With eight games until the end of Spring Training, infielder Ehire Adrianza isn’t assured of a spot on the Twins’ Opening Day roster, writes LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Adrianza is out of minor league options, so if he doesn’t break camp with the club he’d be exposed to outright waivers. Minnesota’s addition of Marwin Gonzalez and the emergence of Willians Astudillo have left Adrianza without a clear role. Gonzalez will open the season as the primary third baseman while Miguel Sano rehabs a foot injury, but the Twins could go with a bench consisting of catcher Mitch Garver, outfielder Jake Cave, first baseman Tyler Austin (also out of minor league options) and Astudillo. Cave has options remaining, and Gonzalez can play the outfield, but they’d be rather thin on outfielders if Cave opened the year in Triple-A. Adrianza has enjoyed a nice spring, but he’s in a tough spot at the moment. He’s set to earn $1.3MM after avoiding arbitration, but they’d only owe him about $315K of that sum if they cut him loose between now and Opening Day. If he hits waivers, another club would have to take on that $1.3MM salary in order to claim him.
More from the division…
- Danny Salazar’s progress in his recovery from 2018 shoulder surgery has “skyrocketed” in the past 10 to 14 days, Indians manager Terry Francona said Monday (link via Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer). Salazar had slogged through a pair of “down weeks” but has quickly bounced back to the point where he’s playing long toss from a distance of 180 feet. There’s still no clear timetable as to when Salazar will reemerge as a bullpen option in Cleveland — Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber have rotation spots locked down — but if healthy, he’d add a big arm to a relief corps that is lacking in established arms behind closer Brad Hand.
- The Royals are still trying to determine which of the several right field options they have in camp will make the roster, writes Rustin Dodd of The Athletic (subscription required). Manager Ned Yost has said that Jorge Soler will be in the lineup nearly everyday, splitting time between DH and right field, but the Royals still have Brian Goodwin, Brett Phillips and Jorge Bonifacio as candidates for significant innings in right. None of that trio has had a good spring, however, and Goodwin is out of minor league options. Terrance Gore, on the active roster after signing a big league deal this winter, is viewed as more of a bench option than a candidate to log many starts in the outfield. There will likely be occasional at-bats at the other outfield slots, but Alex Gordon and Billy Hamilton will get the bulk of the playing time in left field and center field, respectively. Dodd ultimately runs through the entire lineup and pitching staff in making his projections as to which 25 players will break camp and comprise the Opening Day roster.
- Gordon Beckham spoke with Chris McCosky of the Detroit News about his transformation from lauded top prospect to a journeyman bouncing from minor league deal to minor league deal. In camp with the Tigers on a minor league pact, Beckham was candid in discussing his ups and downs and many of the difficult moments he’s faced in his career. Struggling for the first time in his career at the big league level with the White Sox, Beckham said the pressure to meet expectations “mentally crushed” him. He had even weighed whether he’d continue his playing career if he failed to land a big league job this spring, reflecting that it’s “crazy to think I have to make this decision.” However, as McCosky outlines, he actually may not have to make that decision. Manager Ron Gardenhire has been impressed by Beckham this spring, spoken fondly of the veteran infielder, and expressed a desire for additional veteran middle-infield depth. All of that seemingly bodes well for Beckham, who entered play Monday hitting .314/.429/.429 in 42 plate appearances this spring.
the transition from soccer is incredible…
Yes, and it seems like he will “bend” over backwards to stay in the majors.
I think that by June, Gordon Beckham will replace Ronnie Rodriguez. I thought he won the role in ST.
Or bye July
While Beckham has put up good numbers, Ronnie Rodriguez has put up better, and is the younger player. I would think he has more value going forward. If they really wanted Beckham to play, they wouldn’t have signed Harrison.
wouldn’t it be amazing if healthy seasons from Danny Salazar and CarGo end up saving the Indians…
Imagine how quickly Cleveland would go from iffy to frontrunner only if their cheapskate owners took less profit and used it to sign Kimbrel.
I don’t see Kimbrel helping their offense and the pitching is already solid. Money spent on Kimbrel now, is money they dont have for offense later.
Strike Four is right. That lineup can score runs especially if Lindor is ready to go early on but that bullpen in front of Hand could be worse than what Boston is going with.
So Kimbrel at $30mil/year will save so many more games than Hand that it’s money well spent? Brilliant!
Polish Hammer – no where has it ever been suggested that Kimbrel has asked for 30 million a year. Don’t know where you got that info bud
It has been said he’s looking only for a closer role. The money would have to be good to get him as a set up man.
@ Strike Four,
There is a story going around the Cleveland media that I heard in on the TV feed from the opposing team’ announcers doing a ST game the other day……..
While the Phillies owner flew in his private jet to meet with Harper in Los Vegas, the Indians owner took Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix to attend ST.
There was someone on here a month or so ago – probably you – stating the Indians owner was worth $6 billion. Fact is that the only owner in pro sports today worth over $6B is Palmer of the LA Clippers – he ran Microsoft for years.
If the Indians owner is worth $50m I’d be stunned.
Dan Gilbert thought about buying the Brewers, researched it, then bought the Cavs in the NBA instead. He said that from what he’d found, it wasn’t possible for small or many mid-market MLB teams to compete for more then 2-4 years without losing big money. When the Pirates were up for sale and Mark Cuban was being pushed by the media as a potential owner, he basically said the same thing that Gilbert said, and never seriously considered buying the Pirates.
MLB teams in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minn-St.Paul, KC, Tampa, Miami, Oakland and elsewhere are at a large financial disadvantage. Even booming markets such as Toronto, Phoenix and Atlanta have to adhere to budgets (the idea that Portland could field a competitive expansion team is a bad joke).
Living in a lower middle class neighborhood and spending each waking day calling your parents cheap because they aren’t buying you what the Kardashian’s have is childish and silly.
Not sure where you got your information about financial disadvantages, but I’d like to see the source.
Minneapolis / St. Paul metro area per capita income is 7th in the nation. It’s population is 15th in the nation. If you think the Twins are at some sort of financial disadvantage, you sure have bought into what their owners are selling. If the Twins wanted to try and compete, they would easily be able to afford a payroll of $140-150M right now.
Cleveland has been to the World Series and 3 straight playoffs yet attendance will suck again this year. It dropped 5.9% last year, they were 15th in payroll and only 21st in attendance, so I’m not sure what people expect out of the owners. They put an exciting product out there yet they stay away. Should they just keep on writing checks and flushing money away?
The Twins are revenue sharing recipients. Why? While this is a large media market and there’s lots of middle class here, there’s also a ton of places to spend money. Also, the TV contract here isn’t great. Estimated revenue is $262MM with $23MM operating income (EBIDTA). Realistically, team payroll probably maxes out at $160MM all in. They’re at about $124MM this season.
Hard to gage the TV contract when the Twins gained partial ownership of the media company.
The Twins are revenue sharing recepients. Why? Because no team in MLB has lost more games since 2010. Have to put a product on the field that doesn’t make fans gag.
If the Twins weren’t so horrible, they’d actually draw fans again. Their attendance over the past 5 years at Target Field was lower than the Metrodome’s last 5. That’s horrible.
Vandals you are dead on right. Those teams have such a small window of opportunity to win it all it closes so quickly you better get one in time like KC. The big boys can keep the big paychecks flowing and can get out oof a bad one without blinking while one bad contract can cripple one of those teams.
‘If the Indians owner is worth $50m I’d be stunned.’, get a pacemaker. They’re probably worth 20 times that.
Why not look to trade Adrianza?
They’re not going to get much out of him. Maybe some low-A piece, or some cash. Not much more than if they just DFA’d him or released him.
Best thing about this article is the picture – love the “You’re killing me Smalls” tee shirt.
I highly doubt Astudillo can play any position other than catcher above replacement level. He’s arguably the least mobile player in MLB, but it sure seems like the Twins have their next Danny Santana already picked out.
I guess the plan would be to move Gonzalez to SS and Astudillo to 3rd for games where they need to spell Polanco. Woof.
You have clearly never watched a twins game then he’s actually pretty mobile given his size and stature
I’m glad he passes your eye test. Statcast says his sprint speed is 24.5 ft/sec putting him among the bottom 5% slowest runners in baseball. His advanced metrics at 3B are ultra small sample size, but they reflect a puke inducing -67 UZR/150. I can’t believe it will really be that awful, but -30, yeah I’d buy that.
Beckham was the 8th overall pick by the White Sox in the draft, and he was overhyped as a prospect, in much the same way that current Sox players are. I remember watching him hit, take infield, take relays from the outfield and throw to the right base, and so on. I watched him play with the big club for several years, loved the way he plays the game, and have hoped ever since he left the Sox that he would find his way to fulfillment as a major-leaguer. I’m still a Sox fan, but I’ll be rooting for Beckham every time he takes the field with the Tigers.
That is all very nicely said.
I think it would be a mistake to let Adrianza go at this point. My prefered bench would be Austin, Cave, Garver and Adrianza. Adrianza is a superior defender, switch hitter, cab run and plays multiple positions. It will be a tough choice when Sano gets back and I’d say Cave goes to Rochester. I think the Twins have been better when they ran and played great defense.
I can’t believe Adrianza won’t get a bench spot. He’s had a great spring (don’t expect him to reproduce that), he is their only above average defender in the infield, he’s a switch hitter and he can steal a few bases. Defense up the middle wins games. Buxton is an all-world center fielder. Polanco has improved and I’d call him average. Schoop is average. Castro is OK. Sano is below average and I can see Adrianza coming on for Sano if the Twins are ahead late in games. Adrianza is also OK in the outfield.