Larnach and Miranda Optioned. Balazovic Reassigned

[stringer bell]

Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda were both optioned to St. Paul today and Jordan Balazovic was reassigned to minor league camp. 

[stringer bell]

I'll add that with the IL moves already announced by Falvey, there remain 27 players for 26 spots. Unless a non-roster player is selected, one pitcher will have to go. The relief pitchers with options are Alcalá, Funderburk, Staumont and Sands. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

1 minute ago, stringer bell said:

I'll add that with the IL moves already announced by Falvey, there remain 27 players for 26 spots. Unless a non-roster player is selected, one pitcher will have to go. The relief pitchers with options are Alcalá, Funderburk, Staumont and Sands. 

They're all going to pitch with the Twins at some point this season.  Take the hot hand for now and let the St. Paul bullpen express begin!

 

[Major League Ready]

38 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

They're all going to pitch with the Twins at some point this season.  Take the hot hand for now and let the St. Paul bullpen express begin!

 

My bet is Alcala stays.  He has looked the best of the remaining RPs.

[Tbrooker11]

St Paul is going to have a lineup that should be able to win a lot of games this year.

Trevor Larnach (.271/.284/.504- 14 2B/15 HR/47 RBI/ 50 BB in 72 AAA games in 2023)

Jose Miranda (.344/.401/.572- 32 2B/30 HR/94 RBI/42 BB in 127 MiLB games in 2021-His last full MiLB season)

Austin Martin (.260/.381/.398- 11 2B/7 HR/30 RBI/39 BB/19 SB in 67 MiLB games in 2023)

DaShawn Keirsey (.294/.366/.455-18 2B/83B/15 HR/61 RBI/39 SB in 130 MiLB games in 2023)

Yunior Severino (.272/.352/.546- 17 2B/35 HR/84 RBI/51 BB in 120 MiLB games in 2023)

Jair Camargo (..259/.323/.503- 16 2B/21 HR/63 RBI/29 BB in 90 AAA games in 2023)

Brooks Lee-IF he doesn't make the MLB club, and if he does it would probably be Willi Castro in AAA to start the year (.275/.347/.461- 39 2B/16 HR/ 84 RBI/56 BB in 125 MiLB games in 2023)

Niko Goodrum (.280/.448/.440- 9 2B/8 HR/36 RBI/66 BB in 65 AAA games in 2023)

There is quickly going to be a logjam at AA and AAA in 2024. With all of these players and eventually adding in players like Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Gabriel Gonzalez, Kala'i Rosario, Andrew Cosetti etc.

I definitely see some guys being packaged for some MLB SP talent at some point this year. 

[Althebum82]

Anyone else find it interesting that Balazovic hung around until this late?  At what point does a team shrug its shoulders and declare what seems to be a lost cause is, in fact, a lost cause?

[Tbrooker11]

5 minutes ago, Althebum82 said:

Anyone else find it interesting that Balazovic hung around until this late?  At what point does a team shrug its shoulders and declare what seems to be a lost cause is, in fact, a lost cause?

I definitely feel like it's a case of not wanting to give up on him and see him go to a team like Tampa Bay and suddenly turn into a Cy Young contender haha. 

 

Wish him all the best, he was super nice any time I had an interaction with him this Spring, but that doesn't keep you around if you can't stay healthy and put up results. 

[FlyingFinn]

1 hour ago, Tbrooker11 said:

be Willi Castro in AAA to start the year

There is zero chance of him starting the year in AAA. He is one of the most valuable Twins with his speed, defense and position flexibility.

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I'll add that with the IL moves already announced by Falvey, there remain 27 players for 26 spots. Unless a non-roster player is selected, one pitcher will have to go. The relief pitchers with options are Alcalá, Funderburk, Staumont and Sands. 

Sands to St Paul seems pretty obvious, to me at least.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, Tbrooker11 said:

Brooks Lee-IF he doesn't make the MLB club, and if he does it would probably be Willi Castro in AAA to start the year (.275/.347/.461- 39 2B/16 HR/ 84 RBI/56 BB in 125 MiLB games in 2023)

Castro to AAA, has Hell frozen over?

[Tbrooker11]

58 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

There is zero chance of him starting the year in AAA. He is one of the most valuable Twins with his speed, defense and position flexibility.

 

32 minutes ago, RpR said:

Castro to AAA, has Hell frozen over?

If Brooks Lee makes the roster, a backup IF has to either be traded, cut, or sent down. That would be Farmer or Castro. If you start the season with Santana, Julien, Correa, Lewis, and Lee in the majors, you have to start eliminating somebody. Obvious choices become Farmer, Castro or Wallner (If you want to split LF between Castro, Farmer and Margot).

If you decide to trade someone, the most valuable one is Castro due to the reasons you mentioned for not demoting him and his contract is half that of Farmers. 

Other option would be to trade Margot (Not sure they would do that 3 weeks after trading for him) and then you have to be really sure about Castro being your starter in CF is god forbid something happens to Buxton. 

So there are some things that could happen but I can't see them running with 14 fielders and 12 pitchers to start the season. Especially with Duran and Thielbar out. 

Another thing to note. Options remaining: Wallner-2, Castro-1, Farmer-0.

However Rocco is big on defense so it would probably lead to Castro staying unless the Front Office is overwhelmed with a Trade Offer for him. 

I assume Brooks starts the year in AAA. Saves them some Service Time and pushes his Free Agency back, and then he can be the first one called up if an injury occurs. 

 

[DJL44]

I don't see any evidence that Brooks Lee would be better than Willi Castro this April.

[Tbrooker11]

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I'll add that with the IL moves already announced by Falvey, there remain 27 players for 26 spots. Unless a non-roster player is selected, one pitcher will have to go. The relief pitchers with options are Alcalá, Funderburk, Staumont and Sands. 

2024 Spring Training Stats- 

Alcala - 2.16 ERA, 7 G, 8.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 10 SO, 0.96 WHIP

Funderburk - 5.19 ERA, 6 G, 8.2 IP, 6 H, 9 R, 5 ER, 8 BB, 12 SO, 1.62 WHIP

Staumont - 3.86 ERA, 5 G, 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 SO, 1.93 WHIP

Sands - 6.75 ERA, 4 G, 5.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 1.50 WHIP

2023 MLB Stats- 

Alcala - 6.23 ERA, 11 G, 17.1 IP, 14 H, 13 R, 12 ER, 10 BB, 16 SO, 1.38 WHIP

Funderburk - 0.75 ERA, 11 G, 12 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 19 SO, 0.92 WHIP

Staumont - 5.40 ERA, 21 G, 20 IP, 16 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 13 BB, 24 SO, 1.45 WHIP

Sands - 3.74 ERA, 15 G, 21.2 IP, 20 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 13 BB, 21 SO, 1.52 WHIP

I think Alcala has been phenomenal this spring. I would have to agree with some others posts that Sands is probably going to be the one to go down to start the year, although we could see these and others rotate out based on who the hot hand is. 

[jorgenswest]

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I'll add that with the IL moves already announced by Falvey, there remain 27 players for 26 spots. Unless a non-roster player is selected, one pitcher will have to go. The relief pitchers with options are Alcalá, Funderburk, Staumont and Sands. 

Couldn’t they keep all 4 relievers and send out Varland until a 5th starter is needed on April 10?

In that case though I would have kept a left handed bat and sent down Sands. They shouldn’t need a 9 man pen to start the season.

[lecroy24fan]

3 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

Anyone else find it interesting that Balazovic hung around until this late?  At what point does a team shrug its shoulders and declare what seems to be a lost cause is, in fact, a lost cause?

He ate some innings. He's only on a minor league deal.

[CRF]

Sands HAS to be to guy to go. 

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, CRF said:

Sands HAS to be to guy to go. 

That would be my assumption, as well. TBH Funderburk hasn't pitched particularly well this spring, nor has Staumont. I see that Staumont got his velo up to 98, which is encouraging. Most likely Sands will get his chances to pitch for the Twins serving as a shuttle member. 

Of the non-roster guys, Duarte started a couple games (opener?) and wasn't as effective as pitching later in games. It could be that he was facing major leaguers when starting and AA guys when pitching later innings earlier in camp. Bowman and Brigham seemed to enhance their stock and the couple times that Henriquez pitched he was pretty good. 

[Rosterman]

We will see what the final week brings.

I was almost wondering if Larnach was going to beat out Wallner, since Wallner still has options. Or even Miranda making the club and pushing Kirilloff to the outfield.

The Twins really don't need a 5th starter until twice thru the first four, so Varland could work out of the pen. Sands might be a stay because he is considered a long relief pitcher. Fundeburk got hit for two runs, in his second inning out,  that came around because the bullpen arm after him gave up a homer rather than egt out of the inning. So the question is who in the bullpen is capable of pitching a second inning, to be sure.

Heck, maybe someone goes on the 60-day and the Twins can keep a Boyle or Duarte...but not a Jensen.

[Doctor Gast]

14 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

Anyone else find it interesting that Balazovic hung around until this late?  At what point does a team shrug its shoulders and declare what seems to be a lost cause is, in fact, a lost cause?

He passed through waivers so it's up to him if he can put anything together. Twins will string him along this year.

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, lecroy24fan said:

He ate some innings. He's only on a minor league deal.

Yeah, I'm not sure the reason he stuck around this long, (maybe hoping the maturity of the big league club would rub off on him finally) but him being on the MiLB deal meant there was next to no chance he was making the club. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

13 hours ago, Tbrooker11 said:

 

If Brooks Lee makes the roster, a backup IF has to either be traded, cut, or sent down. That would be Farmer or Castro. If you start the season with Santana, Julien, Correa, Lewis, and Lee in the majors, you have to start eliminating somebody. Obvious choices become Farmer, Castro or Wallner (If you want to split LF between Castro, Farmer and Margot).

If you decide to trade someone, the most valuable one is Castro due to the reasons you mentioned for not demoting him and his contract is half that of Farmers. 

Other option would be to trade Margot (Not sure they would do that 3 weeks after trading for him) and then you have to be really sure about Castro being your starter in CF is god forbid something happens to Buxton. 

So there are some things that could happen but I can't see them running with 14 fielders and 12 pitchers to start the season. Especially with Duran and Thielbar out. 

Another thing to note. Options remaining: Wallner-2, Castro-1, Farmer-0.

However Rocco is big on defense so it would probably lead to Castro staying unless the Front Office is overwhelmed with a Trade Offer for him. 

I assume Brooks starts the year in AAA. Saves them some Service Time and pushes his Free Agency back, and then he can be the first one called up if an injury occurs. 

 

Wallner has had a very bad spring and has 2 options remaining. Lee has had a very good spring and has all his options. I think Lee goes down to AAA to start the season and Wallner gets a month or so to turn it around. Once we pass the date where calling up Lee loses a year of control, which I think is about May 15, Lee is back if Wallner isn't hitting or Kirilloff is hurt yet again. Lee moves to 2B, Julien to 1B with Santana, and either Kirilloff or Wallner mans LF with Castro while the other one is on the Il again (Kirilloff) or back in AAA working on his swing (Wallner). I'd say let's do that now based on ST results but you can't count on ST results to carry over and losing a year of control on Lee isn't worth it.   

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Wallner has had a very bad spring and has 2 options remaining. Lee has had a very good spring and has all his options. I think Lee goes down to AAA to start the season and Wallner gets a month or so to turn it around. Once we pass the date where calling up Lee loses a year of control, which I think is about May 15, Lee is back if Wallner isn't hitting or Kirilloff is hurt yet again. Lee moves to 2B, Julien to 1B with Santana, and either Kirilloff or Wallner mans LF with Castro while the other one is on the Il again (Kirilloff) or back in AAA working on his swing (Wallner). I'd say let's do that now based on ST results but you can't count on ST results to carry over and losing a year of control on Lee isn't worth it.   

You'd send down one of their best hitters last year due to spring stats?

[LA Vikes Fan]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

You'd send down one of their best hitters last year due to spring stats?

Are you talking about Wallner, Kirilloff, or both? Wallner had a great 2023 overall but he hit .208 in August, .209 in July, rebounded in September (always a tough projection month given the number of ABs against bad teams' AAA pitching), and went 0-8 in the playoffs with 5 SOs. He's 2-35 in ST. That suggest he's seeing an adjustment from good pitching and hasn't been able to adjust back yet. I'm in favor of giving him 4-6 weeks to adjust but I wonder if he'll be ale to do so. Lots of guys go up and down their first couple of years. I think it's waaaaay to early to anoint Wallner as one of our best hitters. He's an intriguing guy who could be a quality MLB hitter but we won't know that until at least the end of this year and probably not until next year. I think there is at least a 50/50 chance that Wallner will need a MiLB stint this year to get back into a groove. This team can contend - we can't use a lot of MLB ABs on unestablished guys trying to find their groove. That's what AAA is for. 

Kirilloff is just an injury waiting to happen. I feel for the guy but shoulder and wrist issues are very troubling and just not good for long term success. I fully expect him to spend at least one or two 10 day IL stints this year. Add in his less than stellar glove work so far - maybe he'll improve, Julien has - and I think counting on him for the long term is very risky.  

My point is that Lee will be up sooner rather than later, and the most likely reason will be to replace Kirilloff or Wallner IMHO. I'm been king of the "pump the brakes" on him but his ST performance has shown me that he's closer to ready than I thought. 

[bean5302]

It's a wonder we don't see more calls to demote Royce Lewis to AAA to clear roster space for Brooks Lee. After all, that'd free things up to shift Carlos Correa over to 3B and let Brooks Lee have the shortstop role, and Royce Lewis isn't having a great Spring Training, either.

I'm going to point out, this is an equally ludicrous proposal.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Are you talking about Wallner, Kirilloff, or both? Wallner had a great 2023 overall but he hit .208 in August, .209 in July, rebounded in September (always a tough projection month given the number of ABs against bad teams' AAA pitching), and went 0-8 in the playoffs with 5 SOs. He's 2-35 in ST. That suggest he's seeing an adjustment from good pitching and hasn't been able to adjust back yet. I'm in favor of giving him 4-6 weeks to adjust but I wonder if he'll be ale to do so. Lots of guys go up and down their first couple of years. I think it's waaaaay to early to anoint Wallner as one of our best hitters. He's an intriguing guy who could be a quality MLB hitter but we won't know that until at least the end of this year and probably not until next year. I think there is at least a 50/50 chance that Wallner will need a MiLB stint this year to get back into a groove. This team can contend - we can't use a lot of MLB ABs on unestablished guys trying to find their groove. That's what AAA is for. 

Kirilloff is just an injury waiting to happen. I feel for the guy but shoulder and wrist issues are very troubling and just not good for long term success. I fully expect him to spend at least one or two 10 day IL stints this year. Add in his less than stellar glove work so far - maybe he'll improve, Julien has - and I think counting on him for the long term is very risky.  

My point is that Lee will be up sooner rather than later, and the most likely reason will be to replace Kirilloff or Wallner IMHO. I'm been king of the "pump the brakes" on him but his ST performance has shown me that he's closer to ready than I thought. 

Wallner. Sure, he might need to go down, but no way I send him down now. And they can't replace an OF with Lee....imo

[Tuffjuff]

13 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Couldn’t they keep all 4 relievers and send out Varland until a 5th starter is needed on April 10?

In that case though I would have kept a left handed bat and sent down Sands. They shouldn’t need a 9 man pen to start the season.

I am wondering this too. If you dont need a 5th starter until 4/10 why not send Varland down to get a start in AAA and then bring him back to start for the foreseeable future on 4/10? Can carry an extra bat or RP in the meantime. 

[RpR]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

You'd send down one of their best hitters last year due to spring stats?

Yes.

Last year was last year and his K rate was already trying to imitate Gallo last year.

[jkcarew]

Lee’s a full-time player when he comes up.

From a performance standpoint he replaces Santana or maybe Kirilloff (with Julien sliding over there). Although, the failure would probably need to be very bad and extended. So not necessarily likely.

From an injury standpoint, he’s up playing full time with an injury to ANY of the starting infielders, including Kirilloff/Santana, I think. This is a realistic (unfortunately)…even likely, scenario.
 

Lee has zero to do with how the LF spot plays out.

[Shaitan]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

 Most likely Sands will get his chances to pitch for the Twins serving as a shuttle member. 

I misread this as "shuttle monster," which may now enter my lexicon going forward.

[bighat]

42 minutes ago, Shaitan said:

I misread this as "shuttle monster," which may now enter my lexicon going forward.