Are there any Non-Roster Invitees who have made it big?

[IdahoPilgrim]

With Deduno's injury, it looks likely that no non-roster invitees will make the club this year. I know that Sean Burroughs made it last year, but he fizzled early in the season. I can't remember if anybody else made the club as a NRI (was Dozier on the 40-man then?)

 

Has anybody run any numbers on this? On average how many NRI players make a big league roster - for the Twins, for the league, etc?

 

Have there been any names of people who became solid starters after making the club as a NRI?

[cmathewson]

Wilkin Ramirez will likely make the team as a bench bat. The Twins can make room by putting Deolis Guerra on the 60-day DL.

[Lesser Dali]

This probably isn't totally in line with the question you asked, but I would guess Brian Harper was a non-roster invitee in 1988, was sent to the minors at the close of spring training, was brought up to the bigs after a month or two and went on to have a super solid half of a decade of play as starting catcher for the Twins.

[Seth Stohs]

Wilkin Ramirez will likely make the team as a bench bat. The Twins can make room by putting Deolis Guerra on the 60-day DL.

 

Guerra is no longer on the 40 man roster, so he can't be added to the 40 man roster. I wonder if one of the bullpen arms won't be DFAd (Wood or Roenicke) to make room?

 

Non-Roster invites make it most even year. Most often, they're minor league signings of veterans. Jared Burton was an example last year. But, like this year, the Twins invited Alex Meyer. if he had been great (and had pitched above A-Ball), that's the type of player that could get great. That's likely a lot more rare though.

[IdahoPilgrim]

Wilkin Ramirez will likely make the team as a bench bat. The Twins can make room by putting Deolis Guerra on the 60-day DL.

 

I wasn't expecting that. Who then gets left out to make room? Assuming 13 batters, you've got Hicks, Mastroianni, Parmelee, Willingham in the outfield, Carroll, Dozier, Escobar, Florimon, Morneau, Plouffe in the infield, Doumit, Mauer catching. If Escobar can catch then they can leave Butera off, but if not, will Gardy go without an emergency catcher?