Twins Claim Trevor Megill, Outright Jake Cave

Surprise, surprise Cave cleared waivers hard to believe (bites toungue). Nobody else wanted him either?  Well he gets a chance to rebuild himself at AAA at least.  Why the Twins were so worried about losing him makes me wonder about their player evaluation ability.  Heck 80 percent of this board could see he wasn't worth rostering this year not sure what took them so long.

Megill looks a lot like Vallimont part 2 only he is exclusively a reliever. Maybe they think that with the success they had with Ober they can tame another giant.  Hard to say but odds are they drop him and hope he clears waivers for them.  They need 40 man room for actual real starting pitchers so I don't think taking on Megill at the MLB level is an option.

At first I thought this was Tylor Megill, a somewhat promising young Mets starting pitcher. Then, I got flashbacks of Matt Magill, the mediocre Twins reliever, Now, I see it’s Trevor Megill, a flame throwing reliever who somehow can’t miss bats. Falvey/Levine seem to be like Mr. Maggoo, as they are shortsighted in attempting to find elite relief pitchers at the bottom of the barrel a few too many times. I will be happier when the front office shows more megalomaniac behavior. This series of moves will most likely have little magnitude on the team.

(I’m sorry)

11 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

 

The front office has been very disappointing this off season, but this was actually pretty clever.

If you can call clever keeping a guy with a  541 OPs last year clever then sure.

13 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

That roller coaster was so crazy that I got motion sickness just reading that! ?

I'm just glad his name isn't Miguel Megill.

So, the Caveman is a Saint after all.

I guess it was pay Cave or watch him walk. $800,000 is a significant backup to have him start at St. Paul and be there if you need him. Of course, a few weeks ago was still unsure about the Buxton situation longterm, so they did that "just in case."

Not sure who the Twins will remove if they sign a free agent.

Did Garlick also stay with the Twins? Haven't heaerd any mumblings. Plus they say Smelzer went unclaimed. Is he staying the the Twins or going free agent.

Plus, over in Twins staffing land, they list Rody Hernandez as now being a minor league corrdinator along with Kevin Morgan with Edgar Vareda still as a hitting coach?

Now all the fans that were upset about signing Cave and calm down.  He is off the 40 man roster.  Many comments were that he could be removed from 40 man roster without an issue, but some fans figured he would be on 40 man all year. 

I'm fine with this? Stashing Cave in Saint Paul is fine by me; I just didn't want him on the 26-man. Paying him a bit extra to keep him that way is ok.

Megill is interesting, and I think Seth's point is right on: Wes probably thinks that he can improve one breaking pitch and get better performance and consistency by simplifying him down to basically two pitches as a reliever. If he busts, we're not really out much and he's easy to cut and move on from. But there's some things to like about him as a righty reliever, so why not take a flyer and see what he looks like in spring training?

The split contract remains in effect even though he cleared waivers?  If so, agree with those above that the $300k minor league payday may have caused some to back off claiming him.  Both interesting and smart.  Who knows, may set the AAA on fire and be back, or not!

We got Trevor Megill?  Now we can consider this a successful off-season. 

Why not do this? We take a shot at a reliever with a 96 mph fastball; cut him if we can't make him more consistent. Who cares about Cave? He gets 300k a year - chump change by MLB standards - and we see if he can somehow come back to where he was in 2018/2019 when he looked like an upgrade over Kepler. And if Cave hits .200 in AAA we lose him. Until then he's insurance in case Celestino isn't ready to be the backup CF/4th OF. All makes sense. 

All of this is just a reminder that we have to break out of the 24 hour news cycle and give things time to play out. Good idea, but hard to do, I had my pitchfork out when Cave was signed and couldn't understand why the FO wasn't talking to Buxton. Those idiots!! Then it turned out that they were talking to Buxton all along and signed him to a contract that actually seems to make sense for both sides and kept a guy who has shown some promise at the big league level that they could stash in the minors. Now I'm furious that they haven't signed or traded for a FA starting pitcher or closer when we need at least 3 of the former and one of the latter. Those morons! All the good ones are either gone or going to be gone soon! Hmmmm, maybe I should wait a few weeks before I decide whether the FO moves back to the idiot category....

30 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

He's not even on the roster.

There's enough shade to throw on the front office this winter, there's no need to make up and exaggerate more crimes.

I just take issue with you calling it "clever" lol when no brainer is what it has been for months now and they proved that by doing it over a guy who likely won't even make the the 40 man. Not sure how I can be bashing the FO when they did the expected.  

Sure I felt they could have done it sooner but what they have done so far has been fine.  Although I would say clever is overselling it the opposite direction.

39 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

... Plus they say Smelzer went unclaimed. Is he staying the the Twins or going free agent....

 

Not sure how these rules all work, but according to Seth's "Arbitration Deadline Day Thread,"...

"...lefty Devin Smeltzer was DFAd, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A."

24 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

....All of this is just a reminder that we have to break out of the 24 hour news cycle and give things time to play out. Good idea, but hard to do, I had my pitchfork out when Cave was signed and couldn't understand why the FO wasn't talking to Buxton. Those idiots!! Then it turned out that they were talking to Buxton all along and signed him to a contract that actually seems to make sense for both sides and kept a guy who has shown some promise at the big league level that they could stash in the minors. Now I'm furious that they haven't signed or traded for a FA starting pitcher or closer when we need at least 3 of the former and one of the latter. Those morons! All the good ones are either gone or going to be gone soon! Hmmmm, maybe I should wait a few weeks before I decide whether the FO moves back to the idiot category....

Thanks, LA Vikes Fan! Could you please add this perspective to the bazillion TD posts we're seeing about the Twins not yet having made any moves to address the rotation? Tomorrow is only Dec. 1, folks.

(And while you're at it, please cut-and-paste to most "news" sites these days, but that's another discussion. ?) 

Meh. Doesn't matter.

I'm not sure why this is some sort of shrewd move regarding Cave. I have nothing against Cave personally, I just don't see the interest in having him in the system at all at $300k or $800k. Unless there's a dramatic change in his production, he's not even a good option as a utility outfielder.

A 28 year old relief pitcher project is one of those, "sure, why not" signings.