Which Twins Utility Infielder Should Stick Around a While?

[Cody Pirkl]

Image courtesy of © Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

The Twins currently have a revolving door at shortstop, with journeyman utility players they can’t keep for much longer—if for no other reason, then because none of them fit that role well enough to lock it down. Having one such player is understandable, but the Twins are currently rostering three. One is likely to go when Kaelen Culpepper debuts, and the Twins would be wise to get rid of at least one more at a later time to better utilize the 26-man roster. Who has the best chance of sticking around?

Orlando Arcia

An All-Star for Atlanta in 2023, Arcia has been a true super utilityman, playing all four infield spots in his brief time with the big-league club. He posted a .932 OPS for Saint Paul before his promotion, but has posted a sub-.700 OPS in a small sample, which is in line with his production over the last two seasons.

 

While Arcia’s defensive flexibility is helpful, it’s worth wondering what else he has to provide at this stage in his career. At 31 years of age, it’s hard to envision him holding onto a role beyond 2026 with the Twins, making him especially expendable if the team continues to fall further under .500. He has also only been trusted a handful of times to start games at shortstop, and if the Twins put him behind Tristan Gray and Ryan Kreidler on the shortstop depth chart, his utility in 2026 is worth questioning. He may be the first to go when Culpepper gets the call.

 

Tristan Gray

After winning a bench job in spring training, Gray got off to a hot start in 2026 and has been an above-replacement-level player on the season. He started eating into Royce Lewis’s playing time at third base, where he played regularly until Brooks Lee shifted over full-time. His hot start and handful of clutch hits have carried him, but his slightly below-average .697 OPS is more than acceptable production for a bench player who can fill in at shortstop.

 

The problem is that Gray doesn’t appear to be a trustworthy option now that he’s been exposed to more playing time up the middle. As bad as Lee was defensively at short, Gray has matched him, with -5 Outs Above Average in a fraction of the time. It’s looking more and more like Gray is not a viable option at shortstop, even as an emergency fill-in. He may get more time since the Twins liked him most out of spring training from this group, but his utility will come into question when the Twins get an everyday shortstop on the roster. He's also leading the majors in a rather dubious category: no one misses by more, on average, when they whiff on a swing.

 

Ryan Kreidler

Kreidler has been a pleasant surprise offensively, posting a .761 OPS and already clubbing a career-high 3 homers this season. Brought in as a glove-first utility player, the glove has actually been the disappointment so far. Before 2026, Kreidler was an average or better defender across several infield and outfield spots, including shortstop and center field. At 28 years of age, it’s hard to imagine that Kreidler has suddenly lost a step. It’s more likely that we see things even out for him defensively as the year goes on.

 

Kreidler’s age and subsequent team control make him the most interesting option to keep on the roster moving forward. If his glove evens out, that alone may be enough to utilize some of his five remaining seasons of team control. If his bat can keep up this pace to any degree, he becomes a valuable player in the Willi Castro vein. This long-term upside, however remote reaching it may be, should be enough for Kreidler to be the last man standing if the Twins decide to purge their current veteran super-utility group and look toward the future.

 

The Twins can’t continue to waste 26-man roster spots the way they have been, especially if they continue to fall further out of contention. Lewis himself is sliding into this role, too, further muddying the picture. If their sights turn toward 2027 and beyond, the current super-utility infielder group should be the first place to look when it comes to swapping younger players in. Which, if any, of these three names should stick around?

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[Hunter4848]

Who cares? They all suck

[Linus]

IMO Gray should go first - he just cannot play SS. I’d probably keep Kreidler over Arcia just due to age. His elite glove doesn’t look elite to me but he has hit better than expected. I’m guessing over time he will sharpen up in the field and regress at the plate. 

[karcherd]

Move on from all 3, raise the floor of the roster.  Lee can be the backup SS, Clemens can play third or Lewis when Lee fills in at short.

[Blyleven2011]

To be honest  , I can't answer the questions until I know what the teams plan is , do they want to win or do they want to lose ...

They say they want to be competitive and will be , it seems like they are just stringing us along ...

Tom P.  Must of learned something from Falvey  , if the TWINS ARE LOSING , go into hiding  ( just abunch of cowards who can't give us a  straight answer ) ...

 

[mikelink45]

Does it matter?  We need to raise the floor, establish players who fit their position - I am tired of the flexibility factor.  Being able to play 3 - 5 positions at a mediocre level is hardly exciting. 

[karcherd]

13 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

To be honest  , I can't answer the questions until I know what the teams plan is , do they want to win or do they want to lose ...

They say they want to be competitive and will be , it seems like they are just stringing us along ...

Tom P.  Must of learned something from Falvey  , if the TWINS ARE LOSING , go into hiding  ( just abunch of cowards who can't give us a  straight answer ) ...

 

Tom P shouldn't be the one we are hearing from.  It should be Zoll, he should be setting the direction for this team and getting sign off from ownership.  This is where Tommy messed up in my opinion.  I don't want a hands on owner, hire competent people and let them do their job.  What I want to hear from him is who Zoll's replacement is.  Zoll's plan is no different than Falvey's, tread water with the retreads and pray you back into the playoffs so you can say you are successful.

How often do we hear from the Wilf's during the season, seldom, they give overall business updates at strategic times and let the management run the team.  The current generation of the Pohlads need to learn from them.

[mrtwinsfan]

 on all   3

[Danchat]

They've been fortunate that all three have contributed something offensively... Kreidler's the best defender so he makes the most sense to me to be a bench player. Gray's clutch hitting seems unsustainable and he's a bad defender, that doesn't look like a combo that will last too much longer. 

[thelanges5]

I’m too lazy to look it up. Does anyone know if Gray or Kreidler have options left?

[jaimedude]

I would keep Kriedler, Arcia and Gray are similar defenders. Arcia is a switch hitter. 

[RpR]

All of them.

[karcherd]

4 minutes ago, RpR said:

All of them.

If you want to end with 60 wins and no future, go ahead.

[Hunter4848]

16 minutes ago, RpR said:

All of them.

Why?

[big dog]

I vote for d) other. Time to try someone else, none of them have a future with a team trying for the playoffs someday. 

[DJL44]

Gray hits lefthanded, which means he can pinch hit for all the other infielders who hit right handed.

I would cut Arcia, option Kreidler and bring up Culpepper and Roden.

[tony&rodney]

The Twins return from New York after the 4th of July weekend. One wonders if the decision is made at that point to go with a couple of AAA players, which results in the release of two of Arcia, Gray, Kreidler.

[karcherd]

2 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The Twins return from New York after the 4th of July weekend. One wonders if the decision is made at that point to go with a couple of AAA players, which results in the release of two of Arcia, Gray, Kreidler.

Why wait another month, this roster is not working and is not winning games. There is absolutely no reason to wait.  We have at least 4 utility players and one DH only player on this roster.  The roster needs to be balanced out.

[TheLeviathan]

17 hours ago, RpR said:

All of them.

Does TD have a Hall of Fame?  This poster's BTPP is historic.

Glossary: BTPP is a measure for Bad Takes Per Post which is the ratio of mind numbing opinions relative to shared opinions.  It does not include unshared opinions due to the still developing field of telepathy.

[Vanimal46]

1 hour ago, karcherd said:

Why wait another month, this roster is not working and is not winning games. There is absolutely no reason to wait.  We have at least 4 utility players and one DH only player on this roster.  The roster needs to be balanced out.

There’s always a reason to wait, and never any urgency to get the dirty work done developing young players. There’s a reason why this team will miss the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years. Biggest reason of all is holding back top prospects so they can pretend it’s a top farm system year after year. 

[bean5302]

45 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

There’s always a reason to wait, and never any urgency to get the dirty work done developing young players. There’s a reason why this team will miss the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years. Biggest reason of all is holding back top prospects so they can pretend it’s a top farm system year after year. 

I thought the biggest reasons were allocating a large percentage of the expendable income to guys like Joey Gallo, Manny Margot, Josh Bell, the the gutting of entire areas of the roster without rebuilding it (Duran, Jax, Stewart, Varland, Coulombe, etc) and squandering trade value by misreading the market (Kepler x2, Polanco, etc).

[David HK]

One of the 2-headed monster of Gray-Kreidler has to go right now. My vote is Gray, although Kreidler, what's up with his Ministry of Silly Runs on the basepaths?

Arcia is stinging the ball, he needs more ABs. For a team scoring 0-2 runs per game, this should be a no-brainer. Keep him, Dfa Bell, too.

[FlyingFinn]

If I have to pick one it's Kreidler. He's the best on defense and plays both SS and CF, a combo that's hard to find.

[Western SD Fan]

To answer the question posed, here is the order that I would keep the list of players mentioned provided that all of them are supposed to be defensive specialists.

1.  Kreidler - Mainly due to his ability to play CF if Buxton needs a day off.  Unless the Twins are willing to promote Fedko while Jenkins, Roden, and the remainder of the patients in the hospital ward come back quickly as I do not know how the rehab is going for any of them.

2.  Gray - As previously mentioned, he is the only player of the three who can provide a platoon option.

3.  Arcia - This leaves him as the odd man out.  Kreidler or Lewis could fill in for Lee.  They want to give Lewis as much time at 1st or 2nd as they can.  Clemens can field 1st or 2nd and we can even use Bell in a pinch at 1st.

One more idea not asked in the article.  If they are thinking on a Keaschall reset, they should do it now.  Let's hypothesize there is a real trade market for Clemens.  Considering the number of positions Clemens can cover, they will need Keaschall to cover 2nd if he is ever traded.  They should try to reset him now, before the trade deadline, so he can come back and be the regular 2nd baseman like they have done with Lewis.

[SarasotaBill]

The possible 2027 MLB strike/lock-out is a strong possibility.

Any player on the 40 man roster will be locked out.

The Twins realistic aim should be 2028 and beyond.

2026 - transition from previous core and trading assets

2027 - development when and if MLB season starts (AAA during strike)

2028 - start of being a playoff contender.

Culpepper, Jenkins, and anyone else not on the 40 man needs to demonstrate multiple months of dominating AAA before bringing them up in 2026. Especially Jenkins who has missed so many games and needs many ABs this year and next year.

[Riverbrian]

To answer the question. You send down either Gray or Kreidler because they have options. Our infield depth was not properly addressed in the off-season and we have nobody beyond Culpepper who is ready for a call up and if you call up Culpepper, we will need these guys in the future. Keep your depth until the team trades some players and acquires younger infielders close to major league ready to replace them. Acquiring younger infielders should have been a priority this off-season. The infield depth wasn't impressive in October, November, December, January, February or March it it was addressed with Gray, Kreidler and Arcia and look... Here they all are on the 26 man roster. It was all rather predictable and I'll say it. No matter if you percieve a player to be bench or a backup. There is no such thing. The team needing Gray, Kreidler and Arcia was completely predictable because it's the same story we have all watched every single year.  

The Twins left Fort Myers healthy. They had the 26 man chosen all neat and clean in a pretty little package with roles assigned for everyone. The two first games of the season showed the plan and the pretty little package of exact roles for everyone. 

Bell, Keaschall, Lewis, Lee, Buxton and Wallner were 6 full time players. 

Platoons: 1B Clemens vs RH and Caratini vs LH -- LF Larnach vs RH and Martin vs LH

Jeffers: Primary Catcher - Caratini Secondary

Gray: Occasional rest day backup against Right handed starters at 2B, 3B and SS. I heard Shelton say that Gray won the job because the tiebreaker was his left handed bat with the rest of the infield being right handed.  

Outman: Late game defensive replacement for Larnach, Pinch Runner and Buxton rest day occasional start.  

That's all 13. Defined roles for all 13. 11 of the 13 with starts planned either full time or platoon. Two that were rostered with the hope that they would not be needed for anything other than occasional fill in.

This plan could work if everyone chosen performs to the expectation that awarded them every day playing time in the first place. This plan could work if everyone stays healthy. The problem is that I don't recall a season for any of the 30 teams where everybody performed to expectation or stayed healthy. Those two things never happen and the pretty little package coming out of spring training was never going to last the month of April and now the guys that you rostered Gray and Outman are either being counted on or released because they were never trusted to play a larger role in the first place.   

Two of the full time 6 (Lewis and Wallner) Crashed and burned to the point of needing to be sent down to AAA to work on things. Two of the full time 6 (Bell and Keaschall are performing significantly below average. One of the full time 6 has been average (Lee) and then we have Byron Buxton who should play every single day but gets hurt. 

The platoons have been changed... Because Martin was moved to full time to replace Wallner. Caratini apparently wasn't a good option for 1B and is now the primary catcher after the Jeffers injury. Clemens is now full time at 1B even facing left handers when he wasn't allowed to before.   

I've said this multiple times and I'll say it again. You need to roster 26 players who can play and compete with each other because you don't know who is going to struggle or who is going to get hurt. Platoons don't last. Injuries are not an excuse because they happen frequently, poor play is not an excuse because it happens often enough to all 30 teams. You need to plan for that... not a pretty little package math'd together that won't even last the month of April because it never lasts past the month of April.  

If you roster someone, they will be needed. You can't hide them. I know there are some who disagree with what I'm saying.

To those who disagree. Tristran Gray with significant playing time was inevitable when he was placed on the 26 man roster. Outman was always going to be jettisoned off the roster if they didn't trust him to play full time when needed. He was always going to be needed so there was no point to roster him in the first place if that is how you felt about him.

Kriedler was always just a phone call away and so was Arcia with a little 40 man roster maneuvering and there is nobody behind them after Culpepper. 

And what do you know. All 3 are on the 26 man roster and nobody should be surprised. We still need them even after Culpepper is called up so the sentiment of this article doesn't really consider that one or more of Lewis, Lee, Keaschall and Culpepper will get hurt before the season is out. 

This is what the club set up for. We had huge question marks with Lewis and Lee based on 2025 performance. We had a significant question mark with Keaschall because a very encouraging 207 AB's doesn't mean that the next 800 AB's are going to be the same.

Hopefully this upcoming off-season... they will get more serious about all 26 man spots and they put the pretty little package idea down. Sign talent and let the players work it out through actual performance.  

With all of that said. Tristan Gray while not very impressive has out played Lewis, Bell and Keaschall so far this season. He's been our 2nd best offensive infielder to this point. Lee would be the only guy who has out performed him and not by a large margin. 

 

[bean5302]

Arcia won't clear waivers if he's DFA'd, but he looks cooked to me. He's simply too indecisive at the plate. He needs to swing hard more often.

Gray and Kreidler both have options. Personally, I don't buy the narrative either one of them is a good utility fielder. Of those two, Kreidler is the most valuable IMHO.

[Jeff K]

13 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

The Twins return from New York after the 4th of July weekend. One wonders if the decision is made at that point to go with a couple of AAA players, which results in the release of two of Arcia, Gray, Kreidler.

Of the 3; Kreidler's value has dropped given that Clemens is now playing an adequate CF.  If two are gone, I would retain Arcia.  He hit well for St. Paul and has continued that with the Twins and he has a track record that demonstrates he can do this.  He is an ok fielder.

[stringer bell]

15 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

I’m too lazy to look it up. Does anyone know if Gray or Kreidler have options left?

Yes to both. Kreidler was already optioned this year and Gray has one option remaining.

[Cris E]

14 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Gray hits lefthanded, which means he can pinch hit for all the other infielders who hit right handed.

I would cut Arcia, option Kreidler and bring up Culpepper and Roden.

I don't care which side these guys hit from, none are good enough hitters to do more than bat ninth. Do you want your utility guy to get a regular role because of his platoon advantage? No, he's a defensive fill-in first, then maybe a pinch hitter or runner, and finally maybe a longer-term injury option. The notion that he's got to pull his weight in the batting order is not right; if he could hit he'd be your starting SS or 2B or whatever. 

Willie Castro and Kyle Farmer were special utility guys because they were average hitters who could handle the middle infield. In the past the Twins have had a series of good ones, Castro, Ehire Adrianza, Marwin Gonzalez, and even Luis Arreaz for a couple seasons, but across baseball most are not that good. These guys need to flash leather, run, bunt, maybe pinch hit a little. 

I would try to option Grey and bring up Kulpepper, then maybe try to trade Arcia to some team with a tire fire in their infield. Lots of 2b/3b injuries this year where a cheap, expendable hand like him could be useful.  You don't need to get much, but gaining roster space and a low A lottery ticket is better than just cutting him loose.