Top Five Twins Bullpen Shuttle Candidates

Is there a team that doesn’t use the 13th spot to rotate pitchers through? The need for a long reliever is so unpredictable that teams no longer carry a long reliever but instead use AAA. It makes sense. A long reliever isn’t getting regular work and once used isn’t available the next few days.

Cole Sands makes it 6 candidates and the first to have the opportunity of the 13th pitcher to move off the shuttle. Jax took that opportunity last year and earned a key role in the pen.

Which of these 6 do you think will take advantage of the opportunity and earn a regular role in this year’s pen?

You have to start with the 40-man slots, so Headrick and Winder.  That 13th pitcher slot is valuable, but I don't want to expose anyone to waivers to use it if we don't have to.

I would keep puishing Headrick as a possible starter. Nice to have a lefty starter, and if nothing else, he transitions into a long relief role if he can get out enough batters on both sides.

If I were the Twins, I would be pushing Dobnak as a total long relief guy, seeing if he has the ability to pitch, say, multi innings every other day, or even some back-to-back work. That is his way to the majors right now. The Twins have the ability to experiment with Dobnak at St. Paul, and run the gamut with folks like DeLeon, Rodriguez and others if they need to rotate guys in-and-out. With basically only one 40-man roster spot in play (unless they can 60-day someone else), you call up, play and lose he guy if he isn't already on the 40-man. 

I'm glad out starters are showing getting thru the 5th inning and pushing faster towards the 100 pitch limit emposed on such arms these days. We still need to think srong about the perfect 10th inning bullpen arm who can keep that runner from scoring.

1 hour ago, South Dakota Tom said:

You have to start with the 40-man slots, so Headrick and Winder.  That 13th pitcher slot is valuable, but I don't want to expose anyone to waivers to use it if we don't have to.

Actually, if you are on the 40 man and out of options, you become much less likely to be called up for this 13th pitcher spot. Megill and Ober are better than Sands right now but, since they are better, the Twins want them pitching regularly. Because the Twins think less of Sands, he is the one they put in this 13th spot, who may not pitch for 10 days.

If the Twins are willing to DFA you, you can be a prime candidate for this. Dobnak, Deleon, Rodriguez, Sands, Sanchez all fit this bill. All have been DFA'd already (except Sands) and another team didn't claim them. Ober, Winder, Megill, and Headrick would all be claimed if DFA'd IMO and therefore the Twins don't want use up their options.

If the Twins need a 40 man roster spot and want to replace pitcher with pitcher, the ones I see as possibilities to be DFA'd are Sands and Balazovic (he has to start pitching better soon).

Great seeing Winder on the mound in Fort Myers.  Two years ago this kid was as good as anyone in the organization.  Hopefully, moving to the pen will be the answer and he will be healthy the rest of this year and beyond.  In my opinion, he is the one that could be better than someone destined to the back end of the pen.  Could see him developing along the lines of Jax.

With this strong rotation there is little need for long relief. which is a good thing because Baldelli doesn't know how to use long relief, he sometime uses a glorified short RP that pitches 2 innings. My hope for Dobnak is to keep him in AAA starting & get back to his old self so we can ship him off to CO, where they are desperate for a GB SPs.

Winder has the stuff to be a SP but not the arm yet, hopefully later once he's correctly broken in. He should take over Sands place once he's 100%.

If there is an open spot on the 40 man Dobnak should get some opportunities. If they need to they can designate him and send down without worrying  about someone claiming him due to the guarantied money owed him.

I'd argue that you have to be on the 40-roster to be a shuttle candidate. Otherwise, you're probably one-and-done.

Should they be worried about burning options on any of them?  They should expect Winder to come up at some point and don’t the others have them all remaining?  

Other than Winder I don’t want to see any of these guys. You can add Sands Pagan and Moran to that list as well. This bullpen is a ticking time bomb.