also was a Yankee once, spending time at their Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year before they sent him in-division to the Baltimore Orioles. Over the past few seasons, the only pitcher Jackson has proven he can consistently hit is Nestor Cortes Jr.; he homered off Nestor in July 2024, a game that raised his season average to .091.

Though Jackson posted a 111 OPS+ in a deliciously small 100 plate appearance sample size with the O's last year, his career on the whole has shown that he cannot be trusted offensively, either consistently or sporadically. His arrival on the trade market is no reason to deprioritize Escarra, who's recently garnered significant praise from Boone.

The Twins used an asset to acquire Jackson earlier this offseason, sending super fun utility prospect Payton Eeles to Baltimore — all five-foot-five of him — in the process. Eeles has the chance to be the Orioles' answer to Caleb Durbin, though he hasn't appeared often this spring.

Still, the fact that Minnesota gave up a genuinely interesting player in exchange for Jackson this winter, then disliked what they saw enough that they leapt at acquiring Victor Caratini and are now shopping their initial catching acquisition? Yeah. The Yankees should pay this opportunity no mind.