Ryan Jeffers Diagnosed With Hamate Fracture

11:47am: The Twins have now announced the full slate of moves. Righty Garrett Acton has been moved to the 60-day IL to open roster space for Jackson. Acton has been out since late April due to a shoulder strain, and he’ll now be sidelined into late June at the earliest.

11:20am: It’s shaping up to be quite a day for the Twins — and not in a good way. Not only are the Twins optioning former No. 1 pick and top prospect Royce Lewis to Triple-A, they’ll also lose their starting catcher for an extended period. Ryan Jeffers has been diagnosed with a fractured hamate in his left wrist, Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Jeffers broke his bat on a foul ball in the eighth inning last night and motioned for trainers a couple pitches later. He exited mid-at-bat. The Twins will select the contract of journeyman catcher Alex Jackson to replace Jeffers, per Aaron Gleeman. Victor Caratini will presumably shoulder the starting workload behind the plate.

It’s a brutal injury for Jeffers, a free agent at season’s end, and for the Twins. Jeffers has been not only one of the Twins’ best hitters in 2026 but one of the most productive players in the game. He’s hitting .295/.408/.541 with seven homers and as many walks as strikeouts (15.6% apiece). Jeffers’ 165 wRC+ (indicating he’s been 65% better than a league-average hitter) ranks seventh among the 186 major league players who’ve logged at least 140 plate appearances in 2026.

Jeffers, 29 next month, has somewhat quietly been one of baseball’s best-hitting catchers for several seasons now. Dating back to 2023, he sports a .258/.346/.445 batting line with 51 homers and 70 doubles in 1411 plate appearances. Strikeouts were once an issue for him, but he’s dropped his rate of punchouts in three straight seasons. Jeffers had an uncharacteristic power outage last year, hitting just nine homers, but he slugged 35 homers in 800 trips to the plate from 2023-24 and was on pace for 20-plus again in 2026. This year’s .246 ISO (slugging minus batting average) is a career-high and would be his third ISO of .200+ in the past four seasons.

The Twins haven’t provided a timetable, but hamate fractures tend to sideline players for around four to five weeks. They typically require a small surgical procedure to remove the “hook” at the end of the bone. It bears emphasizing, however, that a four-week timetable is far from certain. Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor and Andrew Vaughn all took about that long (give or take a few days) to return from their own hamate fractures this season, but Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday suffered a hamate fracture in mid-February and only just returned yesterday after multiple setbacks. A best-case scenario would see Jeffers return in mid-June, but that’ll hinge on how the surgery and the first few weeks of rehab play out.

In his place, Caratini will likely slide into the regular catcher’s role. The former Cubs, Brewers and Astros backstop signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the Twins as a free agent this winter. That contract positioned Caratini to serve as Jeffers’ backup while also mixing in at first base and designated hitter. He was coming off a nice three-year run between Milwaukee (2023) and Houston (2024-25), wherein he slashed a combined .262/.328/.400. That’s about five percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and about 17% better than the average catcher.

Things haven’t gone to plan for the switch-hitting Caratini so far in Minnesota. He’s appeared in 34 games and taken 127 plate appearances but posted a bleak .192/.299/.231 batting line. Perhaps more consistent playing time at one position will help his bat perk up.

Caratini is walking at an 8.7% clip with an 18.9% strikeout rate that’s nearly four points lower than league average, so it’s not as though his approach at the plate has completely evaporated. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone is a superlative 95.7%. His 36.5% hard-hit rate is a career-low, but his 88.8 mph average exit velocity is right in line with last year’s 88.7% mark. Caratini, despite a sharp 22.4% line-drive rate, is hitting just .226 on balls in play. Statcast feels he’s been one of the game’s unluckiest hitters, pegging his “expected” batting average at .247 and his “expected” slugging percentage at .363.

Jackson, 30, is having a typical season for himself over in St. Paul. For him, that means good defense and power with poor on-base marks and far too many strikeouts. He’s batting .239/.295/.511 with seven homers in 95 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s struck out nearly 33% of the time he’s set foot in the batter’s box.

The Twins acquired Jackson in an offseason deal with the Orioles, sending minor league utilityman Payton Eeles the other way in the deal. At the time, Jackson was viewed as the backup to Jeffers. The Twins were going through some ownership uncertainty and didn’t know what kind of resources — if any — they’d have to spend in free agency. Once they announced three new minority stakeholders and received the green light for some modest free agent spending, Caratini was brought in on his two-year deal. Jackson was passed through waivers in spring training and stuck around as a depth piece. He’s being paid $1.35MM this year and will now find himself in the backup role he initially envisioned — just behind a different starting catcher.

Acton, 27, was acquired from the Marlins in an April trade sending minor league righty Logan Whitaker back to Miami. He’d previously been designated for assignment by the Fish. Acton tossed 6 2/3 solid innings for Minnesota before hitting the injured list. He still only has 13 1/3 major league innings to his credit, but Acton has big strikeout numbers in his minor league career and enjoyed a strong season with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate last year in his return from a yearlong injury absence: 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate in 58 2/3 innings.

The Twins haven’t specified how long they expect Acton to be sidelined. Assuming his injury isn’t season-ending in nature, there should be plenty of opportunity for him in a patchwork bullpen that’s been one of the worst in Major League Baseball through the season’s first eight weeks.