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  • Roster Shuffle: Buxton And Kepler Out, Meyer And Santana In

    Nick Nelson

    By Nick Nelson

    The Minnesota Twins announced a wave of roster moves this afternoon, altering their personnel as they head into a six-game AL Central homestand in which they badly need to rebound after a brutal weekend in Washington.

    Young outfielders Byron Buxton and Max Kepler were optioned to Class-AAA Rochester. Right-hander Alex Meyer was promoted to the majors, where he'll work out of the Minnesota bullpen. Danny Santana was also reinstated from the disabled list.

    Image courtesy of Brad Rempel, USA Today

    Twins Video

    Buxton, who won an Opening Day roster spot in spite of an unimpressive debut last year and spring this year, has started 13 of the Twins' 19 games in center field but has been flat-out overmatched by major-league pitching. As you can see below, he leads baseball in strikeout rate by a wide margin. Equally disturbing as the raw numbers was the quality of his at-bats, which were consistently poor.

    https://twitter.com/NickNelsonMN/status/724616792371425281

    It's important to remember that Buxton is only 22, and has played only 13 games at Triple-A. The hope is that he'll be able to iron out his plate approach against lesser pitching and return within a couple of months. Meanwhile, Kepler will get the chance to play every day in the Rochester outfield after being unfortunately mired on the Twins bench for the past couple of weeks.

    Santana, who was activated following a minor-league rehab stint, will fill the vacancy in center field along with Eddie Rosario.

    Meanwhile, Meyer will join a beleaguered bullpen that was badly in need of reinforcements after Sunday's marathon 16-inning loss. There's a good chance we'll see him pitch tonight, and it will be interesting to see how his improved results at Triple-A, where he had a 1.04 ERA and 0.87 WHIP in three outings, translates to the majors his second time around.

    What do you think of these moves?

    Nick is a co-founder of Twins Daily who's been writing about the team for more than 15 years.
    Follow Nick Nelson on Twitter: NickNelsonMN

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    Featured Comments

    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    I would prefer Kepler stay up, and play CF for a month, to see what he has. But, maybe they are now gunshy, and don't want to "rush" him.......who knows, it is pretty hard to figure out the plan.

     

    Gun Shy

     

    Never Flipping Stopped them Before.

     

    I thought throwing them to the Wolves was standard operating procedure. 

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    alarp33

    alarp33 2,765

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

     

    You don't worry about stunting the development of a guy like Santana.  But Kepler has had a whopping 14 PA in 9 games. If they would not keep him around and give him a shot, why even bring him up?

     

    I wouldn't even have Santana on the roster, so I definitely would not worry about stunting his development.  Kepler showed in the minimal amount of at bats he might be able to take the most professional at bats of anyone on the roster not named Mauer. Who knows why he wasn't given more. 

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    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    You don't worry about stunting the development of a guy like Santana.  But Kepler has had a whopping 14 PA in 9 games. If they would not keep him around and give him a shot, why even bring him up?

     

    I agree... But they had nobody else. 

     

    Kepler or Walker were the 40 man replacement options. 

     

    This organizational failure is multiple levels deep. 

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    Otto von Ballpark

    Otto von Ballpark 20,320

  • Community Leader

    • Posted (edited)

     

    we are quibbling over 49 or 53%?

    I'm not quibbling, just informing folks about the difference between PA and AB and how they are used to calculate K%.

     

    I am sure we all agree Buxton has been striking out a metric ton. :)

    Edited by spycake
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    twinssporto

    twinssporto 5,028

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Kepler really should have stayed.  I agree that he wasn't given enough time...If we are going with the youth movement then lets stay the course with the exception of Buxton.  He clearly looked overmatched at the plate. I really don't want to watch Murphy play.  I'm already yawning.

     

    I would also start bringing up some of the young arms we have in the relief corps in AA/AAA.  The bullpen is a disaster.

     

     

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    dgwills

    dgwills 567

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

     

    Didn't we all spend 3 months this off-season discussing how there was no plan?  Pats everyone on the back, good work guys

    Thank you. It all seems worth it now. We probably should of made sure Ryan's phone works while we were at it. Maybe he spent the offseason trying to get through to the operator.

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    SweetOne69

    SweetOne69 146

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    There are 2 reasons why Duffey hasn't been sent down.

     

    First, they are waiting to be sure that Santana will be able to take is turn on Friday.  Which will be probably be determined if he does a BP session tomorrow.

     

    Second, they have to make sure Duffey is only hurt and not injured.  They can't demote an injured player (would have to DL him).

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    USAFChief

    USAFChief 58,010

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

     

    There are 2 reasons why Duffey hasn't been sent down.

     

    First, they are waiting to be sure that Santana will be able to take is turn on Friday.  Which will be probably be determined if he does a BP session tomorrow.

     

    Second, they have to make sure Duffey is only hurt and not injured.  They can't demote an injured player (would have to DL him).

    1.  Duffey could turn right around and come back to MN if Santana goes on the DL.  If they're worried about the cost of a r/t airline ticket, just have Duffey stay in Minneapolis with friends.  He's not going to get a start for Rochester for a few days, either.

     

    2.  Then DL him.  Of course, then they'd have to pay him a MLB salary for 15 days.  

     

    There's no reason to let Duffey just sit on the roster.  Do something.

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    SweetOne69

    SweetOne69 146

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    1.  Duffey could turn right around and come back to MN if Santana goes on the DL.  If they're worried about the cost of a r/t airline ticket, just have Duffey stay in Minneapolis with friends.  He's not going to get a start for Rochester for a few days, either.

     

    2.  Then DL him.  Of course, then they'd have to pay him a MLB salary for 15 days.  

     

    There's no reason to let Duffey just sit on the roster.  Do something.

    True, but it also doesn't hurt to wait 1 more day either.

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    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    1.  Duffey could turn right around and come back to MN if Santana goes on the DL.  If they're worried about the cost of a r/t airline ticket, just have Duffey stay in Minneapolis with friends.  He's not going to get a start for Rochester for a few days, either.

     

    2.  Then DL him.  Of course, then they'd have to pay him a MLB salary for 15 days.  

     

    There's no reason to let Duffey just sit on the roster.  Do something.

     

    Vargas and A.B. Walker are the only choices on the 40 man.

     

     

     

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    djvang

    djvang 132

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    Didn't we all spend 3 months this off-season discussing how there was no plan?  Pats everyone on the back, good work guys

    I think their "plan" was simply for the younger players to get better. Rosario & Sano had good years but pitchers have learned their weaknesses and they haven't adjusted. Sano apparently did nothing in the off season except gain weight.  Rosario will swing at anything. Buxton & Kepler should spend most of the year in AAA learning to hit instead of flailing away in the majors. We're seeing the peril of having a young, immature, inexperienced team with no leadership on the field. They really miss Hunter.

     

    Remember 1982 and 102 losses with young Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky, Laudner, & Viola. It's takes times for youngsters to figure it out. And sometimes they never do.

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    Platoon

    Platoon 8,711

  • Verified Member

    • Posted (edited)

    The explanation I keep hearing is "Kepler needs to play every day"... umm, ok, the Twins have an opening in CF. Every day. Problem solved.

     

    This from today's Trib: "Kepler, who batted .167 over nine games, didn't receive the consistent playing time manager Paul Molitor wanted him to get when he was called up to replace Danny Santana." Did I miss something? Isn't Molitor the manager? Does not the manager parcel out playing time? Was Kepler injured? Doesn't Molitor speak German? ACH der leiber! :) Or in the words of the greatest German officer of all time, "I KNOW NUTTING, NUTTING!" Edited by Platoon
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    Platoon

    Platoon 8,711

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    we are quibbling over 49 or 53%?

    Plus using math on TD is highly discouraged, not to speak of confusing!

    Thank you. It all seems worth it now. We probably should of made sure Ryan's phone works while we were at it. Maybe he spent the offseason trying to get through to the operator.

    Sometimes when I try the operator the dial won't roll all the way back, I even tried WD40 to no avail!
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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

     

    1.  Duffey could turn right around and come back to MN if Santana goes on the DL.  If they're worried about the cost of a r/t airline ticket, just have Duffey stay in Minneapolis with friends.  He's not going to get a start for Rochester for a few days, either.

    You can't repromote a player for 14 days... Though there may be an injury exception, I can't recall.

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    D. Hocking

    D. Hocking 4,790

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    The Twins offseason plans for 2016 is looking more and more like a total gong show these days. When everyone else including the fans knew they needed bullpen help, the Twins decided to put there heads in the sand. Let the gongs continue to bong at One Twins way, no bullpen, no catcher, no center fielder and a fricken gong show of a 40 man roster right now. 

     

    The sad thing is they also knew it was an issue and said it was the number one priority in the off-season, but did not really do anything concrete to address that need.

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    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    This from today's Trib: "Kepler, who batted .167 over nine games, didn't receive the consistent playing time manager Paul Molitor wanted him to get when he was called up to replace Danny Santana." Did I miss something? Isn't Molitor the manager? Does not the manager parcel out playing time? Was Kepler injured? Doesn't Molitor speak German? ACH der leiber! :) Or in the words of the greatest German officer of all time, "I KNOW NUTTING, NUTTING!"

     

    Kepler couldn't play because Buxton and Rosario and Arcia were on fire at the plate. 

     

     

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    ScrapTheNickname

    ScrapTheNickname 3,577

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    Ahh, I was adding his 3 from yesterday. I didn't think they were updated.

    I think what I did is called niggling. No big deal. Let's hope when he comes back up his K rate is cut in half.

    Edited by ScrapTheNickname
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