Roster Cuts, Keystone Cops & Never Saying Never

This drives a lot of the cuts that happen towards the end of spring training; the coaching staff just doesn't have room to play a guy, so why keep him in camp? When Stephen Pryor was optioned to Rochester on Monday, Twins General Manager Terry Ryan talked about that. "We had him on the trip [sunday] and he didn't pitch," explained Ryan. "Now it's time. We have to get him going. So we're sending him across the street."

The same thing happened today when six more players were removed from the spring training roster. Over the weekend, the Twins needed some extra bodies in camp. They had a split-squad game on Saturday, so they needed to field two teams. On Sunday and Monday they played games in Jupiter and Clearwater, two of the longer road trips they face. A lot of veterans don't go on those trips, so that opened up at-bats and innings for other players.

(Incidentally, two people who always DO make that long road trip are the Twins manager and the Twins general manager. Talking to Terry Ryan the other day, he feels very strongly that if he's going to ask the kids to ride three hours across Florida for a game, he should go too, and he says each of the Twins managers since Tom Kelly has felt the same way. Ryan says he has never missed one as GM of the Twins.)

So cuts were expected today, and they included relief pitcher AJ Achter, second baseman James Beresford, outfielders Eric Farris and Jose Martinez, first baseman Jose Martinez and catcher Tyler Grimes. You likely don’t recognize most of those names. Only Achter was on the 40-man roster and pitched with the Twins a little last September. Terry Ryan was impressed by Achter this spring, saying ""I think he fared well here," summarized Ryan. “He's behind a couple of other guys but he did a nice job. You'll probably see him through the course of this season at some point, because he's one of those guys that will get down there and get to work."

Fifth Starter Notes

The Twins revealed yesterday how they're going to handle one more round of "tryouts" for the fifth starter role. The problem was that both Tommy Milone and Trevor May last pitched on Saturday in split-squad games. So both were scheduled to pitch Thursday, but there was no split-squad game. One could pitch in the AAA game, but that would indicate that he was on the outside looking in.

Instead, the Twins are bumping May back to Friday. That day's starting pitcher, Phil Hughes, will pitch in the AAA game. So it looks like we'll see May, Milone and Mike Pelfrey starting consecutive games on Thursday through Saturday. That will surely be the last chance for them all to make an impression before final roles are determined.

Midseason Form

Nick wrote earlier this spring about how much more comfortable Joe Mauer looked playing first base. In today's game, he and Danny Santana turned two 3-6-3 double plays. It was fun to watch.

Center Field Competition

In the center field competition, Jordan Schafer started in center field and hit his first home run of this spring. It's also notable it came against a southpaw, against whom Schafer has struggled his whole career. Molitor recognized it and talked about it, but thinks Schafer has made improvements against both sides. “The big key for him offensively has been the mechanical changes he has made which has calmed himself down in the batter’s box. It’s a more controlled swing and seeing the ball a little bit longer, but still having enough bat speed to catch it up front.”

Eddie Rosario pinch hit for Schafer in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run on second base and drove him in with a single to left-center field. “He’s a guy, for me, that likes those moments,” revealed Molitor after the game. “He’s not intimidated. He watched the guy. He knew he was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches. He kept it in the middle of the field and delivered.”

Molitor also talked a little bit about Rosario’s defense in center field. He recognizes Rosario isn’t the best option there defensively, but sounds like he’s comfortable with Rosario as a center fielder due to everything else he brings to the table. “I think he’s more comfortable in center and left than right,” said Molitor. “He doesn’t have the speed of [Aaron] Hicks or Schafer, but I think the fact that he understands the pitch-to-pitch importance, and with how he’s progressing his game - offensively and on the base paths and defensively - he’s obviously good enough to play out there, we think.”

That said, Rosario hasn’t played in center field since Thursday. From this morning’s lineup, it looked like he would play center field in the later innings, but he didn't, only coming into the game in the bottom of the ninth.

For what it's worth, Molitor sounded like he was much happier with his center field options after today's game than he sounded this weekend.

The Veterans Get Into The Act, Too

Besides getting a lifetime’s worth of financial security, Brian Dozier also got a home run on his first pitch today, giving the Twins an early lead. Later, as the friend to whom I was talking was disparaging the Torii Hunter signing, Hunter deposited a hanging off-speed pitch into the bleachers.

Ouch

Brian Duensing was hit in the thigh by a comebacker in the seventh inning and had to leave the game. “That’s something that is going to tighten up very quickly, so I had to get him out of there,” explained Molitor. “I think he’s going to be fine. He’s going to be a little sore.”

The Game

Oh yeah, there was a game that the Twins won 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth after blowing the lead in the top of the ninth. There were a lot of highlights, but there were also several times when they went into full-blown Keystone Cops mode. In the regular season, this would have been a thriller. In spring training, it just looked sloppy.

One Last Dozier Note

If you’re looking for a recap of the Dozier contract, start here, but I could do a whole second story with all the talk there was after the press conference. Instead, I’ll limit myself to one conversation I had at the end with Damon Lapa, Dozier’s agent. It deserves to be transcribed and published in its entirety, and if I have time later I will, but I wanted to touch on one point specifically. I asked about the possibility of the Twins getting an option year on one of Dozier’s free agency years, because I sensed Dozier’s side really wanted to hit free agency on time.

Q: How dead set against an option year in free agency were you guys, or was that something that was somewhat on the table, but it just didn’t work out?

A: You never say never. I think you look at anything in the context of the entire offer. So something in the back of the contract that would function as a team option – you don’t strictly rule it out, but you look at it in the totality of everything that is being offered. And in this case, through our discussions back and forth, this proposal just made sense not to attach anything to the back end. But as far as the future, you have to look at every negotiation and the player’s particular situation.”

When someone says “You never say never” I usually means “damn near almost never.” So to me that translates as: “If we were going to give a team option for a year of free agency, then we weren’t going to be giving big potential savings.”

Personally, I feel the Twins made the right choice. I would rather get Dozier a little cheaper for the next few years than get an option on him when he’s 31 years old. Better to cross the bridge when one comes to it. And for what it's worth, it doesn't sound like Dozier or Lapa are opposed to looking at that in the future.