Why James Outman will not be Replaced by a Prospect

[Trov]

When James Outman made the 26 man roster, over Rodan people were a little shocked.  Rodan clearly had more upside.  Outman had a good rookie year, but outside that has been below replacement level player.  We have so many outfield prospects down in the minors, if you include Rodan, we have 4 or 5 in AAA, but 3 are hurt right now.  Outman has been downright terrible at the plate the year.  He has 4 hits in 33 AB, and an OPS+ of -2.  I really did not know it could go negative. 

So why do I say a prospect will not replace him?  It is simple, the roll he is filling will not be filled by a prospect.  He is a pinch runner and defensive replacement late in games. He is not amazing at either, in my opinion, but he is better defender than the starting corner guys, and he is 4 for 4 on stolen bases.  All that being said, because of his very limited roll, you will not send him down for a prospect to take his roll.  If you call up any of the outfielders from AAA it will be to get them to actually start and play regular time. Outman is worse than most likely any of them as a hitter.  But that is not why he is up at MLB level.  

Now, it is very possible that Outman gets DFA for one of the prospects if they want to move Wallner into bench roll, but Wallner does not fill the same holes that Outman does.  Outman may be less valuable than Henry Rowengartner at the plate, but that is not why he is up at MLB level.  He is here for the very limited roll he is filling.  You do not waste prospects times on that roll.  

Teams can build a 26 man roster with the best 13 hitters, or they can have 1 guy that is just simply there to help with defense or running at end of games.  It used to be when rosters were 25 men, you never had a guy like that, well at least when teams moved to 12 or 13 man pitching staffs in early 2000s.  We did have Chip Hale in early 90's, specifically in 1996, his sole roll was to pinch hit.  He had 3 games where he started, but played in 85 games, getting 98 plate appearances.  I always thought it was crazy for an AL team to have a pinch hitting specialist, but that is what he was. 

Point is, you do not take the last guy on the bench, the guy that you use for just very limited things, and swap him for a prospect.  You do not call up prospects to sit on bench and never play.  If any prospect comes up, odds are it will be at expense of Wallner at this point, and Outman will continue to do what he is doing. Sitting until inning 7+ to run or play defense for someone.  

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Why have that role on the team at all?

[RpR]

Because they need it.

[stringer bell]

I don't think it is worth it to have the last guy on the bench be a specialist. Essentially, that is Outman at this point. He's a pinch runner and defensive replacement, much as Keirsey Jr. was last year. Having someone who could be a semi-successful pinch hitter or platoon option in the outfield makes much more sense. 

[jorgenswest]

I did not advocate for this role though many teams don’t utilize the 13th position player as a starter very often. I think I would have had Rodriguez in the team playing RF 5 times a week. Taking playing time away from Caratini and Clemens with Bell at 1B.

I do have to acknowledge that Outman is 4th on the team in win probability added at 0.12. That only accounts for his stolen bases and plate appearances. Defense and running the bases are not a factor so his impact is probably slightly more.

[Trov]

12 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I don't think it is worth it to have the last guy on the bench be a specialist. Essentially, that is Outman at this point. He's a pinch runner and defensive replacement, much as Keirsey Jr. was last year. Having someone who could be a semi-successful pinch hitter or platoon option in the outfield makes much more sense. 

I am not saying I agree with the roll Outman is playing, just pointing out it is his roll and not replaced by a prospect.  If you take him off for a platoon outfield option/pinch hitter, who you bringing up.  Most likely it would need to be Gonzales, as E-Rod, Jenkins, Roden(if they get healthy) are all left handed hitting, so cannot platoon with anyone we have. Based on what he is doing in AAA he has not earned a spot. Feldko would be the other one, and he would make some sense if that is what they wanted.  Feldko is not a prospect really, so my stance still is that a prospect would not be replacing Outman. 

[Trov]

12 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

I did not advocate for this role though many teams don’t utilize the 13th position player as a starter very often. I think I would have had Rodriguez in the team playing RF 5 times a week. Taking playing time away from Caratini and Clemens with Bell at 1B.

I do have to acknowledge that Outman is 4th on the team in win probability added at 0.12. That only accounts for his stolen bases and plate appearances. Defense and running the bases are not a factor so his impact is probably slightly more.

I think Clemons could mostly fill the Outman roll, and agree when healthy E-Rod could come up play RF for Wallner, and let Wallner DH against right handed guys.  However, that still means the prospect is not replacing Outman's roll, he may replace his spot on the roster, but not his roll.  

[Richie the Rally Goat]

23 hours ago, RpR said:

Because they need it.

[RpR]

25 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Because they think so.

[DJL44]

On 5/11/2026 at 6:58 PM, RpR said:

Because they need it.

They don't if they call up Rodriguez and Roden to play outfield. There would be no need for a defensive replacement.

[DJL44]

On 5/11/2026 at 7:53 PM, stringer bell said:

I don't think it is worth it to have the last guy on the bench be a specialist. Essentially, that is Outman at this point. He's a pinch runner and defensive replacement, much as Keirsey Jr. was last year. Having someone who could be a semi-successful pinch hitter or platoon option in the outfield makes much more sense. 

How about a first baseman?

[RpR]

1 minute ago, DJL44 said:

They don't if they call up Rodriguez and Roden to play outfield. There would be no need for a defensive replacement.

Rodriguez is not any better than Wallner ; Roden, there is a chance but that is still wishful thinking.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

6 minutes ago, RpR said:

Rodriguez is not any better than Wallner ; Roden, there is a chance but that is still wishful thinking.

Rodriguez has a .900 OPS in AAA. There’s absolutely a chance he’s better than Wallner.

Even if he’s not, if they don’t change anything on the roster, they won’t get better.

[Craig Arko]

At this point, I think I’d call up Frank Castle.

[lecroy24fan]

Roden is hurt. I think it's telling that Wallner sat vs a RHP tonight. 

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Rodriguez has a .900 OPS in AAA. There’s absolutely a chance he’s better than Wallner.

Even if he’s not, if they don’t change anything on the roster, they won’t get better.

RpR has openly admitted on more than one occasion that he has never seen Rodriguez or any other prospect play. He looks over stats and feels justified to make judgments based on that practice. He also is not a fan of rookies or inexperienced players. He is not alone in that thought.

I'm a big fan of baseball and watch a ton of games, almost exclusively via milb.com, but occasionally I go to a minor league game. I'm also happy that clubs actually scout players instead of scouring high school data stats for who to sign. 

While I do not agree with the views posted by RpR, he certainly has every right to voice his beliefs and uses charts and stats from various sites to support his points as many other people also do. TD is a site where many people from vastly different points of view and experiences engage in conversations. It is important to keep the comments civil and respect the comments to an extent. I do wish the owners of the site would get rid of the laughing emoji and the thumbs down, which are almost exclusively used for negative reasons. On the couple of occasions that I used a thumb down because I disagreed with a statement, I immediately regretted it. i prefer to reply as opposed to using derogatory emojis. So, RpR has his views on young players which don't need to cause any angst. It's his thing.

[Craig Arko]

And, it’s pretty easy to put people on ignore.

[Trov]

12 hours ago, DJL44 said:

They don't if they call up Rodriguez and Roden to play outfield. There would be no need for a defensive replacement.

Both of them are injured at this point, but even if they were not, Roden is not a prospect in my mind, one he does not qualify for lists due to service time, and his age puts him outside that as well.  If you called up both will you plan to play both?  Would Roden play left and E-Rod right?  Martin sits on the pine?  What about Larnach is he benched too, or is he DH? Roden could replace Outman when healthy and fill a similar roll, but as I said Outman will not be replaced by a prospect.  His roll, will be replaced by someone like Roden, or they will drop his roll and use a late inning pinch hitter.  The main issue with that is we lack reliable hitters too on our bench. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

 

14 minutes ago, Trov said:

Both of them are injured at this point, but even if they were not, Roden is not a prospect in my mind, one he does not qualify for lists due to service time, and his age puts him outside that as well.  If you called up both will you plan to play both?  Would Roden play left and E-Rod right?  Martin sits on the pine?  What about Larnach is he benched too, or is he DH? Roden could replace Outman when healthy and fill a similar roll, but as I said Outman will not be replaced by a prospect.  His roll, will be replaced by someone like Roden, or they will drop his roll and use a late inning pinch hitter.  The main issue with that is we lack reliable hitters too on our bench. 

4 man outfield of Buxton, Martin, Roden, Rodriguez would be very good defensively with a pitching staff that is bottom of the league in ground ball rate and top in fly ball rate. There is no team in the league where good outfield would impact run prevention more (KC is close 2)

Wallner demoted, outman DFA, Larnach DH and 5th outfielder, Bell 1b

[Riverbrian]

12 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Rodriguez has a .900 OPS in AAA. There’s absolutely a chance he’s better than Wallner.

Even if he’s not, if they don’t change anything on the roster, they won’t get better.

Your 2nd sentence is just a good overall point. They won't get better unless they don't need to get better. 

Fans and all front offices need to stop using the term "Bench" or "Role Player". 

If you are one of the very few organizations that are loaded with talent 1 through 9. OK... maybe you can think about bench or role player but when I say "very few"... I may be actually saying nobody because all teams have disappointing performers that were expected to perform better... or injuries to contend with.  

When fans and front offices find themselves thinking that the performance of certain players doesn't matter because they are labelled bench or because they play a certain role and therefore won't see the field that often. 

They have simply reduced their options in the face of the baseball gods of health and performance and the team will live and die with the hope that Royce Lewis will turn it around, with the hope that Matt Wallner will turn it around, with the hope that Victor Caratini will turn it around. If they don't... we simply absorb the loss unnecessarily and let's be clear... that loss will be self inflicted. Even if they turn it around will it be enough to make up for what you lost waiting for that to happen. 

Your hopes and dreams also live and die with the actual performers staying healthy because if Buxton gets hurt. Then Erod gets called up (If he is healthy) and you are back to living and dying with one player because Outman is just a guy you use for pinch running and a late game defensive replacement.    

The 2026 Twins have to overcome what I believe is and will be a hard to trust bullpen. They will need to score more runs to overcome that. Being ranked 9th in runs scored is nice but it isn't going to be good enough if the bullpen is giving up 1.5 more runs per 9 innings. 

The team needs to constantly search for ways to get better and not wait too long for chosen pre-determined players to simply become better. We are approaching 100 AB's for some of our slumpers.  

It isn't hard to do... it isn't complicated. You utilize all your roster spots... you foster competition and the players will tell you through performance who plays more and who plays less. If you want to roster bench players and hope you don't need them. You better be right about the starters and you better hope they stay healthy. 

I simply don't see organizations being correct about players enough to be locked into pre-determination to the degree that they are.