This is my early wants for the Twins 2013 opening roster. I would trade Span/Carroll/minor leaguer for Castro. He hasn’t played the best defense yet in his very early 20’s but with maturity I believe he will vastly improve this part of his game. His offense is undeniable. He would solidify the SS position for the Twins which they gravely need. With Span gone, Revere would move to center and the lead of spot. I believe that Dozier is better than we saw last season. I would give him the starting 2B job and hope he runs with it. The rest of the lineup is fairly obvious. Parmelee would become the everyday right fielder and Josh Willingham would stay in left field. The corner infield would consist of Plouffe and Morneau. Mauer would catch with Doumit as the backup and DH. The bench would still have a third catcher because Gardy will have it this way, but the catcher would be Herrmann not Butera. The rest of the bench would be Escobar, Mastroanni, and Florimon. If an outfielder would get injured Hicks or Arcia would come up to start.
CF- Revere (1 mil)
SS- Castro (6 mil)
C- Mauer (23 mil)
RF- Willingham (7 mil)
1B- Morneau (15 mil)
DH- Doumit (3.5 mil)
LF- Parmelee (1 mil)
3B- Plouffe (1 mil)
2B- Dozier (1mil)
BH- Mastroanni (1 mil)
BH- Florimon (1 mil)
BH- Escobar (1 mil)
BH- Herrmann (1 mil)
My plan for pitching would be to sign Bedard and Jackson for (roughly) $15 mil a year total. So far the AFL has me hoping that Gibson would be ready for opening day. Diamond and Hendriks would fill out the rest of the starters. Blackburn, De Vries, Vasquez, Walters, and Deduno would be in the minors if someone struggles or gets hurt. I wouldn’t add a bullpen arm besides resigning Burton because of money reason and because these guys listed below haven’t been that bad at all and some minor leaguers should be ready to come up if need be (Gutierrez, Guerra).
SP- Diamond (L) (1 mil)
SP- Gibson (2 mil)
SP- Bedard (L) (5 mil)
SP- Hendriks (1 mil)
LR- Swarzak (1 mil)
MR- Fien (1 mil)
MR- Robertson (1 mil)
MR-Burnett (1 mil)
SU- Duensing (2 mil)
SU- Burton (2 mil)
CL- Perkins (2.5 mil)
I rounded up on most of the salaries and estimated the salaries of a few players. The total spent on the major league roster would roughly be $92 million. I don’t think that this is outrageous and though the roster isn’t that much different than it was this year I think it would be pretty solid as we work towards the future. It would be great to get Grienke, trade for Johnson and completely rebuild the bullpen but it isn’t realistic.
