Twins Claim OF Darin Mastroianni

The Twins claimed speedy outfielder Darin Mastroianni off of waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays (who made room on their 40 man roster for Francisco Cordero). The Twins previous were at 40 on their roster, so someone will need to be DFAd to make room for Mastroianni. There are certainly several options.

The 26 year old went 0-2 with a sacrifice bunt in his one game with the Blue Jays in 2011. He was a 16th round pick of the Jays in 2007 out of the University of Southern Indiana, a Division II school. He had spent the 2005 season at Winthrop where he was a teammate of former Twins pitcher Kevin Slowey.

Because he has options, Mastroianni likely will play in Rochester in 2012.

The Twins designated RHP Esmerling Vazquez from the 40 man roster to make room for Mastroianni. The Twins had claimed Vazquez off of waivers from the Diamondbacks the second-to-last day of the 2011 season.

Not that Vasquez was anything special, but dedicating a 40-man spot to Mastroianni? Eh...

Also, do we think he was irreparably harmed as a player and human being from playing on the same team as Slowey in college?

Souhan does.

I didn't have ver high hopes for Vasquez, so this doesn't bother me. I gotta think that maybe Mastroianni has a shots the 4th OFer in a Repko kind of way. Do we know if he has options? If Hughes can't go, I could see Mastroianni joining Nishi, Plouffe & Butera as the bench.

Ill also point out that he could be the other half of a platoon w Revere.

The fact that he'll be 27 in August makes his stats a lot less intriguing. That's just about 3 years older than Ben Revere.

He could be AAA roster filler, or he could be a backup for the Twins. It looks like he's pretty good defensively in center field and can at least draw a walk without striking out a ton. Factoring in defense, does he really look like a worse option than Plouffe or Tosoni?

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Originally Posted by mini_tb

Factoring in defense, does he really look like a worse option than Plouffe or Tosoni?

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Definitely worse than Plouffe, who actually has a chance to hit. I'm not big on Tosoni, but I'd probably take my chances on him over Mastroianni given that he's a year younger and has a more big-league friendly offensive skill set.

Anybody know his defenisive rep? I notice he had quite a bit of time in LF, not CF, in 2010.

I think that they will want Benson and Tosoni to play every day. If there were an OF need early in the year, I think Mastrioanni would be the guy called up so Benson and Tosoni can play. Mastrioanni looks like the Repko replacement to me. He could potentially push Plouffe as 4th OF. Just seems like good depth with good OBP.

Vazquez cleared waivers and was outrighted to Rochester. 66 players in camp!