Twins Protect Six Minor League Players from Rule 5 Draft

[Riverbrian]

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

 

Rule V eligible players added to the 40-man can't be designated, so if the Twins need to make roster space, for example trading three guys on someone's 40-man roster for Lopez or Ryan, they would have to DFA someone who wasn't added yesterday. Gasper, Keirsey and McCusker could likely be DFAd, not claimed and kept in the system.

OK... So they do need to hold cutable folks. 

Next Question? 

Are teams required to roster 40 players on the 40 man? Can they roster 39? 

[jmlease1]

2 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

OK... So they do need to hold cutable folks. 

Next Question? 

Are teams required to roster 40 players on the 40 man? Can they roster 39? 

Teams can roster 39, but few do for more than brief periods except during the off-season.

[Jeff K]

11 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I'm glad they kept Klein. He would have been a perfect target for a lot of teams: tall and well built with some strong velocity and K rate and easy to hide on the roster. 

But I'm concerned about 2 guys even though I KNOW the rule 5 draft usually turns out to be nothing but nonsense. 

CJ Culpepper could be a target for a team that sees potential, despite some injuries the past 2yrs, and could stash him. And that scares me a little bit.

What SHOULDN'T scare me but does is Fedko. I KNOW he only "put it together" as a 25yo and will be 26yo next season. And I KNOW the Twins OF depth. But I would have protected him 7 days to Sunday over a handful of current 40 man rostered players as a possible 4th OF/1B option potentially. 

I have zero illusions that he'll be a great player. But he just MIGHT be a better version of Lew Ford who can also play at 1B. He's probably not going to be selected. And he might not turn out to be anything. But I'd be looking at him, were I another team, as a possible 4th OF.

Otherwise, they made the right choices. 

But it's going to be interesting when they actually add a few FA eventually. I'm still confused about some of the 40 man roster. For instance, they still have McCusker but don't believe in him? I can only surmise they are just waiting for the rule 5 draft and then try to pass a few players through waivers and then assign them to AAA or re-sign them for the same.

 

I would have liked the Twins to protect both CJ & Kyler.  Plenty of guys still on the 40 man that could easily be left unprotected starting with Gaspar and Julien.

[Dman]

It looks like it was down to Klein and CJ and they chose Klein which kind of made sense as he has been more durable and appears closer to ready to compete at the MLB level this year. Still hate to see CJ out there, but there are only so many young unproven arms you can add in any given year. I tend to agree they could have made room if they really wanted to as Keirsey seems like an easy drop from the 40 man.  Still as others have noted Rule V's have to stay rostered all offseason and if they plan to add any free agents at all they are going to need some room to do that.  Adding yet another Rule V arm would really put pressure on some of these young guys working out right away.  If you are going to lose someone given how stacked they are on arms losing a guy in CJ who is most likely a reliever is probably the way to go.

It kind of stinks they need to add Mendez earlier than he looks ready to be added but given his age and abilities I can see why he needed to be added.  

Rosario and Fedko are interesting players but given how hard it is for bats to translate at the MLB level it feels fairly safe to leave them off.  

They protected the arms they needed to protect other than maybe CJ so I think they chose well.  This roster has a lot of young talent on it.  Some of these arms are going to need to perform well right from the start or it could be a rough start to the season again next year.  Still you have to be happy to see so many good young arms that need to be protected with another wave likely starting at High A next year.

The other nice thing is that as things stand right now there are not many players that will need to be Rule V's next year unless of course the Twins make more trades and change things or add players early.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, rdehring said:

Am guessing the Twins would draft very high in the Rule 5.  So I am assuming there will be a few players leaving the roster between now and whenever that open spot is needed.  Who knows, maybe there is a trade about to happen with someone like Larnach/Wallner being exchanged for a solid relief pitcher.

Most disappointing part of your entire report to me, Seth, was that they didn't need to protect DeAndrade or Sabato.  Was excited when they signed DeAndrade.  Just goes to prove that when signing 16 year olds one never knows what to expect.

DeAndrade is still young, and I still think he's a ML player in the next two years. 

[Riverbrian]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Yesterday's DFAs contain a couple of interesting players. Colorado designated first baseman Michael Toglia, who has almost a thousand career at-bats. He was above-average in 2024, but cratered last year. He's a switch hitter with better splits against lefties and has played the outfield (not well). Houston designated infielder Ramon Urias, who won a Gold Glove for the Orioles a few years ago and has been a decent player until last year. Urias would probably cost quite a bit more than the minimum. 

Can Morel play 1B? 

Does Foley have any arm left? 

Morel has certainly got pop. The rest of his everything else has been pretty poor but there was a time when Morel was supposed to be a talented upcoming young player. Is there anything to rescue? I assume that nobody took him in trade offers? Minor League Deal? 

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Mendez has to be our Hatteberg. 

First you'll have to teach him how to play catcher.

[Riverbrian]

1 minute ago, ashbury said:

First you'll have to teach him how to play catcher.

Hey, anything worth doing is. And we're gonna teach you.

[twinstalker]

16 hours ago, Doc Lenz said:

As I’ve said before keeping Gasper on this roster makes it illegitimate.

Gasper over CJC seems...odd.

[twinstalker]

16 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

Larnach and Julien and McCusker all should go first in my opinion. 

So many to drop, so little time.

Twins are obviously, I hope, trying to trade them, thereby keeping them on the roster for the time being.  But I do wonder how they could leave Culpepper off unless they know for sure they're adding him after dealing with these guys one way or another.  I've claimed for a couple of years now that he needs TJS, so maybe that's playing a part, too.

Very happy people seem to understand why Rosario isn't kept.  I have yet to read page 2 of the comments, though.

 

 

[Cory Engelhardt]

4 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

So many to drop, so little time.

There is plenty of time to be honest.

Unrelated; are you Twins Talker? Or Twin Stalker?

[twinstalker]

3 hours ago, Dman said:

Rosario and Fedko are interesting players but given how hard it is for bats to translate at the MLB level it feels fairly safe to leave them off.  

Which makes them non-interesting.  I didn't read as far as seeing what other hitters would have been considered, but I'd guess there were better candidates.  I'd keep,Olivar and De Andrade over those two, though I doubt either would be taken.  I think Culpepper gets taken unless teams have injury concerns.

[ashbury]

36 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

Gasper over CJC seems...odd.

It's the outfield that contains so many duplicates.  McCusker over CJC would be my choice to question.

[Jim H]

The problem with adding 6 players to the 40 man roster is that it is not clear that any are ready to play in the majors. When you add in Rodriguez and Raya, now you have 8 players who are possibly not really ready to play in the majors. You have effectively turned the 40 man roster into a 32 man roster.

In addition you are trying to figure out which of the  starters should become relievers and which should  continue to be starters. You have to figure out what to do with all the outfielders and find a competent 1st baseman and a catcher. 

I think we are going to see a lot of 4A players bouncing back in forth from St Paul and Minneapolis again this year.

[sweetmusicviola16]

Guys taken off of the 40 man have to clear waivers. That's my guess as to why guys Like Kiersey, Gasper, McCusker are still on the 40 man. They must believe that these guys would be claimed if exposed to waivers. I know most of us are saying who cares? What I'm interested in is who we will select in the rule 5 draft. Picking so high up I'm assuming that we will pick someone. Hopefully a possible C or 1B that someone else didn't have room for. 

[Doc Lenz]

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

It's the outfield that contains so many duplicates.  McCusker over CJC would be my choice to question.

Gasper over Culpepper? Why?

[Doc Lenz]

2 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Guys taken off of the 40 man have to clear waivers. That's my guess as to why guys Like Kiersey, Gasper, McCusker are still on the 40 man. They must believe that these guys would be claimed if exposed to waivers. I know most of us are saying who cares? What I'm interested in is who we will select in the rule 5 draft. Picking so high up I'm assuming that we will pick someone. Hopefully a possible C or 1B that someone else didn't have room for. 

Concerned Gasper would be claimed by the Minnetonka Millers

[ashbury]

7 minutes ago, Doc Lenz said:

Gasper over Culpepper? Why?

Culpepper over both of them. 

Gasper out as soon as they have a better infield candidate.  McCusker out now because there are multiple better outfield candidates already.  With a full 40-man, moves need to be more incremental from here on, balancing numerical imbalances first and then one-for-one within roles on the roster.

[Danchat]

4 hours ago, twinstalker said:

Gasper over CJC seems...odd.

I don't think it is, because 1) they are probably confident Culpepper doesn't get claimed and they'd rather not carry him on the 40 man roster in 2026, and 2) they need to keep some spots "open" for when they sign free agents. Not that I expect them to sign many and not for much money, but I see the likes of Gasper and McCusker as placeholders until a player requiring a 40 man spot is signed.

[RpR]

17 minutes ago, Doc Lenz said:

Gasper over Culpepper? Why?

Why not.

[RpR]

20 hours ago, Doc Lenz said:

As I’ve said before keeping Gasper on this roster makes it illegitimate.

Keeping Julien on this squad make it pathetc.