Adam

Having Buxton and Sano break camp with the team, as exciting as might be for fans, is totally irresponsible stewardship of their service time. The only impact player who recently broke camp with his team and stayed up the whole season that I can think of is Jason Heyward with the Braves in 2010, and the Braves won 91 games that year and won the Wild Card before losing to the Giants in the playoffs. In that case, the Braves had a clear need in the outfield, and having Heyward up for the extra two weeks at the beginning of the season made sense for them because they expected to be competing for a playoff berth. The Twins won't be in such a position next year. Let Buxton and Sano prove they can dominate in AA and AAA first.

I echo the comments about needing a top of the rotation starter. If the Twins are as far under budget as people seem to believe, they could afford to add a high-end arm to the rotation. I realize that May and Meyer both need opportunities, but the team will need at least six starters next year because someone inevitably will get injured. The Dodgers supposedly had an embarrassment of starting pitching at the beginning of the season with Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Beckett, Haren, Maholm, and Billingsley (who's been hurt all year). They wound up needing to acquire Roberto Hernandez and Kevin Correia because all of those first seven pitchers have had either injury or performance concerns. Yes, the Twins have Hughes, Gibson, Nolasco, Meyer, May, Milone, and Pelfrey either under contract or under control for next season, but I'd rather those guys be making starts than Logan Darnell and Kris Johnson when someone inevitably gets hurt. Beyond that, if Nolasco isn't pitching better, I'd have no problem sending him to the bullpen to work as a long man if he isn't getting better results next season and younger, cheaper guys are putting up better numbers. Nolasco's HR rate is above both his career norm and league average, but his FIP is 4.55 and with his innings pitched totals makes him good for only 0.6 fWAR. Yes, he's been unlucky and his ERA is more than a run higher than his FIP (and nearly two runs higher than his xFIP), but his peripherals suggest he hasn't been good either. I doubt the Twins would consider moving him to the bullpen, but if they're serious about winning, they ought to think about it.