Farewell and Good Luck, Chris Colabello

[JB_Iowa]

Dustin Morse ‏@Twins_morsecode  · 1m1 minute ago 
The Blue Jays have claimed Chris Colabello off waivers. The #MNTwins roster is now at 39.

 

 

 

Enjoyed your story.  Hope to see it continue.

[Linus]

Not a surprise.  Was a fun month of April.......

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

Jeez, Blue Jays! Are you going to claim every player the Twins put on waivers?

 

Hopefully Colabello is healed and has a productive season in Toronto - good luck to him!

[h2oface]

My bet........ Colabello gets a shot - a real shot - and hits 25-30 homers for the Jays.

[Seth Stohs]

My bet........ Colabello gets a shot - a real shot - and hits 25-30 homers for the Jays.

 

I hope this is right, and they did trade Adam Lind. Edwin Encarnacion is at 1B, but CC could contribute at DH. He's got an option year left too. 

 

This one kind of stinks. I remember the first Q&A I did with him Jan 1, 2013, after his season in New Britain. I was struck by how much time he put into answers and such. Having met him in the clubhouse in Sept 2013 and again last spring in Ft. Myers, he's such a tremendous, deep-thinking guy. He just gets it. He's so appreciative of all the opportunities he's been given. 

 

Getting a chance with the Rock Cats, getting the spring training invite, the WBC, the big league call up, the April Player of the Month.

 

Unfortunately, he had the thumb injury. When I talked to him a few weeks ago, there was still inflamation. 

 

I do believe he is capable of being a solid major league contributor for several more years. Maybe I'm biased, but I hope he is!

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

He always gave a pretty good radio interview too - I listened to the Sunday pre-game show most weekends last season, they had him on regularly.

[ashbury]

My bet: Toronto waives him off their 40-man sometime before Opening Day and they get to stash him in their minors.  This aspect of the waiver system is broken and needs a tweak.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

My bet: Toronto waives him off their 40-man sometime before Opening Day and they get to stash him in their minors.  This aspect of the waiver system is broken and needs a tweak.

They can put him on waivers, sure, but that doesn't stop another team from claiming him - I think they were looking for a RH bench bat, I think they just found a good one!

[ashbury]

They can put him on waivers, sure, but that doesn't stop another team from claiming him - I think they were looking for a RH bench bat, I think they just found a good one!

Agreed that a player of interest to multiple teams won't have this happen.  But if there's just one team with 40-man space, and they use it to park him temporarily, and then waive him, the original team won't grab him (assuming he was their 41st most preferred player).  It's an oddity that the last team gets to keep him in that scenario.  The 40-man and waiver system is designed to keep big-money teams from holding scads of good players hostage due to a deep farm system, not to keep a team from holding onto its marginal players.

 

Maybe Toronto will fool me and decide he's the missing piece for their pennant run.  Then my side comment is moot.  Cola had no place to play on the Twins, without taking away plate appearances from equal or better bats.  Let's remember to revisit this if Toronto waives him.

[nicksaviking]

Good for him, if there is one organization and one ballpark that will embrace his grip-it-and-rip-it swing, it's those guys.  The Twins had very little room for him.  This might be his last shot, and it looks like it might be a pretty good one.

[James]

Cola has always been a fun story.  I'm glad it started off with the Twins.  I really hope he has a few productive seasons with the Jays and I wish him good luck.  I hope he tears the cover off the ball against every team in the league except the Twins.  

[JB_Iowa]

Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino  · 22m22 minutes ago 
In Toronto, Colabello will compete with fellow ex-Twin Danny Valencia for RH side of 1B platoon w/Justin Smoak.

[Halsey Hall]

Good for Chris.  Good guy, good story.  I hope he has a lot of success for the BJays. 

[Linus]

My bet........ Colabello gets a shot - a real shot - and hits 25-30 homers for the Jays.

Really?  Not many guys that hit 25-30 homers last year......

[Lakeside]

I never disliked Collabello as a fan, just didn't see a path to play or roster spot for him on the Twins. Very limited playing the outfield, his play in right field was not adequate. The Twins have Joe Mauer at first base who blocked him and Chris Parmalee who seems to be the back up over there and can play better outfield.]

They have Vargas to play both back up first base and DH and they will likely give some DH at bats to Arcia also and Hunter on the days he sits and doesn't play the field. Twins likely needed a forty man spot for a free agent signing or the Rule V draft(more likely) and becuase Collabello didn't have a lot of options for spots to play for the Twins, it was best for the team and for Collabello that he moved on. I bet Chris Collabello actually takes the DH spot and runs with it in Toronto, I will root for him when he is with the Jays and wish him success, if Toronto cuts him someone like Oakland or Tampa is going to pick him up and he will hit in the DH and 1st base spots for them. I predict that Collabello will make it and find a way to play at the major league level for a few more years. He has enough power that if he rips enough home runs people will keep him in the line-up. Collabello you root for the guy because he kept playing the game he loved for a long time and made it to the major leagues.

Agree with this.  I liked Colabello but agree that the Twins have other players with more youth and potential in front of him. . Vargas as DH, Arcia/Rosario in the OF with Buxton and Sano to come.  Torii Hunter probably put the nail in the coffin for Colabello as he will take time in the OF and also get some righthanded DH duty.

 

Colabello was/is a great story but his limitations don't put him into the Twins long-range plans.  I wish him well, and who knows, maybe he will discover that minor league swing again in the Majors.

[Otto von Ballpark]

My bet: Toronto waives him off their 40-man sometime before Opening Day and they get to stash him in their minors. This aspect of the waiver system is broken and needs a tweak.

If you make it more difficult for a new club to claim him, the greater likelihood that he falls off a 40-man roster altogether. I fail to see how that would be better for Colabello.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Best Cola memory: him serving as media interpreter for Eduardo Escobar.

 

The Blue Jays got an interesting (albeit brief) performance from Randy Ruiz after the Twins let him go too.

[ashbury]

If you make it more difficult for a new club to claim him, the greater likelihood that he falls off a 40-man roster altogether. I fail to see how that would be better for Colabello.

If he stays on their 40-man up through Opening Day I'll gladly retract my speculation about Toronto's good faith in claiming him.

[Otto von Ballpark]

If he stays on their 40-man up through Opening Day I'll gladly retract my speculation about Toronto's good faith in claiming him.

If Toronto or another team didn't claim him now, he would be outrighted off the Twins 40-man roster but still be property of the Twins for another year, right?

 

I fail to see how that's better for Colabello than at least staying on a 40-man for the time being. If Toronto wants to remove him later, another club could claim him; if he was outrighted by the Twins now, he would pretty much be stuck at the whims of the Twins (and at a lower salary) for the next year.

[MWLfanV2]

Good luck to him. He seems like a good guy and the epitome of the AAAA player, which considering how the rest of us play baseball is pretty damn good. That being said it is a numbers game. The Twins have plenty of players who fit the mold of slow of foot, inconistent bat and natural position 1st base or DH. (Looking at you Chris Parmalee and Oswaldo Arcia.) With Mauer at 1st for 85 games or so a year and Vargas, Pinto, Walker and Kepler in the pipeline Toronto is probably a good place for him to play. It's not like we can just stick any slowing, defensive challenged, right handed power bat out in Right field for under 10 million or so dollars, can we? I mean where could we find such a player?

[LaBombo]

Good luck to him. He seems like a good guy and the epitome of the AAAA player, which considering how the rest of us play baseball is pretty damn good. That being said it is a numbers game. The Twins have plenty of players who fit the mold of slow of foot, inconistent bat and natural position 1st base or DH. (Looking at you Chris Parmalee and Oswaldo Arcia.) With Mauer at 1st for 85 games or so a year and Vargas, Pinto, Walker and Kepler in the pipeline Toronto is probably a good place for him to play. It's not like we can just stick any slowing, defensive challenged, right handed power bat out in Right field for under 10 million or so dollars, can we? I mean where could we find such a player?

 

Perhaps some former parliament members of the Tory party could help with the hunt.

 

Nice summary of the Twins organizational tendency to succumb to the entropy of descent down the defensive spectrum.  Is there any team in MLB with a younger aggregate franchise age and more players being credibly considered for defensive demotions?  Not a good trend for a contender.  A terrible one for a rebuilder.

[Rosterman]

I am actually surprised that another team would find a 40-man spot for him, but it is a good claim if they can also send him thru waivers and use him as a backup at first base, which is what the Twins needed to do. So, who do the Twins have playing 1st at Rochester now.

[jay]

My 2013 AAP, I'm a bummed to see him go. There will always be that one time he was the AL Player of the Week!

 

Good luck, Chris.

[blindeke]

i still remember seeing this live! http://m.twins.mlb.com/news/article/74550646/chris-colabello-gives-mother-unforgettable-birthday-gift

[Tibs]

Dang. Good luck, Chris. Hope you do fantastic in Toronto.

[howeda7]

My bet........ Colabello gets a shot - a real shot - and hits 25-30 homers for the Jays.

OK. I'll take that bet. What's the wager?

[The Wise One]

OK. I'll take that bet. What's the wager?

The shot could be over 3 years to hit the 25-30HR. He did not say how long of time period he had to do it, only that he could hit that many for Toronto.. Heck, even Joe Mauer could hit 25-30 HR in a 3 year span.

[LeatherAntenna]

I prefer to think of Cola as Roy Hobbs. Hobbs had a tremendous April! Until the last week of April. I never realized he was injured until after the season was over. I am a die hard Twins fan and have been for many decades. Living outside Minnesota, I visited Target Stadium the first time July 3rd and didn't know Hobbs was even called up. Then he hits his homerun in his first at bat. It seemed fate was giving him his chance again. Whether he ever hits 25 or 30 HRs in a year may be irrelevant if he can stay healthy and pound the ball out to the wall for doubles, triples and RBIs. If he goes the full year healthy his stats will help the Twins regret losing him. To think a team that lost 90 plus games has no room for him on their 40 man roster smacks of hollow unearned arrogance and is a big disconnect to me.

[LeatherAntenna]

So am I the only person who has noticed which former Twin now on Toronto is literally destroying the cover on the baseball? Hobbs has got to be player of the month even with only 18 games. Let's see, only 2 HR the last two games, 25 hits, probably 1/2 the 18 games multiple hit games, 24 hits avg 379 OBP438 sluggin591 OPS 1.029

[JB_Iowa]

 

So am I the only person who has noticed which former Twin now on Toronto is literally destroying the cover on the baseball? Hobbs has got to be player of the month even with only 18 games. Let's see, only 2 HR the last two games, 25 hits, probably 1/2 the 18 games multiple hit games, 24 hits avg 379 OBP438 sluggin591 OPS 1.029

 

 

Since CC is now with the Blue Jays, people are posting about him on this thread in the "other Baseball" forum:

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/17985-chris-colabello-watch/