Twins acquire catcher Diego Cartaya, a former top prospect, from Dodgers

The Twins are taking a flier on a player whose prospect shine has dimmed over the past couple years.

Mar 4, 2023; Surprise, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Diego Cartaya against the Kansas City Royals during a spring training game at Surprise Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Twins have acquired catcher Diego Cartaya from the Los Angeles Dodgers for rookie-ball pitching prospect Jose Vasquez, the team announced on Thursday.

Cartaya is an interesting low-risk addition. The 23-year-old from Venezuela was a top prospect just a few years ago, but things didn't go to plan for him and he was designated for assignment last week. The Twins are clearly hoping that a change of scenery could rejuvenate his once-promising career.

Cartaya was initially signed as a highly-touted international free agent in 2018. In 2022, he played on the NL team in the All-Star Futures Game. After shining at the Low-A and High-A levels for a couple years — he hit 22 home runs and had an .892 OPS in 2022 — Cartaya was a consensus top-20 prospect in baseball heading into the 2023 season.

But that's when things went awry. At Double-A that season, he hit just .189 with a .656 OPS, though he did hit 19 home runs. There was hope that he would bounce back the following year, but Cartaya had a similarly rough 2024 season split between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .221 with 11 homers and a .686 OPS.

As a result, his prospect shine is now mostly gone, which is why the Twins were able to get him for a low-level prospect like Vasquez, who had a 4.99 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 30.2 innings in the Dominican Summer League this year.

For a team like the Twins that has to find creative ways to add talent due to self-imposed payroll restrictions at the major league level, taking a flier on Cartaya makes sense. He's still only 23 years old and clearly possesses a lot of raw talent. The 6-foot-3, 219-pound catcher has a lot of pop in his bat and is solid behind the plate defensively. He just hasn't hit very much and has struck out far too often over the past two seasons, so his approach at the plate needs plenty of work.

The Twins currently have Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vazquez as their catching tandem, with Jair Camargo third on the organizational depth chart. But Vazquez has struggled and could be traded for salary relief this offseason, and the 25-year-old Camargo — who also began his career with the Dodgers organization — is coming off a rough year of his own with Triple-A St. Paul.

St. Paul is where Cartaya will presumably play in 2025. If the Twins' hitting coaches can help him turn things around, there's a chance he could factor into the team's future at an important position.