stringer bell

After listening to Bonnes and Nick Nelson today, I feel like there is a bit more clarity in regard to the bullpen. There are four guys comprising the high-leverage (back end) of the bullpen--Jorge Lopez, Caleb Thielbar, Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax. They are locks to make the team and will be the guys to get most of the wins and saves. The second tier will be guys occasionally in high-leverage, but often in middle situations. Jorge Alcala, Emilio Pagan, Jovani Moran, Trevor Megill and Dennis Santana. They will sometimes be asked to get more than three outs. Someone else could also join this group and not all five will go north for Opening Day. Finally, Rocco would like to have a guy who is really a long reliever, perhaps nominally a starter. This was Josh Winder's role early in 2022, but eventually he joined the rotation. Cole Sands, perhaps Winder again or a host of non-roster pitchers could figure here. As the season progresses, there doubtless will be changes and adjustments. It would not be a surprise to see several guys using up their allotted number of optional assignments and a lot of names not shown here to get opportunities.

I think it's not really fair to imply that Jeffers is injury-prone. Last year's injury was a rather freak broken bone and he is a catcher. It appears Jeffers will get most of his plate appearances against left handers as long as Vazquez is healthy and it wouldn't surprise me that he thrives in that role.

I think it is not fair to call the players acquired "utility castoffs". Farmer got full-time regular at-bats last year, Taylor earned 3.2 BWar last season in over 400 PAs and Solano played regularly after missing more than the first two months of the season. Granted, these three played for poor teams and would be classified as in the bottom half of regulars at their positions. I think, as a group, they will be valuable bench players if not forced into full-time duty. If injuries force these guys into full-time duty they will be adequate fill-ins. This is much better than filling those gaps with Gilberto Celestino, Mark Contreras and Tim Beckham, to name a few. Just about every team is counting on pitchers who have injury issues. The Twins have five solid veterans as a prospective rotation and 4-5 young guys who wouldn't surprise most of us if they thrived in the big leagues if given a chance this year. Having 8-9 solid options makes sense in this era where pitchers routinely fail to pitch 160 innings in a season.

Lots of nuggets provided. Thank you! Really appreciate your observations about the bullpen. Is it too early to point out a dark horse to make the Opening Day roster? Is there anyone that has really caught your eye as a prospect?

I think the alternative is “blow it up”. The injuries of the last two years would cripple any team IMHO. If the Twins experience a similar volume of injuries to key players, there will be temptation to go another way, although the long-term contracts of Buxton and Correa would make those changes more difficult.

Last year the Twins got through Spring Training with minimal injuries. I do remember Dobnak going down with his finger problem, but little else. Once the season started, the injuries really hit, including Paddack for the entire year and Buxton with a knee injury that impacted him basically the entire year.

I watched most of the game. Gray didn’t give up hard contact, but balls found holes. The first error charged to Nick Gordon surprised me, but he didn’t make a good play on the ball. He played the second ball a bit awkwardly and both got injured and committed another error. I have about run out of patience with Pagán.

Gordon does not have an option remaining.

Forgot Balazovic. I see he's been optioned already today.

Just making mental notes about Twins' injuries and the respective player's prospects of playing on Opening Day. To my knowledge, three Twins position players haven't taken the field in an exhibition game--Kirilloff, Buxton and Polanco. Two pitchers have been delayed after suffering injuries early--Winder (before ST) and Henriquez. In addition, while he is able to hit, Miranda has been limited to DHing because of a sore shoulder. "New" position player injuries would now include Gordon (today--high ankle sprain), Larnach (lower body) and Celestino (thumb). Did I miss anyone? IMHO this is a rocky start on the injury front. The key to me is the three projected starters who haven't yet taken the field.

High ankle sprains tend to linger. He could well be out until Opening Day. Fortunately this team has the depth to handle some injuries without too much loss.

Not a pretty Spring Training inning.

They didn’t put Enlow on the 60-day IL because they didn’t want to pay him major league salary and service time. Injured players can’t be optioned and then placed on the Injured List. If the Twins choose to IL Canterino, he’ll be gaining ML service time and salary.

Well, Megill has an option. I really believe Celestino will be assigned to the 60-day IL for one spot. Rocco has directly said that he would like at least one multi-inning reliever (Rodriquez, Hoffman, Sánchez, de Leon, and perhaps Oliver Ortega could step in). Dennis Santana can’t be optioned, so if he doesn’t make the team, that will open a roster spot. Lots of balls in the air and decisions to be made. The only sure thing is that there will be a lot of changes in the course of the season.

Nuh-uh. I don’t think they can do that. If he’s optioned, he has to stay on the 40-man. They had Enlow with the same situation and optioned him, but never removed him from the 40-man, even though there was a need to make room.

If they want to add a reliever not on the 40-man (Coulombe, Rodriquez, Sanchez, Hoffman) or need to recall a catcher, I would say.

Maybe I'm selling short on Celestino, but if they have no more injuries in the outfield, I think they would 60-day Celestino if the need arises. He is behind Taylor, Buxton, Gordon, Kepler and Gallo in the outfield, along probably with Larnach. The Twins, I think, really don't want to lose anyone currently on the 40-man and would sacrifice a month of Celestino inactivity in order to keep everyone else in the organization. I guess we won't find out until we find out.

I picked Miller. I think he profiles as the a top defensive shortstop and his ETA to the majors would figure to be 3-4 years from now. I suspect Lee, Lewis and Martin will all be in the majors and manning other positions by the time it is determined that Correa will move off shortstop.

Agreed, although the Twins minor leaguers should be given credit for being aggressive and forcing the opponents to make plays. They stole a win and a tie in the last two games. Good for them.

Carlos Correa is signed for six years and has exclusively been a shortstop in his career. However, he is a big man and he agreed to play third base in his negotiations with the New York Mets before the Mets backed out of the deal. The Twins have several shortstops among their top prospects, some of whom will most likely be moved to other positions as they advance to the big leagues. Who will be the person to succeed Correa as the Twins' regular shortstop? For purposes of this poll, "regular shortstop" would be defined as the player who plays the most games at the position in a season.

It looks like the 60-day time period starts on Opening Day. Celestino wouldn't be eligible to be activated until the end of May. However, he could start rehab three weeks rehab prior to that. Given that he's only had a few plate appearances, he probably would need an extended rehab before being activated.

Can’t find this elsewhere on TD, Celestino has a thumb injury and will be out 6-8 weeks. As I understand, since he is on the 40-man roster and hasn’t been optioned, he will be on the major league IL (big league pay and service time). It would seem to me that Celestino could be placed on the 60-day IL and create a space for a non-roster invitee.

Winnah!! Always better to win (or tie) than lose. Just three hits, but the Twins made them count.

Quite an adventure for Sabato. Walked, stole second on a full-count pitch, advanced on a wild pitch that caromed off the backstop directly to the catcher and scoring when the ball tricked past the third baseman on the throw to third.

Three steals in the ninth for the Twins. Nice to see.