Coulombe Makes Opening Day Roster, Godoy DFAd

So Coulombe over Godoy - who got DFA'ed and then they signed another catcher to replace Godoy at St. Paul....does that mean they assume Godoy will be claimed on waivers? Or did they just outright release him?

The Rooker v. Garlick question is a big one. Garlick is 3 years older than Rooker, but if you read the tea leaves, Rooker doesn't look like he'll ever be as valuable as Garlick is now. I can see why the Twins don't want to lose Rooker, but at this point I don't think he'll ever be a major contributor on this team. And they don't have room for prospects who hit .200 right now, and even if they did they've already got Trevor Larnach to do just that and he's next in line.

Kohl Stewart was a sunk cost and the Twins just let him go. I'm thinking they should do the same for Rooker. Who knows, maybe he hits 23 HR for Baltimore this year, or fills in as a 4th outfielder in Oakland. If that's the case, the Twins should be OK with that and wish him the best. Garlick should get the job.

I think this is a good move by the FO.  They can use another Lefty reliever and so far this spring Coulombe has looked the part.  This leaves Smeltzer in AAA to continue to get stretched out and be injury insurance.  Keep in mind that when rosters move down to a 26 man Coulombe could end up DFA'd himself, but this helps the team early IMO.

Was surprised it was Godoy that got moved but then the Chance Sisco news hit so they still have a catcher that bats lefty in the system set at AAA so should be good whether Godoy makes it or not. I like the move.

With the arrival of the Sisco kid, there's no more waiting for Godoy.

20 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

With the arrival of the Sisco kid, there's no more waiting for Godoy.

This is just the type of erudition that keeps me coming back to this site!

Sounds like the saw Godoy and decided he wasn't the LH hitting catcher they need, so they moved on to Cisco. Better pedigree, but not much performance at the plate. The 2nd/3rd/AAA insurance LH hitting catcher carousel may just keep spinning for awhile. And who knows, Godoy may wind up in St. Paul or Wichita if he liked us and we liked him enough. A little scary though, because it now appears that Sanchez will catch at least 2 days a week.

I think it's Garlick over Rooker on merit. I'm guessing that the Twins will wait until the last second to run Rooker through waivers and hope that he gets by in the crush of waived players in a day or so.  Not a big deal if he doesn't since he only fits on a bad team roster like Oakland or Baltimore. Anyone else will just have to waive him again in a month. Still, the extra 2 guys until May 1 might give a team a spot to stash him and see what they got.

Finally, I'm a little surprised that Smeltzer didn't make the club given his ST performance. I guess the Twins have decide to make him a starter in AAA, stretch him out, and have him be the 7th or 8th starter this year. I'm assuming Winder is starter #6, Duran is now in the bullpen for at least a season, so who's #7? Smeltzer may fit in there over Strotman, Balazovic and Sands, at least for now.   We will go through at least 8 or 9 starters so I see Smeltzer getting 5-10 starts this year, more if he's effective. Gray is the only 160-180 IP guy in the rotation now, if even him, so there will be plenty of starts to go around. 

Surprises - the end of the roster is a quagmire of decisions.  We had the TD stories about Godoy and were just starting to warm to him and now we are supposed to jump on the Sisco bandwagon - how they play with our emotions! 

By the way Godoy hit 250/333/375 this spring - Gary Sanchez 148/201/222 - I guess this is another case where ST stats don't matter. 

Garlick or Rooker is a who cares, but it says that the Twins should have been shopping Rooker after last season.  He was never going to make it and Wallner, Sabato...are ready to slug their way into the next round of discussions. 

Good for Coulombe - if he stays long enough I will learn to spell his name without having to go back to the article.  But then DFA could still be in the cards.  

Well the tension is building - can't wait for the next announcement. 

Minaya and Smeltzer should be given a chance soon hopefully. Rooker has not proven he can hit major league pitching.

I'm starting to wonder if the FO isn't taking the need for catching depth seriously enough. I can't ever see the Twins needing Rooker in 2022, but I can certainly see needing Godoy. Small move, I know, but those are the ones that can get you in the end.

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Two catchers is the right idea. I don't believe in Rooker, but I don't in Garlick either, so, not sure? Plus, when the one who stays is bad, there are replacements in the minors.... So not sure it matters. 

I'm not against two catchers, but when one of them is Sanchez...???  I guess I just have to trust that the coaches have no trouble with his defense.

53 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

 

By the way Godoy hit 250/333/375 this spring - Gary Sanchez 148/201/222 - I guess this is another case where ST stats don't matter.

Gary Sanchez was going to make this team no matter what. Speaking of which, I was watching some YouTube highlights of a condensed game against TB a couple days ago. Sano comes up, bases loaded nobody out. Strikes out. Sanchez comes up right after him and HE strikes out too! It was the first inning, Twins ended up not scoring after having the bases loaded with 0 outs.

Rocco can't bat Sano/Sanchez 4-5 in the order during the regular season, please no. They should be batting 6th and maybe 9th, just keep them away from each other in the order so we never see those guys strike out back-to-back this year with men on base and less than 2 outs.

To be fair I like both players but those kind of ABs just make it so hard for me to continue to support the Twins' offensive strategy.

Gedoy...Sisco...Rortvedt...probably not a ton of difference between them? Maybe Sisco will show he can hit enough to be a good backup/platoon partner to Jeffers. Stash Sisco in AAA and see what happens.

I'm on the "dump Rooker for Garlick" train; we know Garlick can mash on lefties if he's healthy and is decent enough in the corners. Rooker hasn't shown he can hit anything, is rotten in the OF, and is old enough that his remaining options don't really mean all that much.

Coulombe was a guy I was happy stayed in the organization. He was solid last season and makes for a nice lefty option if they weren't ready to hand the slot to Moran (who I remain high on). I suspect he might not stick when rosters go back down to 26, but he's a useful middle inning reliever.

1 hour ago, AceWrigley said:

With the arrival of the Sisco kid, there's no more waiting for Godoy.

Sisco kid was a friend of mine

So, does this mean Sanchez doesn’t DH and is essentially a back up C?  Or on the vast majority of days that Jeffers is behind the dish, do we roll with Sanchez at DH and hope we don’t need to put a pitcher at the plate.

Sounds like Kiriloff is going to play a lot of 1B, Sano at DH, and Sanchez at C2.

Thats lots of $ to pay a C2.  Geez, I really hate what we’ve done to our catching skill base and depth. 

Can't wait to have this same discussion when we go 28-to-26 ?

As long as Rooker has options, I don't care between Rooker/Garlick. Thought the 40-spot casualty may be interesting.

Good for Coulombe, I am not a big fan but has been decent for Twins, not alot of upside. Rooker/Garlick, for me rather see Garlick, but can see Twins keeping Rooker as well. Feel Twins hoping Larnach and Celestino ready in a couple months to move up to MLB. Eventually need to find room for Miranda also, these things tend to work themselves out.

Did we DFA the wrong catcher?

It’s not as silly a question as it sounds.

Points for Godoy: he is better defensively and possibly offensively (albeit light hitting). Also, we were prepared to roll with Rortvedt as C2 post the Garver trade and Godoy, as described by many in this site, is about like Rortvedt.

Points for Sanchez: he was good three years ago, our FO traded for him, he might rebound, and he costs about $8MM.  

4 hours ago, jun said:

Minaya and Smeltzer should be given a chance soon hopefully. Rooker has not proven he can hit major league pitching.

 

Rooker was awesome in 2020, then broke his wrist when he got hit by a pitch. Last year he was terrible but also played hurt, supposedly. 

33 minutes ago, dex8425 said:

Rooker was awesome in 2020, then broke his wrist when he got hit by a pitch. Last year he was terrible but also played hurt, supposedly. 

Rooker crushes AAA pitching. (he did it in 2019, he did it in 2021) He got waxed against MLB pitching in 2021, hurt or not. he looks increasingly like a AAAA player: too good to sit in AAA but not skilled enough to play in MLB.

His performance in 2020 really doesn't count: 7 games late in the season doesn't really tell you anything other than dude had a good week.

Can both Rooker and Garlic and find a better 4th OF/ CF sub option... I'd like to send Sanchez down to work on his defense and hitting.

How critical is a third catcher?

The Braves used 7 catchers last year. Four of them were not in the organization when the season started. Garrett Stubbs and his career 485 OPS was the Astros third catcher. He was on the roster 5 times last year totaling about 10 weeks. Somehow both teams were pretty successful without a reliable third catcher.

11 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

How critical is a third catcher?

The Braves used 7 catchers last year. Four of them were not in the organization when the season started. Garrett Stubbs and his career 485 OPS was the Astros third catcher. He was on the roster 5 times last year totaling about 10 weeks. Somehow both teams were pretty successful without a reliable third catcher.

A very good point. Despite a significant injury to Garver, the Twins still only used Rortvedt for 34 games and 94 PAs as a catcher last season. While I do believe that a great way to raise the floor of your team and capture additional wins is to give as few innings to bad players as possible, 3rd catcher does appear to be one of those areas where a) it probably doesn't hurt you that much, and 2) there aren't all that many innings for it to suck up.

I know a lot of people are down on Sanchez as a catcher and have pre-emptively decided that he should never play back there for fear of frightening the horses or something, but it may be a bit overstated. It's only been in the last 2 years that the struggles have really gotten bad, and it's certainly possible that the focus from the loud and populous NY media and fans may have messed with his head.

7 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Rumor has it the Twins (along with a few other teams) are waiting for Upton to clear waivers. Once he clears they are only on the hook for the minimum salary. He could choose which of the interested teams he wishes to join. I would think of him as an upgrade over either Garlick or Rooker.

Bigger name, but I'm not sure Upton is better than Garlick as a platoon bat; Upton hasn't been a good player since 2018. I'm not sure I'd be all that excited about signing a 34 year-old OF who hasn't hit in several years. (Detroit really sold high on him; moved him while at an all-star level, then he had exactly 1 good season for the Angels before turning in 3 sub-replacement level outings. blegh) 

53 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Rumor has it the Twins (along with a few other teams) are waiting for Upton to clear waivers. Once he clears they are only on the hook for the minimum salary. He could choose which of the interested teams he wishes to join. I would think of him as an upgrade over either Garlick or Rooker.

I thought that too Karbo as an option. A trade would be better to help manage our 40 man but I have almost lost all hope that this FO can initiate a substantial trade. So Upton would make a very viable option if they can negociate something.