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The pitcher the article refers to as a (near) certainty to end up in the bullpen was Sands, not Ober. If they consider a non-roster pitcher for this role, Jeff Hoffman likely would be in consideration too. He also has been on the starter/reliever line. I remember reading that his minor league deal has opt-outs, which might motivate the Twins to give him a look, although coming late to spring camp also could mean he goes to the minors and waits to opt out at a later date.

Checked out the box scores and it looks like it was NRI pitcher day at ... wherever the Pirates spring stadium is. Looks like De León pitched well (granted, it was against the Pirates), Hoffman and Aaron Sanchez not so much...

Why was this game in the Rays' regular stadium? I noticed this when watching a couple highlights.

And José De León, Brock Stewart, et al. Maybe Santana has a little more perceived upside since he's kept getting picked up on waivers, or Hoffman does because he's still somewhat in the process of converting to relief, but all these guys seem like they're loosely in the same "kinda interesting, not super-promising ex-prospect or reclamation project" bucket.

Today's listed lineup on mlb.com as of about 45 minutes before game time. I'm guessing that, between the very early stage of spring training they're at and this being an away game, they're filling the lineup with guys from the minor league camp (not even non-roster invitees), so the site doesn't even pull those players' names since they're "invisible" on the ST roster...?

Waiting for a small but vocal percentage of the people who post on this site to chime in about how Rocco will never let his dog go more than 5 feet from him

Wow - Darvish is set to sign a 6-year extension (the first year replaces his contract this season, so it's five new years) with the Padres: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/02/padres-extend-yu-darvish-six-years.html He'll turn 42 when the contract ends. I thought that if the Twins were ever to break their precedent to sign a top free agent pitcher, Darvish at the end of his current deal would be a good target for that, with his wide variety of pitches making him a better bet to age well. Seems like the Padres thought so too.

I like reading Law's writing—he writes from experience, he's opinionated but he backs up his opinions thoughtfully, and you can tell he thinks about things other than baseball. I'm not sold on his rationale here, though. If lack of a clear path to a position is part of the reasoning for dropping a player in rankings, that seems like a demerit based on team and organizational construction, stuff that's out of the player's control. If some hypothetical minor leaguer was playing shortstop not because he had the ability to play it well, but because his organization was otherwise barren of talent at SS, I feel like evaluators like Law would rate the player based on his skills in an absolute sense. They wouldn't regard him more highly because of opportunity to claim a position they didn't think he had the skills to play. Isn't this the same thing in the opposite direction?

One issue with going with three righty hitters at spots 2, 3, and 4 is that it makes it almost inevitable to stack 3 lefty hitters later in the order. Even if those are the hitters who would most belong at the top of the lineup in a vacuum, planning for matchups might call for mixing the order up.

Another way to look at it is that it leaves you with three or four competent position players on the 40-man and in the minors (presumably Julien, Celestino, Wallner, and Lewis once healthy)—which is something you want. Wallner in the majors right now is not a need, for the team or the player, IMO. He's played 50 games at AAA and 18 in the majors, where he was okay but didn't really force the issue. He can marinate a while longer. The trade was announced, so they've had to make room on the roster already, which they did by DFAing A.J. Alexy. Celestino's spot is safe. With that said, I don't disagree that by midyear, if everyone is healthy, the Twins may expect the minor-league guys to be pushing for a spot on the roster and expect that someone else will become trade bait.

In the comments on the original announcement of the trade from yesterday, there's a rundown of the 13 position players who would appear likely to come out of spring training. It doesn't require Kepler being traded in order to work: C: Jeffers, Vazquez IF: Miranda, Correa, Polanco, Kirilloff, Farmer OF: Buxton, Larnach, Gallo, Kepler, Taylor, Gordon There's no one locked into the DH spot, so that opens it up for a rotation among the OFs (those of them whose hitting justifies starting at DH, ha.) Plus Gallo or Gordon can spot start in the infield if one of the infielders gets a DH day. There still is something of a redundancy of lefty-hitting outfielders, but there are enough places and situations to deploy them that it doesn't scream waste of a roster spot. If they had gotten a righty hitter to split time at 1B/DH (like the Gurriel rumors suggested) then all the outfielders would seem more superfluous, but maybe the Taylor acquisition means a shift away from that 1B/DH strategy. I bet the Twins still would trade Kepler to meet another significant need, but I doubt they do it because of any perceived roster crunch. I think they're going for more depth with, if everyone is healthy, a bench full of players who could be at least low-end starters.

Not the hardest joke to pick up on, either...even if I didn't.

With this set of starters: Polanco, Correa, and Buxton batting 1-3 makes sense—in some order, and that order probably makes sense too. Vázquez and Kepler batting 8 & 9 makes sense, and makes most sense in that order—Kepler is the faster player to have on base ahead of the 1-3 guys, and not batting him 8th avoids stacking lefties more than they have to. What to do with Miranda, Kirilloff, Gallo, and Larnach at 4-7... Three of them bat left-handed, all of them are strikeout-prone, three of them don't have long track records in the majors. The lineup above is probably as good a solution as any. If Buxton batted 3rd, I wouldn't want Gallo 4th—I'd worry about too many rally-killing back-to-back Ks. But Miranda and Larnach could probably fit higher than 6-7. It's a puzzle.

I think there was a story last winter where Ober had 17 for a minute in the post-Berríos era, chosen because it was his lucky number or something, but then Archer got signed and wanted the number and they deferred to his veteran status. Was Trevor May still on the market when Jax vacated #65?

Signings of players of this profile—righty-hitting veteran outfielder, likely to be a platoon guy or part-time starter—are picking up. I'm seeing Tommy Pham to the Mets, Adam Duvall to the Red Sox, and Brian Anderson (part-time corner OF) all reported today. With all these guys going off the board, it seems like the Twins haven't been all that invested in adding a player for that role.