Twins Claim Ehire Adrianza, DFA Pat Light

I'd say that the Twins are trying to obtain depth of players that play defense. That was the decision with Castro. 

 

My guess is he'll be DFAd, hoping they can get him to Rochester. That way they have someone to be a backup middle infielder who can catch the ball if Polanco can't, or something else. 

As I said in the previous thread--

It feels like they are DFAing guys with either more potential or higher upside in exchange for guys who either conflict with, or represent downgrades to, players who are already on the roster that aren't being DFA'd. 

It's like changing the paper rolls in the men's room.

Dick spent all of the last two months of the season telling me how great Pat Light was. What gives?

I was thinking Pat Light would be up to be a free agent himself if he chose, which was one of the reasons the Red Sox dealt him to the Twins...they had no place for him on their own 40-man.

But not sure the reasoning behind this 40-,am acquisition, unless they hope to flip him to the minors themselves.

This guy can catch the ball. I like the move. We don't need every player to be a masher at the plate.

Small sample but Fangraphs loves his UZR/150.

If he can pinch run too, I'd say he's competition for DSan.

Unless the point is to try to DFA and try to sneak him to Rochester, I don't get it.

Yes, it's important to have a bench that can play some defense, but you have to have something that can pinch hit if needed. A bench of Grossman, Escobar, Adrianza/Santana and Gimenez/Murphy is dreadful.

Welp.  So much for "selling high" on Abad.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they are on the verge of signing Napoli or Blanton and figured why not claim this guy, and DFA him and keep him the way the Braves kept Adam Walker. . 

I think I'd take this guy over Napoli. Talk about a nightmare scenario. Could they keep him and Grossman given neither of them should even be allowed to own gloves? lol

There has to be someone who can hit their body weight and not be a complete embarrassment in the field. Happy medium.

This move doesn't do much for me in the least. I felt Pat Light had a huge upside but needed time to work out the kinks. I would not be shocked to see a team offer the Twins a player for Light if they want him and are not on top of waiver list.

Look at the staring lineup, who are you pinch hitting for? Maybe Castro, but not many managers like to put in the backup catcher unless absolutely necessary. Also, Grossman had a 126 OPS+ last season, maybe that was a mirage, but you gotta give him some credit. Outside of Dozier he was their best offensive player last year.

I give Rob zero credits. He started out hot and coasted the rest of the way to mediocrity. And he has to be handcuffed to someone who can play defense, because he certainly can't.

Maybe this guy and ole Rob can count as one spot.

The sample size with this one is very small. The Twins might think they see something that no one else does. He spreads the ball around when he hits and he makes good contact, even if the results aren't impressive. He needs to draw more walks to be the OBP guy that he needs to be in order to succeed. He has no power.

As far as defense is concerned, he looks about average.  

We can be optimistic and hope that the same underling who was making these weird marginal moves under the previous regime is not still making them, and that there IS something to see with this guy.

As I said in the other thread, this is the type of waiver wire move to make in order to end the D Santana era.

There's probably a 10% chance Light gets claimed, so he'll end up in AAA.

I'll like this move a lot more if Adrianza is also DFA'd so we can clean up this mess on the 40 man roster.

If it did, I wouldn't mind. But given Robbie's defensive shortcomings (understatement of the century), I think they'll continue to view DanSan as a viable 4th OF. 

Light I'm not concerned about too much either way.

But if the endgame is taking the Santana tool from Molly's belt, they need to just go ahead and do it. Unless the plan is to have Escobar spend more time in the OF, too.