Notebook: Opening Day Roster Announced!

[Andrew Luedtke]

The Twins were victorious today over Pittsburgh and the Opening Day roster is set. More details inside today’s Offseason Notebook. We are three days away from regular season baseball, Twins fans!Minnesota 5, Pittsburgh 3

Box Score

 

Twins Takeaways

Standout pitcher: Derek Law (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s - 18 pitches)

Standout hitter: Willians Astudillo (2-for-3 with a HR and 2 RBI)

 

Fastest pitch (mph): Josh Winder (97.5 mph)

Fastest exit velo (mph): Jose Miranda (106.4 mph)

 

In the second to last game of the spring, the Twins came out with a “W” and some familiar faces were keys to the victory. Also, Mitch Garver returned to his first game since leaving last week after injuring his finger on a foul tip.

 

 

Turtle Power:

 

Willians Astudillo got the green light on a 3-0 pitch and mashed it to left-center field to put the Twins on the board 2-0 in the second inning. And he admired this one…

 

Astudillo will be heading north with the Twins to Milwaukee on Thursday.

 

 

Cave shows off speed:

 

One of the most exciting plays in baseball -- a triple! Jake Cave had an RBI triple in the fourth inning to put the Twins back on top 3-2, and they didn’t give it back from there. Cave has six career triples.

 

More on Jake Cave in just one second …

 

Twins Bullpen Solid:

 

Josh Winder got the start today vs. the Pirates. He allowed four hits over 2 2/3 innings. The only runs he allowed were on a HR in the third to Erik Gonzalez. He touched 97.5 mph today. Cody Stashak and Caleb Thielbar worked back to back scoreless innings. They will be on the Twins Opening Day roster. Derek Law, who impressed all Spring, was untouchable in his inning of work. He walked one but struck out three. Check back for the winner of the #SireofFortMyers crown later this week.

 

It should be noted that Matt Canterino was impressive. He picked up a two-inning save scattering two hits and striking out three. His top speed was 95.1 mph. His slider generated three whiffs.

 

Opening Day Roster set!

 

Well Twins fans, you’ve been following the roster battles all Spring long. Finally, we have a 26-man roster. Baseball is upon us!

 

 

You can find more details on the roster, here.

 

Clearly, the most interesting development is that Kyle Garlick beat out Brent Rooker for the last corner OF spot. Garlick posted a 1.011 OPS in Spring while Rooker only a .712.

 

On paper, it seems the plan is for Garlick and Jake Cave/Luis Arraez to platoon in LF until there is an injury or they feel one of Alex Kirilloff or Brent Rooker are ready to take the role.

 

Rocco Baldelli made some interesting comments after today’s game about the Rooker decision noting that the Twins want him to be a more “well-rounded player”.

 

 

As Twins Daily writer Cody Pirkl points out, a platoon of Garlick and Cave should work out just fine. Eddie Rosario has a career 106 wRC+, for what it’s worth.

 

 

Other notable choices:

 

Fan favorite Willians Astudillo made the team after an impressive Spring (1.235 OPS with 4 HR’s) and Caleb Thielbar was selected as the second LHP over Brandon Waddell. Thielbar posted an impressive 2.25 ERA with a 9.9 K/9 in 20.0 IP in 2020.

 

Following 2020’s rules due to the pandemic shortened season, 2021 also allows for a five-man taxi squad to travel with the team. Those players are:

 

 

First pitch is three days away!

 

 

Other News and Notes:

 

Randy Dobnak’s contract details released today:

 

 

The White Sox make a move:

 

The Sox picked up 1B/3B/DH Jake Lamb today after he was released from the Braves. Lamb figures to slot in as their DH. Lamb posted a 144 OPS+ in a very small sample of 49 PA’s for the Athletics after being traded last year, but hasn’t posted a OPS+ above 100 since 2017 when he was an All-Star in Arizona.

 

 

That’s a wrap from today. Only one game left on the schedule before the team packs their bags and heads to Milwaukee!

 

Next up:

 

Twins vs. Pirates @ 11:05am CST Tuesday

 

MORE FROM TWINS DAILY

 

Twins Daily Staff Predictions: National League

How the Twins Have Hedged Against Injury Risk

Twins Finalize Opening Day Roster

 

You can follow Andrew Luedtke on Twitter here.

 

Click here to view the article

[AZTwin]

If we are going to put Garlick on the roster we might as well kept and started Baddoo out there to begin the year. Management shows that they were clueless in this move

[AZTwin]

Honestly though, if the Twins offered the Tigers Garlick and $50k for Baddoo do they accept?

[Richard Swerdlick]

I like the idea of platooning players. I am old enough to remember when Gene Mauch would do it and I thought it worked well. Left field looks good in this regard. 

[stringer bell]

 

I like the idea of platooning players. I am old enough to remember when Gene Mauch would do it and I thought it worked well. Left field looks good in this regard. 

Platoons can and do work, but it was easier in the old days when a club had 14-15 position players instead of 12-13. I can remember the Yankees doing a platoon in left field with one of their catchers (Yogi or Blanchard) and Hector Lopez. Mauch platooned several positions with the Twins--3rd base, second base, right field and DH. Much harder to do with one backup infielder and one backup outfielder. 

[tony&rodney]

The games begin Thursday and we shall see what transpires for this team. Spring Training stats and even sometimes the at bats can be thrown out, but in the next couple of weeks we will be watching to see if a few of our players can get tuned in at the plate. Kepler, Cave, Rooker and Garlick have looked bad and Garver and Sano don't look too confident. Simmons is exactly as advertised, solid glove and hoping to hit a mistake. The Twins will really need their stars to step up and hope the smooth Kiriloff swings return. We are ready to see who brings it every day once the grind of 162 games begins.

[mikelink45]

 

I like the idea of platooning players. I am old enough to remember when Gene Mauch would do it and I thought it worked well. Left field looks good in this regard. 

Remember that Mauch never won a pennant - he was aggressive but not always right.

[mikelink45]

Garlick and Cave - suddenly the starting lineup does not look as productive as we imagined.  Sorry Rooker can't field.  I do understand that.  Since Kiriloff did not make it although at the time of the cut he was hitting better than Cave, I would have liked to seen Larnach get the chance.  I like upside, I like infusion of youth.

[In My La Z boy]

I always thought Arraez would start in LF initially. We are better with him leading off. After a couple games he will be mainly infield rotation - then no doubt injury comes to someone. Looks like an early AAA contest to claim LF by June. I thought Larnach looked better than both Kirilloff/Rooker this spring. We'll have our LF'er of the future at some point this year. 

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

 

Remember that Mauch never won a pennant - he was aggressive but not always right.

He didn't have the horses.

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

Starting to look for Saints tickets! Excited to see Rooker, Kiriloff, and the young guns on the mound.

[AZTwin]

 

Garlick and Cave - suddenly the starting lineup does not look as productive as we imagined.  Sorry Rooker can't field.  I do understand that.  Since Kiriloff did not make it although at the time of the cut he was hitting better than Cave, I would have liked to seen Larnach get the chance.  I like upside, I like infusion of youth.

This actually gave me a nightmare last night.  We were playing the Yankees and these two scrubs were in the lineup and rally killer at every turn.  We hit a homerun in the 9th to get within 1 and had opportunity to tie but Garlick had a weak at bat and we lost.  Then I went home and got beat up by my pet monkey that I had in the dream which closely resembles the Angels Rally Monkey.

[PDX Twin]

 

Platoons can and do work, but it was easier in the old days when a club had 14-15 position players instead of 12-13. 

 

I was also easier when you could expect that the opponent's starting pitcher would pitch 7-9 innings. Now, unless you are at the top of the order, you only sometimes get more than one AB against the starter and the guy out of the bullpen is likely to throw with the other hand.

[Danchat]

If we are going to put Garlick on the roster we might as well kept and started Baddoo out there to begin the year. Management shows that they were clueless in this move

Baddoo has had 131 PAs in Fort Myers as his highest experience - he’d be behind Garlick, Rooker, Kirilloff, Larnach, and Celestino even with his torrid spring. He’d be starting in AA if he were still in our org.

[mikelink45]

 

He didn't have the horses.

In 1976 he had Carew, Wynegar, Smalley, Hisle, Bostock, Cubbage, Ford and Randall - not a bad lineup.

Goltz and Blyleven led an otherwise blah pitching staff and Campbell was an outstanding RP. 

 

Same lineup and SP Goltz and Zahn led the staff in 1977.  Then Erickson, Goltz and Zahn with Mike Marshall in the pen. 

There were some horses here.

 

 

[AZTwin]

Baddoo has had 131 PAs in Fort Myers as his highest experience - he’d be behind Garlick, Rooker, Kirilloff, Larnach, and Celestino even with his torrid spring. He’d be starting in AA if he were still in our org.

Better spring than Garlick. Honestly do you think the Tigers would trade Baddoo for Garlick straight up?

[Danchat]

Better spring than Garlick. Honestly do you think the Tigers would trade Baddoo for Garlick straight up?

Of course not, Baddoo is a prospect who makes sense for Detroit to carry since they are unlikely to be in the playoff hunt and has a much higher ceiling than Garlick. The Twins wouldn’t keep him in the majors as they’d prefer guys with more experience. Admittedly Garlick doesn’t have much of that, but he profiles as the RH option in a platoon. Rooker/Kirilloff can be called up whenever.

[umterp23]

 

The games begin Thursday and we shall see what transpires for this team. Spring Training stats and even sometimes the at bats can be thrown out, but in the next couple of weeks we will be watching to see if a few of our players can get tuned in at the plate. Kepler, Cave, Rooker and Garlick have looked bad and Garver and Sano don't look too confident. Simmons is exactly as advertised, solid glove and hoping to hit a mistake. The Twins will really need their stars to step up and hope the smooth Kiriloff swings return. We are ready to see who brings it every day once the grind of 162 games begins.

 

You said Garlick looked bad, not sure what your definition of bad would be.  Hit .293 with 5 Bombas as people like to say out of his 12 hits and 13 RBI's.  Yes, spring training but he led the team in HR's and RBI's.  I don't like the K's part.  Kepler, Cave and Rooker combined for 19 hits, 1 HR and 7 RBI's.. If anything Garlick isn't the problem, take Rooker out of the equation and your RF starter and back up who were "guaranteed a roster spot" crapped the proverbial bed this spring.  Garlick and Rooker fighting for job and performed deserve the spots.  Give me a guy fighting for a job vs gifted one and I would take the fighter.  

[AZTwin]

Of course not, Baddoo is a prospect who makes sense for Detroit to carry since they are unlikely to be in the playoff hunt and has a much higher ceiling than Garlick. The Twins wouldn’t keep him in the majors as they’d prefer guys with more experience. Admittedly Garlick doesn’t have much of that, but he profiles as the RH option in a platoon. Rooker/Kirilloff can be called up whenever.

Twins don’t need to keep Baddoo in the majors. He would have options. I would have preferred starting Baddoo until Rooker is ready than to have Garlick take space on the 40 man roster

[Dr. Evil]

If a team is lousey enough to roll with Badoo then bless them.

[Major League Ready]

 

Twins don’t need to keep Baddoo in the majors. He would have options. I would have preferred starting Baddoo until Rooker is ready than to have Garlick take space on the 40 man roster

 

You put a lot of stock in spring training because absolutely nothing about Baddoo's history suggests he is remotely ready to play at the ML level. He has not played an inning above A+ where his numbers were mediocre. Garlick's OPS at AAA was over 300pts higher than Baddoo's A+ OPS not to mention Garlick proved quite competent with the Dodgers in 2019. Granted it was a small sample size but any FO of a team hoping to compete that would start Baddoo should be run out of town on a rail.

 

The Twins gambled that no team would carry a player all year that has never player an inning above A+. Of course, it remains to be seen if they roster him all year or return him. 

[AZTwin]

If a team is lousey enough to roll with Badoo then bless them.

Well he’s better than Garlick lmao

[AZTwin]

You put a lot of stock in spring training because absolutely nothing about Baddoo's history suggests he is remotely ready to play at the ML level. He has not played an inning above A+ where his numbers were mediocre. Garlick's OPS at AAA was over 300pts higher than Baddoo's A+ OPS not to mention Garlick proved quite competent with the Dodgers in 2019. Granted it was a small sample size but any FO of a team hoping to compete that would start Baddoo should be run out of town on a rail.

 

The Twins gambled that no team would carry a player all year that has never player an inning above A+. Of course, it remains to be seen if they roster him all year or return him.

You put a lot of stock in spring training. At no point has Garlick ever looked like a major league player. If we really had a need for Garlick then we should have just rolled the dice with Baddoo. Tigers would laugh at you if you offered Garlick for Baddoo straight up

[Channing1964]

A platoon of Rosario and Badoo would have cost 8.65 mil. I like that better than Cave/Garlick/Rooker/Kiriloff/ Broxton/Maggi/ Refsnyder

[Channing1964]

Well he’s better than Garlick lmao

Detroit should have got the nod as our AAA affiliate. Then we could have hired Hinch as an ultra nerd research and development guy and let Toby Gardenhire be Tigers manager.

[Major League Ready]

 

A platoon of Rosario and Badoo would have cost 8.65 mil. I like that better than Cave/Garlick/Rooker/Kiriloff/ Broxton/Maggi/ Refsnyder

 

A platoon of two LH batters? You did not think that one through.

 

Baddoo would probably not even been invited to spring training. Even if he had been invited and showed as well as he did, the team would not have jeopardized his development by throwing him in at the ML level when he has never played an inning at AA.. AT an absolute minimum they would have had him play at AA for a good portion of the season. Then, if Buxton was hurt he MIGHT be brought up but the list of guys that make it to the MLB level with less than a full season at AA is very small and those guys killed it every step of the way.

 

Rosario made $8M as an ARB-2. You are assuming a cost at least a couple million less than projected. . There is no way they were getting him for $8M. So, who are you eliminating. Happ and Robles or Simmons. I guess passing on Cruz would have been an option as well. If you ignore the team has a finite amount of money which allows you to ignore the equation is Rosario / Cave vs Garlick / Cave and Simmons, it's plausible to argue they should have kept the Rosario / Cave combo. 

[Channing1964]

A platoon of two LH batters? You did not think that one through.

 

Baddoo would probably not even been invited to spring training. Even if he had been invited and showed as well as he did, the team would not have jeopardized his development by throwing him in at the ML level when he has never played an inning at AA.. AT an absolute minimum they would have had him play at AA for a good portion of the season. Then, if Buxton was hurt he MIGHT be brought up but the list of guys that make it to the MLB level with less than a full season at AA is very small and those guys killed it every step of the way.

 

Rosario made $8M as an ARB-2. You are assuming a cost at least a couple million less than projected. . There is no way they were getting him for $8M. So, who are you eliminating. Happ and Robles or Simmons. I guess passing on Cruz would have been an option as well. If you ignore the team has a finite amount of money which allows you to ignore the equation is Rosario / Cave vs Garlick / Cave and Simmons, it's plausible to argue they should have kept the Rosario / Cave combo.

 

i did not think after all our history that i had to specify to you when i was obviously being sarcastic. My bad.

[Channing1964]

Also....what is the finite number the Pohlad's have identified as the payroll budget ceiling? I have no doubt there is one, but I doubt any of us knows what it is. Next time I am over there for dinner I will ask them.

[Major League Ready]

 

Also....what is the finite number the Pohlad's have identified as the payroll budget ceiling? I have no doubt there is one, but I doubt any of us knows what it is. Next time I am over there for dinner I will ask them.

 

The context in which I used “finite” is that there is a realistic limit. In this specific context, it means retaining Rosario meant foregoing one of the additions that cost approximately $10M. We don’t need to know the exact number to determine what is reasonable to expect.

 

Would you expect spending to go up if revenue increased by $30M? Of course you would. Yet, you expect spending to remain the same when revenue is sure to go down. In other words, you refuse to acknowledge we have needed to forego signing a free agent or a combination of free agents that totaled roughly $10M. The problem is you concoct a financial justification by adding up the subtractions and don’t consider the reality that spending goes down when revenue decreases. You also never accounted for the increases which totaled roughly $12M.

[cHawk]

 

A platoon of Rosario and Badoo would have cost 8.65 mil.

 

What? Rosario alone would cost $10M.