Cleaning Up the Twins’ 40-Man Roster: Who Stays? Who Goes?

[killercarewoliva]

5 minutes ago, MapleGroveTwinsFan said:

How would that even have been possible with a 40 man roster without losing all the other guys that needed to be on the roster? 

I don't think they all got moved at once. Maybe not sure but not even in the same season?

[Cory Engelhardt]

1 hour ago, killercarewoliva said:

96 rbi. Tony Oliva was too hurt to play outfield but no way he would be released due to offense value. 

If Josh Bell were Tony Oliva instead I would agree with you

[jmlease1]

It's not going to be hard to get down to the 40-man limit. There's 10-11 fairly easy calls, so if all you need is to get down to 40 no one is going to lose any sleep.

None of the pending FA's will end up on the 40-man: they're free agents. While I'd like to keep Jeffers and Minter, Bell and Rogers are for sure gone. Banda, Acton, Anderson, Orze, Larnach, Wallner, and Gray...pick 4 more if you want to assume that we're re-signing 2 of the FA's?

Should be pretty easy to get down to 37, protect a couple of Rule 5 candidates (assuming there even is a Rule 5) and/or open a couple of spaces for FA. 

They'll probably keep Larnach and Wallner for a while and hope they can make a trade with either of them, but they'll get down to the early limit easily with FA and some of the chaff. (I'd designate Banda early; doubt anyone picks him off waivers if he's not going to pitch until June. Toss in Orze and we're there until we hopefully move on from Wallner, Larnach, and Gray after finding no takers in trade)

[DannySD]

There isn't really anyone who needs to be protected from the Rule 5, and I doubt FA will happen until after a lockout, so I'd guess most of the fringe pitchers will stick around for now. 

[Whammy]

I feel like I know most of what there is to know about rosters, options, arbitration, etc.... but I don't know the answer to this...

Could we sign Banda. right now, to a $2.0M minor league deal? With the goal being, keep him off the 40-man roster until he's healthy in the middle of next season?

If not, what rule prevents it?

[Nashvilletwin]

The single most important criteria to be on the 40 man roster is simply: by being on the 40 does that player help build a more competitive roster for ‘28-‘30.

Players on the 40 this off season should fall into one of three categories:

1. They are slotted to be contributors starting in ‘28.

2. They could be contributors in ‘28-‘30.

3. They can be traded for players who would fall into one of the two above categories.

Everyone else can be jettisoned.

[Whammy]

Keep on 40-man (34):
--- Bold players are the next wave I'm willing to part with if needed ---
Mick Abel
Travis Adams
Jack Anderson
Anthony Banda
Taj Bradley
David Festa
Kody Funderburk
Yoendrys Gómez
Jeff Hoffman
Dean Kremer
Pablo López
Zebby Matthews
Andrew Morris
Tommy Nance
Mike Paredes
Connor Prielipp
Marco Raya
Kendry Rojas
Joe Ryan
Cole Sands
Victor Caratini
Kody Clemens
Kaelen Culpepper
Luke Keaschall
Ryan Kreidler
Brooks Lee
Ben Ross
Byron Buxton
Gabriel Gonzalez
Walker Jenkins
Austin Martin
Hendry Mendez
Alan Roden
Emmanuel Rodriguez

Attempt to trade but keep on 40 man if you can't (1):
Royce Lewis

Attempt to trade and remove from 40 man if you can't (3):
Bailey Ober
Trevor Larnach
Matt Wallner

Free Agents, some of whom I'd have back, but for now are off the 40-man (4):
AJ Minter
Taylor Rogers
Ryan Jeffers
Josh Bell

Remove from 40-man (4):
Garrett Acton
Eric Orze
Tristan Gray
Aaron Sabato

[killercarewoliva]

5 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

If Josh Bell were Tony Oliva instead I would agree with you

it seems like everybody but me does not like Josh Bell in his 96 runs batted in. neither one of these people could play the field. I remember the night listening on the radio telling you leave a dive for the ball and couldn't get up. he had torn his knee. never the same after that so he hit the first home run of the designated hitter age.

[Cory Engelhardt]

15 minutes ago, killercarewoliva said:

it seems like everybody but me does not like Josh Bell in his 96 runs batted in. neither one of these people could play the field. I remember the night listening on the radio telling you leave a dive for the ball and couldn't get up. he had torn his knee. never the same after that so he hit the first home run of the designated hitter age.

Please know I like Josh Bell the player and the person. For the 2027 roster and how the team is set up now, I just don’t see a fit. IF we knew Buxton were to be healthy and play 130+ games in the field, I MIGHT feel different. But I can very much see Buxton playing some cf and a lot of DH next year. 
If anything, Buxton is the Oliva of this team no? I certainly wouldn’t want Josh Bell to be in the lineup over a healthy Buxton. You agree with that, right?

[killercarewoliva]

4 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

Please know I like Josh Bell the player and the person. For the 2027 roster and how the team is set up now, I just don’t see a fit. IF we knew Buxton were to be healthy and play 130+ games in the field, I MIGHT feel different. But I can very much see Buxton playing some cf and a lot of DH next year. 
If anything, Buxton is the Oliva of this team no? I certainly wouldn’t want Josh Bell to be in the lineup over a healthy Buxton. You agree with that, right?

so you were saying that? Josh Bell is going to lose his position on the team so Baron Buxton can have a place to play due to his lack of health to play the field which happens all the time. Buxton played an entire season at DH and he hated it. but like you say, he will go to DH if necessary to be a part of the team. the season before last. the one just passed. he got 83 runs batted in. so putting him in the same position as Bell. he was 13 runs batted in less valuable to the team than Bell. we saw Buxton have a terrible. was it final month of the season? something like that. he's striking out constantly and we you know attribute that to his hip issue. the guy is super tough and super loyal to the Minnesota twins, but what is best for Minnesota is for Buxton to alarm self to be traded for the good of the team. he is coddled every single season. no exceptions to that. as a huge fan of this organization since 1965 and he does all he can to stay on the field, but he doesn't stay on the field very well. with this in mind, we don't want to not think of the significance that Mr. Bell gives the team. I think it might be a matter of seeing how things are around the middle of March.

[Cory Engelhardt]

1 hour ago, killercarewoliva said:

so you were saying that? Josh Bell is going to lose his position on the team so Baron Buxton can have a place to play due to his lack of health to play the field which happens all the time. Buxton played an entire season at DH and he hated it. but like you say, he will go to DH if necessary to be a part of the team. the season before last. the one just passed. he got 83 runs batted in. so putting him in the same position as Bell. he was 13 runs batted in less valuable to the team than Bell. we saw Buxton have a terrible. was it final month of the season? something like that. he's striking out constantly and we you know attribute that to his hip issue. the guy is super tough and super loyal to the Minnesota twins, but what is best for Minnesota is for Buxton to alarm self to be traded for the good of the team. he is coddled every single season. no exceptions to that. as a huge fan of this organization since 1965 and he does all he can to stay on the field, but he doesn't stay on the field very well. with this in mind, we don't want to not think of the significance that Mr. Bell gives the team. I think it might be a matter of seeing how things are around the middle of March.

Yeah, a healthy Buxton is 10 times the player Bell is. Hopefully his hip is recovered and he can play. But I do think he will get a good amount of DH at bats in 2027, along with hopefully helping in the field. 
Josh Bell had a fine 2026. Below what I would expect from a DH only, but players liked him for sure. Not good enough to get his number retired, like I would imagine Buxton would after he retires 

[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

21 hours ago, killercarewoliva said:

96 rbi. Tony Oliva was too hurt to play outfield but no way he would be released due to offense value. 

Oliva was a DH  from 1973 to 1976 (and he was awful in 1976) and compares well to what Bell was last year. OPS+ of 109, 109, 103, WAR of .7, .4, .5. and the Twins went 81 -81, 82 - 80 -1, 76-83 and missed the playoffs every year,  In case you forgot the Twins went 77-85 last year and missed the playoffs.

Bell would be a good guy to bring back if they Twins knew what they had in Erod, but they don't because they sent him to the minors to start the season last year and then got hurt and now he is out of options. You don't send your best prospect they have had in years (Jenkins) to the minors for a 34 year old DH. Buxton when healthy is way better player than Bell, and Keashall is a young cheap player that is also better than Bell. Clemens is a better hitter and fielder than Bell. So to keep Bell you have to sit a better player than him, how does that make sense? 

You mentioned in a different post imagine if the Twins would still have some of the relief pitchers they let go, they let them go because they weren't performing and where out of options or where traded for players the Twins thought would be better. (That is how the 40 man works in baseball) 

I would guess if the Twins were to trade Erod so there was a spot for Bell and in a year or two he become really good, you and others would say imagine if we still had him and forget the reason they had to trade him was because they kept Bell. Those are the tough choices teams have to make and teams all over the league have guys that would have looked good keeping but had a choice to make.

For example the Twins sent Megill to the Brewers which opened up a spot for Brock Stewart in 2023, Stewart pitched in 28 games with an ERA of 0.65 and a WAR of 1.6 and the Twins won their first playoff game and series in decades. 

Ronny Henriquez was DFA's because he was out of options and the Twins signed Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe. 

Cano (28) was traded in the Jorge Lopez trade at the deadline.

Headrick was DFA's because he was terrible in 23 and 24 and the Twins signed vets like Bader and Ty France. 

like or agree with those moves, that is how the 40 man and options work. 

 

[killercarewoliva]

10 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

Yeah, a healthy Buxton is 10 times the player Bell is. Hopefully his hip is recovered and he can play. But I do think he will get a good amount of DH at bats in 2027, along with hopefully helping in the field. 
Josh Bell had a fine 2026. Below what I would expect from a DH only, but players liked him for sure. Not good enough to get his number retired, like I would imagine Buxton would after he retires 

I just think that you should not have to let go your top run batted in person. that has to be a way to figure out to play both people and that way would be for Buxton to remain healthy for an entire season for the first time at age 32 I think? so then we let go of Josh Bell thinking that Mr. Buxton is not going to play center field the entire year and that's pretty much true probably. I wonder what Byron would think with his opinion if he feels like he's going to have to be a DH that Bell bell and his 96 runs batted in should just be let go so he can be the DH. I don't know how excited he would be about that. but part of all this that we write on here is have some disagreements and do it. cordially.

[killercarewoliva]

44 minutes ago, MapleGroveTwinsFan said:

Oliva was a DH  from 1973 to 1976 (and he was awful in 1976) and compares well to what Bell was last year. OPS+ of 109, 109, 103, WAR of .7, .4, .5. and the Twins went 81 -81, 82 - 80 -1, 76-83 and missed the playoffs every year,  In case you forgot the Twins went 77-85 last year and missed the playoffs.

Bell would be a good guy to bring back if they Twins knew what they had in Erod, but they don't because they sent him to the minors to start the season last year and then got hurt and now he is out of options. You don't send your best prospect they have had in years (Jenkins) to the minors for a 34 year old DH. Buxton when healthy is way better player than Bell, and Keashall is a young cheap player that is also better than Bell. Clemens is a better hitter and fielder than Bell. So to keep Bell you have to sit a better player than him, how does that make sense? 

You mentioned in a different post imagine if the Twins would still have some of the relief pitchers they let go, they let them go because they weren't performing and where out of options or where traded for players the Twins thought would be better. (That is how the 40 man works in baseball) 

I would guess if the Twins were to trade Erod so there was a spot for Bell and in a year or two he become really good, you and others would say imagine if we still had him and forget the reason they had to trade him was because they kept Bell. Those are the tough choices teams have to make and teams all over the league have guys that would have looked good keeping but had a choice to make.

For example the Twins sent Megill to the Brewers which opened up a spot for Brock Stewart in 2023, Stewart pitched in 28 games with an ERA of 0.65 and a WAR of 1.6 and the Twins won their first playoff game and series in decades. 

Ronny Henriquez was DFA's because he was out of options and the Twins signed Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe. 

Cano (28) was traded in the Jorge Lopez trade at the deadline.

Headrick was DFA's because he was terrible in 23 and 24 and the Twins signed vets like Bader and Ty France. 

like or agree with those moves, that is how the 40 man and options work. 

 

there's a player. his name is Mike trout. Mr. Superstar there for a few years and he plays for a team that doesn't have any other Mike trouts on it. the point there is whoever the Superstar is, there's got to be eight other people and that's not the fault of any one player that you have a winning season or not. I did not have recollection of these guys that were let go. that turned out to be incredibly fantastic elsewhere. who the twins got for them or whatever, but it seems that the other organizations taught them how to pitch better than the twins coaching did because who saw that coming with Megill and headrick and so forth. My comment was not saying that the twins screwed up really bad. it was just that I was trying to say it would be nice to have them on the team as they are now as a player. nobody knew that Lopez was a mental case I guess and did terrible once he got to Minnesota. predicting baseball players is probably the hardest sport in the world to predict correctly, even some of the time. I just don't follow all those statistics as much as you do. maybe everybody follows it, but when it comes to pitching I'm still about earn run average. ultimately it's about how many runs you give up. whatever way you got there, you still have that same earned run average irregardless of those other statistics. some of them say well. it's not as bad as it looks when you look at this and that well it is to me that is your earned run average. The one thing that bothered me bad with all those people being lost was Louis varland. gosh he loved playing for the twins and right at the last 5 seconds I see him come up on the baseball channel gone and then the GM is on there during a game. we love Louie but we just couldn't pass this up. I feel they made a mistake although I do like Rojas and I think he can be a fantastic starter when he doesn't throw so many walks. okay that's what this is for. we can have disagreements and get along just fine. no big deal. Nice to talk about it. I don't really read over anything before I send it and I talk it.