- Ervin Santana of the Twins could soon become a sought-after trade target due to his talent, experience and affordability, one AL scout opines. Santana makes just $13.5MM this season and next, with a $14MM option that can vest under certain conditions. Jose Quintana attracted plenty of attention over the offseason, but Santana should emerge as a big name too if the Twins make him available — which they haven’t yet, according to Cafardo.
Twins Rumors
Twins Select Chris Gimenez's Contract, Place Glen Perkins On 60-Day DL
- The Twins have selected catcher Chris Gimenez’s contract and placed reliever Glen Perkins on the 60-day disabled list, according to Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (Twitter link). The 34-year-old Gimenez has a history in Cleveland, including last season. His time there helped him land a minor league pact with the Twins, whose new front office head, Derek Falvey, used to work for the Tribe. Gimenez, a lifetime .218/.297/.335 hitter in 776 PAs, has garnered slightly negative reviews as a framer and will back up the defensively adept Jason Castro in Minnesota. As for Perkins, the Twins’ former (and future?) closer, the three-time All-Star is continuing to rehab from the shoulder surgery he underwent last June. Perkins threw just two innings in 2016.
Notable Roster Decisions: Friday
As Spring Training draws to a close, the final determinations about each team’s roster will be continue to come into focus. Here are some of the day’s more notable roster decisions…
- Prized righty Tyler Glasnow will take the final spot in the Pirates rotation, Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on Twitter. He had been competing with Trevor Williams, who’ll head to the bullpen, Adam Berry of MLB.com adds on Twitter. With southpaw Wade LeBlanc also taking a job, that seems to set the stage for Rule 5 pick Tyler Webb to hit the waiver wire.
- The Giants have nailed down their bench and rotation, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports. Aaron Hill and Chris Marrero will round out the bench. The veteran Hill figures to share the infield reserve duties with Conor Gillaspie, while Marrero will surprisingly open the season as a part of a left field platoon with the left-handed-hitting Jarrett Parker. Meanwhile, Matt Cain will keep a rotation spot, though Ty Blach will also make the club as a reliever — where he could often spell Cain in lengthier outings.
- With injuries and young arms entering the picture, the Rockies’ pitching plans were interesting to watch this spring. As Nick Groke of the Denver Post tweets, the team will roll with lefty Kyle Freeland and righties Antonio Senzatela and German Marquez to fill out their starting staff. It seems likely that the former two will open the year in the rotation, with Marquez heading to the pen and staying on hand if a need arises.
Click to read earlier updates …
Byung Ho Park Will Not Make Twins' Opening Day Roster
- The Twins have decided against adding Byung Ho Park to the Opening Day roster, leaving him destined for Triple-A, as LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports on Twitter. Adding Park would have required the clearance of a 40-man spot since he was outrighted last year. Lefty Adalberto Mejia — picked up in last summer’s Eduardo Nunez deal — has earned the club’s fifth starter job, Neal further tweets, seemingly bumping Tyler Duffey back to the pen.
Twins, Paul Clemens Agree To Minors Deal
The Twins are in agreement on a minor league deal with right-hander Paul Clemens, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). The Ballengee client was recently released by the Padres. While the 29-year-old won’t factor into Minnesota’s Opening Day roster plans, he can serve as a depth option for an unstable rotation and as a potential long man in the bullpen as well.
[Related: Updated Minnesota Twins depth chart]
Clemens split the 2016 campaign between the Marlins and Padres, logging 10 innings for the former and a considerably larger 61 1/3 inning for the latter. Clemens finished the year in the San Diego rotation and posted solid surface-level numbers down the stretch, recording a 3.67 earned run average in 16 appearances (12 of which were starts).
A bit of a deeper look suggests that Clemens had some good fortune in posting that solid mark, though; his 6.9 K/9 rate, 3.4 BB/9 rate and 40.3 percent ground-ball rate were all worse than that of a league-average starter in 2016. ERA alternatives like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged Clemens for a mark in the 4.80 to 5.00 range. In parts of three big league seasons, Clemens has a 4.89 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 in 169 1/3 innings between the Astros, Marlins and Padres.
The Twins are poised to enter the season with a rotation consisting of Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes, Hector Santiago, Kyle Gibson and one of Adalberto Mejia or Tyler Duffey. Well-regarded young righty Jose Berrios was recently optioned to Triple-A, and the team’s rotation depth took a notable hit earlier this month with the news of Trevor May’s Tommy John surgery.
Twins Roster Notes: Haley, Adrianza
- Rule 5 righty Justin Haley will crack the Twins’ Opening Day roster, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reported on Twitter and skipper Paul Molitor later confirmed. He and Michael Tonkin will round out the Minnesota pen to start the season. Though Haley allowed nine earned runs on 19 hits in his 16 1/3 frames this spring, he carried a 13:4 K/BB ratio and evidently showed enough to warrant a shot at holding a MLB roster spot for the full season.
- The Twins will likely place infielder Ehire Adrianza on the DL to open the season, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweets. He is dealing with an oblique issue. That injury may help the club resolve some of its final roster decisions; both Adrianza and fellow utility candidate Eduardo Escobar are out of options. Minnesota is expected to announce its remaining roster calls tomorrow.
Twins Notes: Falvey, Fatigue Monitoring
- Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey is profiled by Tyler Kepner of the New York Times, who details Falvey’s rise from scouting prospects in the Cape Cod League to running Minnesota’s baseball operations department. A former college pitcher himself, Falvey’s biggest priority is to upgrade the Twins’ pitching philosophy after years of subpar results from their arms. “There’s an organizationwide desire to shed that label, the pitch-to-contact term,” Falvey said. “So there’s a lot of energy around embracing some new programs to make sure we are talking about velocity development and how we get strikeouts and some elements to finish pitches. I think it’s the right fit now, because the organization is open to that conversation.”
- In an effort to potentially cut down on injuries and player fatigue, the Twins have been monitoring the cumulative total of their players’ baseball-related activities, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes. Everything from time in the batting cage to workouts to actual on-field playing time is charted under this system. For another angle, Berardino’s piece features some interesting quotes from MLBPA head Tony Clark about how the players’ union has some concerns about how such information is being collected and how it could be used by teams.
Drew Stubbs Opts Out Of Twins Deal
Outfielder Drew Stubbs has opted out of his minor league contract with the Twins, according to Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (Twitter link). The Twins informed Stubbs on Sunday that he wasn’t going to make their big league roster.
The 32-year-old Stubbs will now look for an opportunity elsewhere, he told Berardino.
“Obviously, first and foremost, I’d want to be on somebody’s Opening Day roster,” Stubbs said. “If that opportunity’s not there, I’ll just have to reevaluate the situation and see where the best opportunity would be for me.”
The right-handed Stubbs has a history of faring well against southpaws, having slashed .272/.348/.444 in 952 plate appearances, which could have made him a platoon partner for one of the Twins’ lefty-swinging corner outfielders, Eddie Rosario or Max Kepler. Instead, the Twins could go with the switch-hitting Robbie Grossman as their fourth outfielder, as Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource projects, and they also have the out-of-options Danny Santana on hand.
In addition to his quality track record versus left-handed pitchers, Stubbs has racked up 161 stolen bases in his career. However, the journeyman struck out in at least 40 percent of plate appearances in each of the two prior seasons, and he combined to hit a disastrous .207/.302/.365 during those campaigns.
Twins Notes: Berrios, Park, Vargas
- The Twins optioned right-hander Jose Berrios to Triple-A Rochester on Saturday, thus eliminating him from the competition for the final spot in their rotation. The job will go to either Adalberto Mejia or Tyler Duffey, whom Berrios fell behind while he was with Team Puerto Rico for 18 days at the World Baseball Classic. Berrios only threw 6 2/3 innings during that nearly three-week span, which hurt his chances of beginning the season in Minnesota, but he doesn’t regret participating in the tournament. “Playing for Puerto Rico is an honor; it makes me proud,” Berrios told Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press through an interpreter. “I know this is my team, it’s my job. This is who drafted me. This is who I’m going to make it with, but you don’t get to play for Puerto Rico every day or every year. That’s not how it is.” The 22-year-old Berrios, who has dominated in the minors, still seems likely to end up in the Twins’ rotation sometime in 2017. If that happens, the former premier prospect will try to bounce back from a rough rookie year in which he posted an 8.02 ERA, 7.56 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 over 58 innings.
- It came as a surprise when the Twins designated DH Byung Ho Park for assignment in February, but he ultimately remained with the organization after clearing waivers. Nearly two months later, he has the inside track on a big league roster spot on account of Kennys Vargas’ less-than-ideal spring, per Berardino. Vargas, who was also with Puerto Rico at the WBC, has gone just 1 for 15 with three walks during the Twins’ exhibition season. His situation worsened when he fouled a ball off his left foot Friday, and is now on crutches. Although initial X-rays were negative, the Twins will send Vargas for further testing, writes Berardino. “If he doesn’t play for a week, it’s going to have an impact,” manager Paul Molitor said of Vargas’ chances of earning a place with the Twins. “He just hasn’t had many at-bats.”
Twins Considering Nine Prospects As First Overall Pick
This year’s amateur draft class is still quite unsettled, though in Baseball America’s initial ranking of the Top 100 draft prospects, Hudson Belinsky and John Manuel note that a pair of two-way players are standing out as the potential top two picks. Louisville first baseman/left-handed pitcher Brendan McKay is drawing most of his attention as an “elite pure hit tool” batter though “at least one” interested team prefers him on the mound. No right-handed high school pitcher has ever been drafted first overall, though 17-year-old Hunter Greene has an upper-90s fastball and has touched the 102mph mark. This kind of live arm at such a young age has even drawn some Dwight Gooden comparisons, so most evalutors prefer Greene as a pitcher, though he also possesses “top-of-the-scale raw power” as a shortstop. The Twins own the first pick in June’s draft, though McKay and Greene are just two of nine players Minnesota is reportedly considering for the top selection.
