Who Would Be on the Twins' Extended Roster and Taxi Squad?

If the taxi squad doesn't count for service time, Celestino, or Lewis, might be a good plan for an injury replacement for defensive center fielder. Cave and Wade can, but shouldn't. Kepler can, but then right field suffers. Similarly, Javier might be a consideration for shortstop defense.

Service time is a big consideration.  But I also wonder where your top prospects will develop if they are not on the taxi squad.  I think you have to include them so you do not lose a   year development from Balazovich, Lewis, Larnach and Kiriloff

Maybe every team's taxi squad can play each other in Arizona. A few games a week, not too strenuous, no crowds...

Too many catchers - even for a position where more rest is needed they have Garver, Avila, Astudillo - add Jeffers and we are fine.  

The idea of having a large taxi squad is good if it provides enough for two teams and a couple intramural games a week for development and sharpness.  So I would look at the make up of the squad to cover the positions and the pitching.  If it is 20 players you have 16 position players and four arms.  

Will be interesting to see how many players will be on the 'taxi' squad and what they will be doing, presumably in Fort Myers. Could they scrimmage the Red Sox?

I don't see Lewis Thorpe not being on an expanded roster. As to who he replaces, I see either Chacin or Wisler.

Agree with Seth that the top prospects, Kirilloff, Larnach, Lewis and Balazovic will/should be on the Taxi squad. Also see Kirilloff as the player activated should Sano get banged up, which is likely to happen sometime during an 82-game season.

And speaking of baseball, isn't it interesting that other than the 67-page document of do's and don'ts, we have heard nothing about the negotiations. I assume they are ongoing and the fact there have been no leaks can only be good. Hopefully, we will soon hear that they have reached an agreement and it is going to a vote. If they are going to open spring training by June 10, they have to get it settled by the end of May which is ten days from today. 

I agree we have to have players that we need to continue to develop & also be available in a possible trade this year. So we need those players mentioned Balazovich, Lewis, Larnach and Kiriloff  to be on that list.For extra catchers I`d go w/ Jeffers & maybe Rortvedt

For me, many of the questions about what the taxi squad is and how it works service time and transferring players needs to be answered before decisions can be made.  I would agree having extra catcher or two.  I would agree with load of pitchers.  I would also think players that can play either premier defensive positions, CF and SS as well as utility players would serve best.  I would shy away from offensive only players with limited defensive value, like Rooker.  Unless Rooker shows he can rake at a level you are fine with negative defense, but when Buxton gets hurt, assuming he will, I would rather have someone that can defend center better than Kepler and let Kepler stay in RF.  Even if this means a slightly less productive offense, we are pretty deep in that area losing our 9 hitter who is in for defense already we would want to replace for defense.  

Selfishly I prefer to have as many development minor leagues as possible and do without guys like Theilbar and Reinheimer. Only playing half a season I seriously doubt they would have an opportunity to hit the field. I also feel we are waiting our time with Romero and Jake Reed and would attempt to trade them. That would open up the roster for 4 more young players that we feel could one day make an impact. 

As for service time, can someone tell me what it take to start the clock. Does one or two games in the majors start the process. Will we be able to add a few in September like we used to and not start their clock?

Will we have an announcement tonight or in the morning, answering these questions and telling us they are putting the finishing touches on a deal and an announcement is imminent?  Or do we have to wait another day?

Guess I'm going to end up echoing allot of things already pondered here. The Twins are absolutely in WIN NOW mode and they have to keep some AAA guys around who can "come up" from the taxi squad to fill in as needed, whether they are in Minnesota or Florida. And somehow,some way, those guys need to PLAY, scrimmages or whatnot. They can't just have bullpens and batting practice and stay sharp.

I'm still hoping for some sort of limited or very limited type of milb season/set up where they can play other teams, even if it has a but of a pickup game feel to it.

I would need to sit down with pen and paper to make a list as to who I might select for that taxi squad, but I think the original 30 man roster is easy to figure out. I don't think you necessarily need 3 reserve catchers, however, when you will already have 3 on the ML roster. Two probably works fine. But do you include Jeffers in that 2?

And to me that begins the biggest issue. Can the Twins, or anyone, really afford to have members of their top 10-ish prospects that are a season or potentially half a season away just sit for a year? If there really and truly is no form of milb season, no MLB version of a "Cape Cod" league or modified EST, etc, then how does that affect 2021 and beyond for all teams when guys lose an entire season?

It's debatable how much, if at all, Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach, Jeffers, etc, would be needed or able to contribute this year if they are placed on the taxi squad. But if they are, they could still get valuable developmental time. But then again, does that screw up their service time? Not to mention 40 man implications for next offseason.

What if you're a team like the Tigers...sorry to pick on your team Gardy...and you realistically have nothing to play for in 2020? You might as well load up your 50 man total roster with all the young talent you can to get them as much development and experience as you can to jump start 2021. Kind of an unfair advantage toward building your roster going forward.

40 man restrictions need to be thrown out the window with some sort of negated or prorated service time. Taxi squads need to play in some format. And the entire milb system needs to be addressed to SOME degree. Players need SOME sort of pay, losses be damned as they are part of each organization, and SOME sort of short season needs to be implemented later this summer or fall for ALL of milb just for development. Make some sort of Cactus/Grapefruit league work for a couple months at facilities even for a couple months. Considering the locations involved, you could even do so after the ML season. Call it an Americanized version of the winter leagues.