Future Roster Transactions

[jorgenswest]

I don’t get it either. Donaldson has to be better than Vargas or Adrianza no matter how he has performed against Keuchel.

[Rosterman]

Minaya. How many guys have been on the Twins active season roster but never played a game. Chuck Schilling was the first, I believe, waaaay back when. Others?

[rdehring]

Today's decision is going to be interesting. Will the Twins send a pitcher to St. Paul putting the active roster at 14 pitchers and 14 position players? If not, there is no obvious choice of which position player would go. Considering you must keep two catchers, the backups to choose from would be Gonzalez, Adrianza and Vargas. Assume they are all out of options, although I don't know about Vargas. But I just don't see any of them going thru DFA or to St. Paul.

 

So they likely will be forced to reduce the pitching staff to 14, although there isn't an easy choice there either. Almost seems it will have to be one of Alcala, Poppen or Smeltzer. Don't have a clue which they will choose.

 

The good news is they will be able to bring one back for the two days they have double headers over the next week or so.

[ashbury]

Assume they are all out of options, although I don't know about Vargas.

He is indeed out of options. 29-year old AAAA guys usually are.

[Battle ur tail off]

 

Today's decision is going to be interesting. Will the Twins send a pitcher to St. Paul putting the active roster at 14 pitchers and 14 position players? If not, there is no obvious choice of which position player would go. Considering you must keep two catchers, the backups to choose from would be Gonzalez, Adrianza and Vargas. Assume they are all out of options, although I don't know about Vargas. But I just don't see any of them going thru DFA or to St. Paul.

 

So they likely will be forced to reduce the pitching staff to 14, although there isn't an easy choice there either. Almost seems it will have to be one of Alcala, Poppen or Smeltzer. Don't have a clue which they will choose.

 

The good news is they will be able to bring one back for the two days they have double headers over the next week or so.

 

It shouldn't be hard though. One of those pitchers that have options or DFA Vargas. No way will they even think twice about dumping Marwin or Ehire. 

[stringer bell]

 

It shouldn't be hard though. One of those pitchers that have options or DFA Vargas. No way will they even think twice about dumping Marwin or Ehire. 

I think the team is considering Vargas as the 2021 version of Adrianza. I doubt he's as good a shortstop, but with Lewis then close to ready, that wouldn't be as important. I think they could DFA him and outright him to St. Paul. To me, it is the obvious move since they are bringing back an infielder and have seven game in five days after their off day tomorrow.

[Rosterman]

With the need of NOT having a bullpen game, they can send out Poppen. Eventually they have to make decisions on the 40-man if Bailey returns, and if they add back Gordon and Romero, which may not happen until the off-season.

 

[lecroy24fan]

I saw Smeltzer mentioned earlier and I don't think they'd send him down since that would burn an option and why do that at this point?

[Otto von Ballpark]

I saw Smeltzer mentioned earlier and I don't think they'd send him down since that would burn an option and why do that at this point?

Wouldn’t burn an option until he spent 20 days on optional assignment — so we could send him out and call him back after 10 days if we wanted.

[lecroy24fan]

 

Wouldn’t burn an option until he spent 20 days on optional assignment — so we could send him out and call him back after 10 days if we wanted.

Yes but if you send him down and don't need him later you burn the year.

[twins_89]

 

I saw Smeltzer mentioned earlier and I don't think they'd send him down since that would burn an option and why do that at this point?

 

I don't think Smeltzer is a guy where options are a significant concern. At this point he's on the fringes of the majors and is going to need to improve to stay in the league.

[ashbury]

I don't think Smeltzer is a guy where options are a significant concern. At this point he's on the fringes of the majors and is going to need to improve to stay in the league.

Agreed. He turns 25 next week and still has 2 options. If both get used and the team finds itself with a roster dilemma even after that, he can't have met expectations.

 

[stringer bell]

With the possibly disabling injuries of both Arraez and Kepler, I'm wondering if DFAs can be stopped/rescinded. I have said earlier, I think the Twins would like to keep Vargas and use him as a utility player next season. If either player is placed on the Injured List can the Twins bring back Vargas?

[Danchat]

 

With the possibly disabling injuries of both Arraez and Kepler, I'm wondering if DFAs can be stopped/rescinded. I have said earlier, I think the Twins would like to keep Vargas and use him as a utility player next season. If either player is placed on the Injured List can the Twins bring back Vargas?

I haven't heard of a team rescinding a DFA before, so I don't think so... I think the Twins should call up Blankenhorn to play some 2B instead.

[twins_89]

 

With the possibly disabling injuries of both Arraez and Kepler, I'm wondering if DFAs can be stopped/rescinded. I have said earlier, I think the Twins would like to keep Vargas and use him as a utility player next season. If either player is placed on the Injured List can the Twins bring back Vargas?

 

I can't see how the DFA could be reversed. Donaldson already took Vargas's active roster spot, so I would assume the transaction is final.

[Otto von Ballpark]

With the possibly disabling injuries of both Arraez and Kepler, I'm wondering if DFAs can be stopped/rescinded. I have said earlier, I think the Twins would like to keep Vargas and use him as a utility player next season. If either player is placed on the Injured List can the Twins bring back Vargas?

Here is the rule as I understand it:

 

“ 6. A player can be Designated for Assignment and then subsequently returned to the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) and optioned to the minors as long as the player is not replaced on the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) by another player after the player is Designated for Assignment.”

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3535

 

In this case, you might be right — while Donaldson took Vargas’ active roster spot (meaning, his 25-man / 28-man roster spot), nobody took his Reserve List (40-man) spot yet. (At least they Twins roster page has 41 names on it, and two of those — Bailey and Gordon — presumably don’t count right now.)

 

Not sure though — seems like a loophole that could be easily exploited/abused, to just keep DFA’ing an out of options player with the expectation that another player could go on the IL within a week and you could keep the DFA’d player. (Especially with the 28-man roster and 10-day IL, it would be fairly easily to pick pitchers at the back of your staff to rotate through phantom IL stints, as necessary.)

 

But maybe we can get away with it once?

 

Edit: I lack reading comprehension, apparently! The above-quoted rule only applies if the player has minor league options remaining — Vargas obviously doesn’t. So there is no way to restore a DFA’d, out of options player to the roster (at least not without going through waivers and then re-selecting his contract).

[twins_89]

 

Here is the rule as I understand it:

“ 6. A player can be Designated for Assignment and then subsequently returned to the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) and optioned to the minors as long as the player is not replaced on the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) by another player after the player is Designated for Assignment.”

https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3535

In this case, you might be right — while Donaldson took Vargas’ active roster spot (meaning, his 25-man / 28-man roster spot), nobody took his Reserve List (40-man) spot yet. (At least they Twins roster page has 41 names on it, and two of those — Bailey and Gordon — presumably don’t count right now.)

Not sure though — seems like a loophole that could be easily exploited/abused, to just keep DFA’ing an out of options player with the expectation that another player could go on the IL within a week and you could keep the DFA’d player. (Especially with the 28-man roster and 10-day IL, it would be fairly easily to pick pitchers at the back of your staff to rotate through phantom IL stints, as necessary.)

But maybe we can get away with it once?

 

Vargas is out of options, so there was no place for him to go once he was taken off the active roster.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Vargas is out of options, so there was no place for him to go once he was taken off the active roster.

That’s what DFA is — “roster limbo”. Vargas doesn’t have to “be” anywhere during this time, and he continues getting MLB service time until the DFA is resolved.

[twins_89]

 

That’s what DFA is — “roster limbo”. Vargas doesn’t have to “be” anywhere during this time, and he continues getting MLB service time until the DFA is resolved.

 

Does resolving the DFA require Vargas to be traded or go through waivers? I can't imagine MLB would leave open a loophole that would allow a player to be DFAd and then re-added back to the active roster (that would seem to let teams effectively expand rosters and hold onto out of option players by temporarily parking them in DFA limbo).

[Whammy]

Assuming for just a second that Kepler is going on the DL

 

If the Twins thought that it would be 10 days, who would you replace him with

If the Twins thought it was for the rest of the regular season, who would you replace him with?

 

Are they different answers? Should they be?

 

For me, if Kepler goes on the DL, it's time for Larnach to be called up.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Does resolving the DFA require Vargas to be traded or go through waivers? I can't imagine MLB would leave open a loophole that would allow a player to be DFAd and then re-added back to the active roster (that would seem to let teams effectively expand rosters and hold onto out of option players by temporarily parking them in DFA limbo).

You are right — the loophole does not exist as I had stated above. Here is the full clause again for restoring a DFA’d player:

 

“ 6. A player can be Designated for Assignment and then subsequently returned to the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) and optioned to the minors as long as the player is not replaced on the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) by another player after the player is Designated for Assignment.”

 

“And optioned to the minors” is the clause that Vargas fails to satisfy, as he is out of options like you said. So even though Vargas hasn’t been replaced on the 40-man yet, he can’t be restored to the Twins roster at this point either.

[big dog]

That's ok, I'm ready to explore options other than Vargas anyway.