Travis d'Arnaud

And then you have the catcher situation.

Travis D'Arnaud and Tyler Heinemann are manning the plates.

With so many injuries, the catching game is crucial for framing pitches and managing the young arms in the bullpen.

Do you think the defense is holding up?

That could be somebody you, you went and g- go and get.

You know, would the Twins be willin- willing to trade a Luke Keuchel or Keuchel? Um, you know, Guardians aren't trading, trading Travis d'Arnaud.

Cardinals aren't trading a JJ Weatherholt.

We talked a lot last off-season about Ketel Marte.

He's not going to hit homers, but he's going to get on base and move runners over.

Travis D'Arnaud, a catcher, adds some veteran presence.

And Moises Ballesteros at DH? He's been getting looks when the lineup shuffles.

Do you think he can produce against Seattle starters?

Ronald Acuña is hitting 342 in the month of September with a nearly 1100 OPS.

Travis d'Arnaud is hitting 303 in the month with an 814 OPS.

Michael Harris is hitting 393 over his last 10 days.

Matt Olson's hitting 317 with three home runs in his last 10 games.

Those small margins will define this series.

What about the catchers? Travis D'Arnaud and Tyler Heineman are behind the plate.

With so many injuries, do they have extra work handling younger pitchers or managing the bullpen?

Travis D'Arnaud brings veteran leadership.

He's great at calling games and keeping the pitcher calm.

With guys like Reid Detmers and UCI, Kikuchi needing support.

If he falls behind, he's dangerous.

The Angels catcher, Travis D'Arnaud, needs to frame pitches perfectly and call for the slider away.

D'Arnaud is experienced.

He knows how to handle a hot bat.

It's crowded, but Frazier's contact skills might give him the edge against a twin staff that relies on strikeouts.

And the catchers? Travis D'Arnaud and Tyler Heinemann.

D'Arnaud brings experience.

With so many young guys dealing with injuries, having a veteran catcher calling games is essential for guiding the pitching staff.

Remember, Ben Joyce gets one pitch, one out, then he puts two on, and you could tell he's having a little bit of a hard time out there.

So Netto saw that Joyce was out of sorts, and he called the visit to the mound with all the infielders and Travis d'Arnaud to help slow things down.

Joyce said he gave him just some words of encouragement, said, "Trust your stuff," and, uh, and I'm so glad they brought that up on the broadcast because it jumps out to us because that's exactly what we've been wanting someone on this roster [laughs] to do-

Yeah

Correct.

Yeah, he was lucky to escape major injury because he's, his left, uh, ankle sh- and shin, I believe, clipped Darnaud's shin guards.

Darnaud did a great job of blocking the plate after he got, got the ball.

And yeah, the, the on-deck batter needed to tell him to slide way more to his right and maybe try one of those hook slides where you slap in the plate with your hand because that could've been a disaster for JP.

Uh, Darnaud is, uh, exceptional at pushing the envelope of blocking or not blocking.

I believe he was-

Yeah