Minnesota Twins Calling Up Former A's Backstop

Minnesota Twins catcher Christian Vázquez landed on the IL earlier today due to left shoulder inflammation, and to take his place, the team is calling up Jhonny Pereda, whom they recently snapped up on the waiver wire from the Athletics.

Across six minor league games in the Twins' system, Pereda went 7-for-21 with a home run, a triple, a double, and seven runs scored. He has also walked as many times as he's struck out, collecting four of each.

When he was in Sacramento with the A's, he spent a good chunk of the early part of the year as the team's backup for Shea Langeliers, but the power-hitting backstop rarely takes a day off, which left Pereda with few opportunities.

In the chances he did get, he went 7-for-40 (.175) while walking 13% of the time and striking out at a 28.3% clip. He has a tendency to swing-and-miss on pitches (29.6%), but he's also terrific at not chasing pitches, which is a combo that consistent playing time could help. Behind the dish he graded out as roughly league average in his limited playing time.

As we wrote when Pereda was picked up by Minnesota, he has also made a couple of noteworthy appearances out of the bullpen in blowouts this season. The first came against the Chicago Cubs during the A's home opener in Sacramento, where he ended up facing Cubs pitcher Colin Rea. In other words, there was a position player on the mound and a pitcher in the box.

Pereda ended up striking him out.

That wouldn't be the only pitcher Pereda K'd this season, however, though the second one was a bit more notable. That pitcher was Shohei Ohtani at Dodger Stadium back in May. After sitting 63-66 miles per hour during the at-bat, the new Twins catcher put a little extra on his two-strike pitch, firing an 89 mph fastball above the zone that got Ohtani to offer, which he ended up swinging through.

Before landing with the A's, Pereda had been with the Miami Marlins, where he made his MLB debut in 2024, getting into 20 games for them while hitting .231 with a .250 OBP. He's still not going to be the starting catcher in Minnesota with Ryan Jeffers around, but perhaps he can work his way into more consistent playing time than once or twice a week.

The Twins will be taking on the Kansas City Royals at home this weekend, with first pitch on Friday scheduled for 5:10 p.m. (PT), but 7:10 p.m. local time.