Díaz turns 35, and Texas needs a plan behind the plate

Mitch Garver retired this week, which is a tidy reminder of how quickly the catcher position cycles. Elias Díaz is now the starter on the depth chart, and he enters his age-35 season — a threshold where the position tends to collect its debts fast.

The backup situation got thinner on Friday, when Kyle Higashioka declined his mutual option and walked. That leaves Danny Jansen as the next name on the depth chart, with Jose Herrera having shown some life in limited time this past season. Herrera hit well in his 12 games, though the sample is small enough that it's more of a data point than a solution.

My read is that this is a moderate but real problem. Díaz at 35 as your primary catcher, with Jansen behind him and no clear developmental option pushing from below, is a thin arrangement for a team that finished 80-82 and needs to find a few more wins somewhere. The position doesn't have to be a priority acquisition — but it probably needs to be on the list.