Berardino: Falvey on Mauer, Polanco, Sano, Vargas, More

[Seth Stohs]

Another great article from Mike Berardino including comments from Derek Falvey on:

 

• Joe Mauer and their connection
• Jorge Polanco's defense
• Miguel Sano playing in the DR
• Kennys Vargas getting a fourth option
• Stephen Gonsalves

 

Read more here: http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/17/minnesota-twins-joe-mauer-derek-falvey-share-a-shapiro-connection/

 

[Craig Arko]

The fourth option year for Vargas is a pleasant surprise.

[jimmer]

Gardy is now a bench coach for the D'backs.  A heartbeat away from being manager :-)

[TheLeviathan]

Sano at 3B as of now.  That's reassuring.

[King]

 

The fourth option year for Vargas is a pleasant surprise.

I wonder what the reason is, as to why he gets an extra option year?

[old nurse]

From baseball america

 

Major League Baseball grants a fourth option to teams when a player has five or fewer professional seasons under his belt but already has burned through three optional assignments. For this purpose, the Collective Bargaining Agreement credits a player with a season of service when he spends 90 or more days on the active list during a season.
In 2009 and 2010 Vargas might not have been on the active list  for 90 days.

 

[King]

 

From baseball america

 

Major League Baseball grants a fourth option to teams when a player has five or fewer professional seasons under his belt but already has burned through three optional assignments. For this purpose, the Collective Bargaining Agreement credits a player with a season of service when he spends 90 or more days on the active list during a season.
In 2009 and 2010 Vargas might not have been on the active list  for 90 days.

What's considered an active list? Short season teams only officially operate from the middle of June to the beginning of September. (About ~75 days?)

 

Looking at the game logs from back then, he was on the roster throughout the entire short season length. 

[King]

That's interesting if true. If they don't count short season teams toward the active list rule because it's less than 90 days. From 2009-2012 he never cracked the 90 day mark for being on an active list. Then 2013-2016 he did (4 years). So that would qualify for the rule. Good to know!

 

But why wouldn't Polanco qualify then?  Would it be because his 2010 season started on or a few days before May 29th and went to August 28th or a few days after?

 

 

edit: I found the full article Old Nurse posted above. 

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/major-league-players-who-qualify-for-a-fourth-option-in-2013/#P3gSAdC3J6WQc1w1.97

 

Players who spend multiple seasons in short-season leagues, where they don’t accrue 90 days on an active roster because the season doesn’t last that long. This is particularly true for international players who sign at age 16 and require an acclimation period before embarking on a full-season league assignment. For example, an international teen might spend a summer in the Dominican Summer League, one in the Arizona League and one in the Northwest League before he’s ready for full-season ball in Year Four. Only when he completes 90 days in low Class A will he receive credit for a season.

 

Players who have a season wiped out by injury do not receive credit for a “professional season” so long as they spend 30 or fewer days on the active roster. So in a case where a player spends May through August on the DL, his injury-wracked season does not count against his limit of five professional season, effectively extending the fourth-option window by a year. This happens only in rare cases.

 

 

[kab21]

Vargas was suspended for PEDs (I think it was this) for most of a season one year. The funny thing was that he couldn't start his suspension until the short season league started even though he was going to play at Low A and he missed a lot of games because of that.

[Ncgo4]

“We’re excited to get the chance to talk to him (Sano) and get to know him, put a good winter plan in place for him so he can be ready to hit the ground running once we get to Fort Myers.”

 

It's Thanksgiving. Do you think they might want to get this "winter plan" in place sometime before he can eat enough of Momma's home cooking to get up to 290 pounds? If I were Falvey one of my first moves would have been to meet with him and let him know that if he gets into actual playing shape he can own 3rd base. This is one of our most valuable prospects and here we are less than a week before Turkey day and we are thinking about maybe, perhaps, someday, giving him a "winter plan". Geeze!

[diehardtwinsfan]

While the 4th option gives the Twins some options, given how Vargas played during this last stretch, I really hope that's just an option in case he fails again, not the plan to start 2017.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Vargas's suspension at the end of the 2011 season (into 2012) buys this extra option. I'm not sure how it slipped through my cracks; it definitely caught me by surprise.

 

Polanco SHOULD be in a similar situation - his first full-season in the minors was 2013 , which would mean he'd have a fourth option... buuuuuut the Twins had Polanco debut in the DSL before sending him to the GCL in 2010, which means he was active for 92 days, so he's got five years of pro experience already... no fourth option.

[Thrylos]

No comments regarding Vargas' fourth option and Stephen Gonsalves by Falvey.  Those are reports, after the Falvey story (and the Gonsalves one just about how he did during his last outing at the AFL)

[nicksaviking]

Geez, all these platitudes thrown around about these players is only going to make harder to cut and trade them. Enough play time Falvey, time for Terminator mode.