Where are they now? Ex-Twins in 2020

[ashbury]

Link?

I checked snopes.com thoroughly, and could find no evidence that this information is incorrect.

 

[stringer bell]

I’ll always have a special place for Slegers in my memory. I met his mom at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York in 2015 (I think). She noticed I had a Twins Jacket on and asked if I was a fan. Her parents (Aaron’s grandparents) lived in Minnesota. She told me about Aaron’s training program. Nice lady.

 

I have a similar story about Niko Goodrum. I met his dad at Spring Training. He said what he wanted was for Niko to play, not sit on the bench, and he got his wish. Goodrum has flourished with the Tigers.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

 

I checked snopes.com thoroughly, and could find no evidence that this information is incorrect.
 

Still, i would believe the tallness just a tale. Such things have been known to happen.

[stringer bell]

I was waiting for this since Robby Canó was activated from the IL, Brian Dozier was DFAed today.

[John Kelsey]

Lewin Diaz is up and getting some PT for the Marlins. 

[bird]

Chris Mazza got a start for Boston on Sunday. Rather inauspicious.

[Rosterman]

Dietrich Enns plucked from the indy ball leagues to pitch for the Rays camp.

 

[bird]

 

Dietrich Enns plucked from the indy ball leagues to pitch for the Rays camp.

 

Yeah, and Miami said that Mike Morin is now out for the year. Key gain for one team, devastating loss for another.

[Musk21]

CJ Cron has been moved from the 10-day IL to the 45-day IL by Detroit after undergoing surgery for a dislocated kneecap.

[jud6312]

Gonsalves was DFA'd by the Red Sox today. I think that's his second of the month.

[bird]

Chase de Jong is on the Astro's taxi squad. Wow. Scraping the barrel much?

[PDX Twin]

 

Chase de Jong

 

That name always reminded me of something for which a guy could get in a lot of trouble...

[Danchat]

Fun fact: The Rays have 10 saves so far recorded by 7 different pitchers, 3 of them being former Twins. Nick Anderson has 3, Oliver Drake has 2, and Aaron Slegers has 1. John Curtiss is in their pen and Sean Gilmartin was there briefly... talk about a former Twins fest!

[bird]

 

Fun fact: The Rays have 10 saves so far recorded by 7 different pitchers, 3 of them being former Twins. Nick Anderson has 3, Oliver Drake has 2, and Aaron Slegers has 1. John Curtiss is in their pen and Sean Gilmartin was there briefly... talk about a former Twins fest!

 

 

Yeah, that is really amazing if you think about it! The 17-9 Rays, and all those guys are good enough to be options and even make real contributions. Who would the Twins move off the roster right now to make room for Gilmartin, Drake, Slegers, or Curtiss? Maybe Thielbar, but who else?

[Otto von Ballpark]

Yeah, that is really amazing if you think about it! The 17-9 Rays, and all those guys are good enough to be options and even make real contributions. Who would the Twins move off the roster right now to make room for Gilmartin, Drake, Slegers, or Curtiss? Maybe Thielbar, but who else?

To be fair, the Rays have 5 pitchers on the IL. Only Anderson and Drake were on their opening roster (and Drake is one of the IL guys now). The rest are pretty much the equivalent of Thielbar or even Gearrin.

 

Gilmartin was only on the roster for a day to pitch long relief in a doubleheader before he was DFA’d, and Slegers has already been optioned twice around pitching 3 times in 5 days on the roster — pretty much a fresh arm bubble guy.

 

Curtiss does seem to have earned some leash, drawing an opener assignment vs the Yankees yesterday.

[bird]

 

To be fair, the Rays have 5 pitchers on the IL. Only Anderson and Drake were on their opening roster (and Drake is one of the IL guys now). The rest are pretty much the equivalent of Thielbar or even Gearrin.

Gilmartin was only on the roster for a day to pitch long relief in a doubleheader before he was DFA’d, and Slegers has already been optioned twice around pitching 3 times in 5 days on the roster — pretty much a fresh arm bubble guy.

Curtiss does seem to have earned some leash, drawing an opener assignment vs the Yankees yesterday.

 

 

The question is, who would you replace on our roster, or even in St. Paul, with these four guys?

 

Statistically, Drake isn't a clear upgrade over Thielbar, let alone Cory Gearrin, but I'd let him take Danny Coulombe's spot over at CHS Field. Slegers? I think I'd rather have Poppen, and he's not nearly as good as Cody Stashak or Matt Wisler at the back of our BP. Same goes for Curtiss, and for that matter their other injured BP guy Kittredge. Maybe you'd kick out Garton and Minaya and stash them in St. Paul, and maybe not.

 

From my POV, I'm pretty impressed with what our guys have built up in terms of both quality up and down the pen AND with the quality of our depth in comparison to most teams, including pennant contenders like TBR. The fact that there are over 30 former pitchers out there throwing pitches for other teams, in the majors or an injury or two away, is a testament to this.

[jkcarew]

 Checking in at the corner OF in the Bay Area...

 

TD favorite punching bag, Robbie Grossman...292/452/615 (1.068) in 21 games

 

Jaylin Davis...homered in first PA, then optioned 11 PA (6 of which were K's) and 3 games later. That was July 28, and he hasn't been heard from since. Strikes me as exceedingly weird for a young guy you traded for last year and more or less immediately brought to the majors...and in a short-season where the club is mega tanking.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

From my POV, I'm pretty impressed with what our guys have built up in terms of both quality up and down the pen AND with the quality of our depth in comparison to most teams, including pennant contenders like TBR. The fact that there are over 30 former pitchers out there throwing pitches for other teams, in the majors or an injury or two away, is a testament to this.

I'm not knocking our pen or our organization at all.

 

But I think it's a stretch to suggest that the first-place Rays use of our cast-offs is any extra testament to our current organization. Gilmartin was a literal warm body for them for a doubleheader (and hasn't been in the Twins org for 6 years!), Slegers might not be far behind warm body status given how he has been shuffled, and Drake pitched for a record 5 teams in the one season we had him -- our organization has no claim on finding or developing his talent at all. Guys like this are constantly churning through all kinds of organizations. Looking at it another way, does it meaningfully reflect well upon Seattle, NYY, etc. that we had Gearrin on our roster a few days?

 

You're right that I wouldn't necessarily need any of those guys back except Anderson (obviously) and maybe Drake, but I wouldn't lose sleep over losing the last few guys on our current depth chart right now either. (And we might lose them when Pineda and others come back.)

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Statistically, Drake isn't a clear upgrade over Thielbar, let alone Cory Gearrin, but I'd let him take Danny Coulombe's spot over at CHS Field.

This is a tangent now, to be sure, but I'm not sure how you came up with this. Statistically, Drake had a 3.21 ERA, 11.3 K/9, and 3.68 K:BB last year, in a full season of decent-leverage MLB pen action (his 1.28 leverage index would have slotted him behind only Rogers and Romo/Parker among our regular relievers last season).

 

Not that Drake is some great bet that we sorely miss, but I don't see how you can make a statistical case right now that he isn't an upgrade over Thielbar and Gearrin. Those two guys aren't necessarily bad themselves, but they don't really have anything like Drake's 2019 results on their recent resumes. (As a bonus, Drake also got his feet wet in the postseason last year.)

 

Obviously Drake's current status on the IL is meaningful, but that would seem to be a factor outside of a "statistical" case.

[stringer bell]

Randy Rosario back in the Big Leagues recalled by the Royals with Salvi Perez going on the injured list. Rosario has toiled for both the Cubs and the Royals and hasn't put up great numbers, but he has a 6-0 lifetime record. 

[bird]

 

This is a tangent now, to be sure, but I'm not sure how you came up with this. Statistically, Drake had a 3.21 ERA, 11.3 K/9, and 3.68 K:BB last year, in a full season of decent-leverage MLB pen action (his 1.28 leverage index would have slotted him behind only Rogers and Romo/Parker among our regular relievers last season).

 

Not that Drake is some great bet that we sorely miss, but I don't see how you can make a statistical case right now that he isn't an upgrade over Thielbar and Gearrin. Those two guys aren't necessarily bad themselves, but they don't really have anything like Drake's 2019 results on their recent resumes. (As a bonus, Drake also got his feet wet in the postseason last year.)

 

Obviously Drake's current status on the IL is meaningful, but that would seem to be a factor outside of a "statistical" case.

 

We see things differently in the case of Drake. I see leverage index in a similar light to how I see RBI's as an indicator of value, and don't see Drake as an appreciable improvement today over guys like Thielbar and Gearrin, even ignoring the injury. I agree with you that Drake had a better year in 2019 than Thielbar.  I had simply glanced at the career numbers on B-Ref for Thielbar and Drake, but the stats are mostly irrelevant to my argument. I wonder if Falvey would trade Thielbar straight up for an injury-free Drake right now. It would be a nothing move of course. Both of them are fungible.

 

But my initial "point" was that there are 30-some former Twins relievers on rosters of other teams right now, and outside of Pressly and Anderson, it's hard to find another that might make you jettison one of ours for those guys, especially if we were required to slot them into high-leverage spots like Drake was last year.

 

So, I very much see the former Twin thing as a testament to the job Falvey has done in building up both BP talent and depth. Not that other teams haven't done a good job of this too, mind you.

[Channing1964]

I didnt see it here but isn't Rowson something like offensive co-ordinator for the Marlins now?

[Danchat]

 

Chase de Jong is on the Astro's taxi squad. Wow. Scraping the barrel much?

The Astros just promoted him to their 28 man roster.

 

The Twins sure have had a lot of pitchers who weren't good enough to stay with our club, but not quite bad enough to fall out of the league. Everyone gets a second chance these days!

[stringer bell]

Brian Navarreto, who was in the Twins' organization for six years is being promoted to the majors by Miami. Also Sean Gilmartin was DFAed by the Rays, while they placed Nick Anderson in the IL. None of these three every played a major league game for the Twins, but were in their organization.

[DocBauer]

Pressly was a calculated trade to be sure. Everyone makes them. It's how we also got Romo initially. But Anderson is the only guy we missed on from the various names presented. RP is always volatile, we know this. Just because someone figures something out years later, or just finds the right situation, doesn't mean any previous team "blew it". The Twins have a couple guys right now in Wisler...who is relatively young still and may have found his team/niche...and Thielbar, who the Tigers inexplicably couldn't find room to keep. I'm assuming Detroit just decided on youth.

 

I have no illusions that Thielbar is some 33yo bullpen savior who has a future with the Twins. But the FO and their analytics saw a guy who had a chance to help, even for a short time frame as an extra arm. And EVERYONE is looking for extra pitching.

 

Meanwhile, Wisler looks to be an actual find. Despite BP depth and a few more guys available or on their way, he looks like the real deal.

 

I lose very little sleep over Anderson because of what we have, because of others we have found before, now, and potentially in the future. It's not a knock on Anderson at all. Just a reality that smart, well run FO tend to get as much or more than they miss out on.

[stringer bell]

Ian Miller recalled by the Cubs.

[Twodogs]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/08/mets-release-brian-dozier.html

 

Dozier is available again? Hits lefties, won a Gold Glove, would be Arraez's backup while his knee is hurting. Once Arraez is back to full health Dozier could be cut once again?

 

Although Vargas might actually hit better now?? But it would be neat to see him come full circle. Pull a handful of bombas against a few lefties and ride the pine like he's been doing with his last 3 teams.

[lecroy24fan]

Adalberto Mejia released by the White Sox.

[nicksaviking]

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/08/mets-release-brian-dozier.html

Dozier is available again? Hits lefties, won a Gold Glove, would be Arraez's backup while his knee is hurting. Once Arraez is back to full health Dozier could be cut once again?

Although Vargas might actually hit better now?? But it would be neat to see him come full circle. Pull a handful of bombas against a few lefties and ride the pine like he's been doing with his last 3 teams.

 

But that's just the problem with bringing back old players, the fans who remembered him fondly and the former teammates who are happy to see him back will make it that much more difficult to cut bait with him when needed.

 

As a human who enjoys reminiscing, I get a sentimental feeling about such reunions. As a robot who is cold-hearted due to a 30-year World Series drought, I resist sentimentality so as not too temp the humans into making decisions based on feelings.

[lecroy24fan]

 

But that's just the problem with bringing back old players, the fans who remembered him fondly and the former teammates who are happy to see him back will make it that much more difficult to cut bait with him when needed.

 

As a human who enjoys reminiscing, I get a sentimental feeling about such reunions. As a robot who is cold-hearted due to a 30-year World Series drought, I resist sentimentality so as not too temp the humans into making decisions based on feelings.

Plus you'd have to make a spot on the 40 man.