Article: Surprises Mark Twins Opening Day Roster

[Vanimal46]

Leads me to believe they're coming out of the blocks very concerned about short starts from Santiago and Hughes in particular, and aren't ready to trust a couple of the others to give them longer starts either.

Concur. This was my exact thoughts reading the article. Not a lot of trust that Hughes or Santiago will pitch 6+ innings.

[nytwinsfan]

I know it is only spring training, and stats don't mean much if anything, but man Park deserved to make this roster.  He clearly put in the work AND performed.  If he continues to obliterate the ball at AAA they better call him up ASAP.

[SirLoin]

Our pet's heads are falling off....

[Oldgoat_MN]

Chris Gimenez is bringing his .602 OPS from last year to be a backup 1B? Mauer can do better than that even if he only faced LH pitchers.

DanSan?

 

I am not finding many of their moves what I would call 'inspiring'.

[nater79a]

 

Leads me to believe they're coming out of the blocks very concerned about short starts from Santiago and Hughes in particular, and aren't ready to trust a couple of the others to give them longer starts either.

 

This!  Have to believe Duffey and/or Haley are handcuffed to Santiago and Hughes on days that they pitch. Lot of short starts.

[Steve Lein]

This is not the best team they could bring north. I was hoping for an opening day roster that gave indications of changes in philosophy from Falvey and Levine that I liked. This is not that.

 

[Brandon]

Couldnt they just bring duffey up if they meeded him

[DaveW]

They know exactly what they're doing. No doubt about that. And, it's just a short-term thing.

 

Also, when you have this short of a bench, a guy like Santana - even if he's not great in any defensive spot - has value.

They already have 4 OF who can play CF (or any other position)

 

Escobar can be the the super utility guy. Sano, Polanco and Dozier need to be playing 150 games this year anyways. Ditto with a Kepler, Buxton and Rosario. Santana is pointless at this stage. Esp with a short bench. They would be much much much better served having Park on the roster instead.

 

13 pitchers to start the season once again is nonsense. It's not like you have to worry about guys getting fatigued etc and there seem to be a bunch of random Off days early in the season anyways.

 

Grossman should be a 4th OF, not a DH.

 

His numbers won't justify it (unless he keeps up a .364 BABIP) what else did Park need to do to earn a spot??

[DaveW]

 

13 pitchers, with off days. Must be some kind of stat head nerd geek thing no else has thought of....

This reeks of a Paul Molitor decision.

[TheLeviathan]

So some of you need to explain to me how if the explanation for Chargois is that he "didn't take it" (meaning his roster spot).....

 

 

Just what in the hell else did Park need to do to "take it"?

[Squirrel]

So the plan to rest Mauer more early in the season is by carrying no one else as the back-up first baseman? I hope Danny Santana bought a first baseman's glove from Sports Authority's clearance sale last fall.

I think the back up might be Grossman in the short term, Vargas or Park eventually. As I said, I think this roster is just a delay on making firmer decisions that impact actually losing players they may not yet want to lose, for whatever reason.

 

But it's still ... what it is.

[spinowner]

 

Couldnt they just bring duffey up if they meeded him

Not if Hughes (or anyone else) has trouble getting through two innings.

[Eris]

 

I assume there is some hyper, next-level thought process here that none of us are privvy to yet. 

 

A simple explanation is that the moves were made to avoid making 40 man roster moves.  Sending Park down is not all that different then sending Alex Wimmers to AAA.  It was done to put off a decision on who to cut.  It is of course difficult to comprehend how the worst team in baseball can have a 40 man roster crunch.  Part of this can be attributed to poor player management and adding players to the 40 man roster before they are ready to contribute.    Also, most of the deadline trades last year involved players who had to be kept on the 40 man or risk being lost.  Pat Light is an example.  Not sure if it would have been possible to work these trades receiving players who were a couple of years from needing to protected.  The Twins are even lucky to have these decisions to make on Wimmers and Park as both could have been picked up by any team.  There are some obvious candidates to be released or traded.  One of the questions is how much value to they have a this time.  For example do you try trade JR Murphy for a lottery ticket, or just release him.  Before coming to the Twins he was a capable back-up.

[Shaitan]

 

I think they designed this roster in order to delay decision making on some of the players. And I'm not qualifying that as a bad or good thing ... yet.

I wonder if a lot of this offseason and now this are directly tied to waiting to hire the new front office until after the World Series. They just don't know the players they're working with yet.

 

[drjim]

 

So some of you need to explain to me how if the explanation for Chargois is that he "didn't take it" (meaning his roster spot).....

 

 

Just what in the hell else did Park need to do to "take it"?

 

Play a position apparently. Or pitch.

[gunnarthor]

Honestly, the one real problem (in my view) is Danny Santana.  He got the most AB in ST and was awful.  Pretty clearly a Molitor mandated move.  I'd have removed him from the 40 man roster.  But keeping Park in AAA for a month isn't horrible.  He was hot last year in ST, too.  Let's see how he is doing a month from now.  And it also lets Grossman play more.  If Grossman can be an on-base machine, we're ok.  If he's not, they'll release him in a month.  Nothing wrong with finding out what he can do.

 

Duffey in the pen might be the best place for him although I'd probably have let him try starting in AAA one more year first.  Haley needs to be kept.  Mejia is a good addition.  I hope the FO has a short hook for Hughes.  

[drjim]

This reeks of a Paul Molitor decision.

No chance it's just him. The front office knows the pitching staff they gave him.

[clone52]

 

Wow! To start the season, Duffey's the long man, Haley will be hidden, Mauer is going to play 1B every day, Berrios may be the #6 starter. Within a few weeks, they may need to find roster spaces for Park and Adrianza, and/or Vargas, if he's hitting well. Those will be interesting decisions.

 

Mauer doesn't have to play every day.  Kepler or even Sano probably gives him days off.

 

This is all probably short term.  They won't keep 13 pitchers for that long and its entirely possible that Santana gets released at some point.

[Squirrel]

He should take D Santanas spot for sure. Adrianza had a strong spring FWIW and can handle the infield way better than D San ever will.

Well, that would be my hope. I think (hope?) there will be some roster shuffling before the month of April is over.

[lukeduke1980]

Can't quite have enough long relievers with this staff so I think this is a realistic acknowledgement.  

 

A little surprising there's not another RH bat for platooning against LH starters.

[TwinsFan23]

I honestly think if Park would have gotten a full season of AB's he could have hit .250 ish with 30 homers. Hoping he's up very soon. Disappointed that he didn't make the roster.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Play a position apparently. Or pitch.

 

Sort of blows your theory out of the water though....doesn't it?

 

Sometimes, a guy can't just "take it".  Apparently.

[DaveW]

Isn't Santana out of options too? It would make sense to give him one last shot early in the year.

 

Also, does Grossman as DH hint that the analytics side is starting to win out? With his high OBP and horrible defense he's a guy you want in the lineup but not in the field

Santana literally has been one of the worst 5 players in baseball over the past couple years. He is a bad baseball player who absolutely should not be on a rebuilding team. He should be AAA depth at this stage of his career. His 2014 was fueled by a .405 BABIP that's not going to happen again, it's time to move on from D San. I wish him the best, and im sure he will bounce around the league for a bit, but there is zero reason why this club should have him on the roster.

 

Grossman had a high ObP, but it was driven largely by a .364 BABIP. I think he's a solid player, but definitely not someone you want as a DH.

[USAFChief]

 

They know exactly what they're doing. No doubt about that. And, it's just a short-term thing.

 

Also, when you have this short of a bench, a guy like Santana - even if he's not great in any defensive spot - has value. 

Forgive me, but this is...questionable at best.

 

You don't get to claim "value" for having a guy around who's only there because of the short bench, when it was your decision to have a short bench in the first place.

 

Put players on the team who help you win games, not ones who are so bad they're one reason you're losing games, but who are bad in a whole bunch of different spots instead of bad in just one.

 

I very much want to give the new front office the benefit of every doubt, and realize they can't fix every problem over one off season, but man...I'm not impressed so far.  At all.  

 

 

[spinowner]

Kepler has played a significant amount of 1B in the minors. I don't know if he has kept his infield skills current or not. The thing about him as Mauer's backup is they are both left-handed batters. Have Grossman and Giminez actually played 1B in the past?

I'm wondering if they might have some talks going on with agents and/or other teams that they hope to finalize between now and Monday. This roster feels very temporary to me.

[DaveW]

They won't keep 13 pitchers for that long and its entirely possible that Santana gets released at some point.

Possible? Yes

Probable? With this FO/manager? I don't think so.

[drjim]

 

Sort of blows your theory out of the water though....doesn't it?

 

Sometimes, a guy can't just "take it".  Apparently.

 

Sure, sometimes situations out of their control prevent players from making a roster. Contracts, service time, roster spots, roster makeup play a factor. I never suggested otherwise.

 

But that wasn't the case with Chargois. Not even a little bit. It was his spot.

[DaveW]

Fwiw:

 

Danny Santana has -2.1 WAR over his last 160 games. That's not value, that's the opposite of value.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

The notion that Mauer will begin to play a bit less this season takes a nose dive when you realize both of his back-ups are now in Rochester. 

That is a good observation.

 

Who is the backup 1B?  If the backup is the LHB Kepler, that probably doesn't bode well for platooning Mauer.  Or could it be Sano?  Has he taken any reps there this spring?  He only has 14 career pro innings at the position.

[beckmt]

There is no faith in the pitching staff, or possibly a trade is in the works for one of the Twins starters. That is the only explanation.