Oswaldo Arcia having roster issues in Venezuela

[Parker Hageman]

According to a tweet from Wilmer Reina, a sports journalist out of Venezuela, says that the Twins and the Venezuelan league Aguilas del Zulia are at odds over the former's addition of Oswaldo Arcia to their roster.

 

Arcia had spent the year with the Aragua Tigers, hitting .262 with 8 home runs. However, once they were eliminated from the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League playoffs, teams are able to draft reinforcements during their round-robin playoffs. The Aguilas selected Arcia with the second pick.

 

For whatever the reason, the Twins organization has an issue with Arcia continuing his winter league play or playing particularly for Aguilas. With the Venezuelan playoffs starting tonight, Arcia will not be on the field with the Aguilas until this is resolved.

 

UPDATE: Brad Steil, the Twins Director of Minor League Operations, said in an email that the Twins have no involvement in Arcia's decision at this point. So any decision to play or not to play the remainder of the winter is coming from Arcia's camp.

 

UPDATE #2: Arcia informs journalist Victor Gomez that he will report to the Augilas next week -- he wanted to spend time with his family. In the report, Arcia maintains that it was the Twins who did not want him to play in the round robin. Interesting and odd.

[DaveW]

Good, he shouldn't play and get worn down.

[Tibs]

Does stuff like this happen often?

[ashbury]

Would seem odd if the Twins were OK with him playing in the league for one team but only in the hopes that the team didn't make the playoffs. So it must be some issue with the Eagles team specifically?

[Twins Twerp]

More kidnappings in that part of the country? Wilson Ramos anyone?

[nicksaviking]

More kidnappings in that part of the country? Wilson Ramos anyone?

 

Not enough low-carb menu options there.

[Thrylos]

Blown out of proportion.

 

Here (in Spanish) is a blurb in the El Abonado news paper about what is going on. Apparently Arcia has a conflict with "an invitation to an event of baseball nature" in the States (could it be Twinsfest, caravan or anything like that?) It also says that his agent is whether or not he is required to go to the "event" and accordingly play baseball with the Aguilas either now and skip it, or after the "event" is done.

 

So the kid is doing the right thing, have his agent double checking, finding out what the expectations are for him, and keeping everyone involved in the loop. Very few players, especially his age, would do that.

[TRex]

... or maybe it's Arcia's choice, and the Twins are taking it on the chin so he doesn't look bad.

[Parker Hageman]

Good points -- as of right now Arcia not scheduled to be on either the Winter Caravan or TwinsFest but that may have changed.

 

Again, the players at this point are in control of whether they want to play.

[oldguy10]

I would think that MLB teams would be in more control of their employees as regards their contracts (or not) in the off season, can anyone enlighten us on this situation?

[shs_59]

More kidnappings in that part of the country? Wilson Ramos anyone?

 

Come on Twins Terp, everybody really knows the Twins were behind The Ramos' kidnapping, members of Bill William Smith's camp could not put up with Ramos squandering Capps any longer in production post trade. Conspiracy theorists have already ruled the Twins organization as the most probable to blame going behind Wilson's back , in fear of all the media attention it was getting the predator(s) gave up Wilson a little sooner than expected after realizing their was no way to change his name and VISA to bring him back into the Twins organziation as a 21 year old 3B prospect in single A. All the While advocating or pushing "death by strangulation" of Wilson Henry Ramos. As they couldn't come up with a body that had similar facial features and such a broad chest/ frame and shoulder line in time.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Come on Twins Terp, everybody really knows the Twins were behind The Ramos' kidnapping, members of Bill William Smith's camp could not put up with Ramos squandering Capps any longer in production post trade. Conspiracy theorists have already ruled the Twins organization as the most probable to blame going behind Wilson's back , in fear of all the media attention it was getting the predator(s) gave up Wilson a little sooner than expected after realizing their was no way to change his name and VISA to bring him back into the Twins organziation as a 21 year old 3B prospect in single A. All the While advocating or pushing "death by strangulation" of Wilson Henry Ramos. As they couldn't come up with a body that had similar facial features and such a broad chest/ frame and shoulder line in time.

 

I think it was Danny Valencia acting alone

[Thrylos]

Issue resolved. Full Story here in Spanish:

per Arcia:

 

- The Twins asked him to be in a baseball function and wanted him in the US 1/6/14

- He negotiated and got out of it

- He will report to the Aguilas next week.

 

Done deal

[Steve Penz]

Issue resolved. Full Story here in Spanish:

per Arcia:

 

- The Twins asked him to be in a baseball function and wanted him in the US 1/6/14

- He negotiated and got out of it

- He will report to the Aguilas next week.

 

Done deal

 

The last line is funny. "Nevertheless, it seems that this cartoon has now ended." It almost sounded like the journalist was annoyed with the story.

[Thrylos]

UPDATE: Brad Steil, the Twins Director of Minor League Operations, said in an email that the Twins have no involvement in Arcia's decision at this point. So any decision to play or not to play the remainder of the winter is coming from Arcia's camp.

 

UPDATE #2: Arcia informs journalist Victor Gomez that he will report to the Augilas next week -- he wanted to spend time with his family. In the report, Arcia maintains that it was the Twins who did not want him to play in the round robin. Interesting and odd.

 

Someone is uninformed, or maybe the key is the "at this point", if it was resolved when the email was sent. I don't think that anyone is lying. Maybe the reason is that Arcia is not considered a minor leaguer, so Radcliff or Antony and not Steil might be the people who know what is going on...

[Parker Hageman]

I don't think that anyone is lying. Maybe the reason is that Arcia is not considered a minor leaguer, so Radcliff or Antony and not Steil might be the people who know what is going on...

 

No, I don't believe there are any lies involved here. I think Steil was clear when he said the Twins do not have any involvement with a player's decision in winter ball. There could have been some influence from another member of the staff (Ryan, Radcliff, Antony, et al) or someone in the marketing department (if it was Twins Fest related) asking him to return to the club.

[glunn]

More kidnappings in that part of the country? Wilson Ramos anyone?

 

Moderator note -- please tone down the derogatory comments about Venezuela -- this is offensive to some people.