miracleb

Love this write up.  Thanks!

Cory, I assume from this and previous Blogs that you are following a list from Fangraphs. And that's fine. It makes sense. After all, we're talking about non 40 man players, which make 2B look pretty damn good for now, and the future. But I do believe their list is a bit out of order, as well as missing a few options here.
Right now, of course, beyond the 40 man, Perez is a "break glass" because everything went to hell player. He's only there to give the Saints a solid fill in player. And that's fine.
It's beyond that where I have arguements with the list. BEYOND the 40 man, which is super deep at the moment, the list should be:
1A] Anthony Prato. 7th round pick in 2019. Plays 2B/3B/LF and some SS. Does everything well with the bat. Thought he might be at St Paul to begin the year.
1B] Severino. He plays 2B and 3B and has nice set of tools. He was one of those prospects that were declared FA after it was discovered Atlanta violated signing rules. His 2022 was his best season, and he has a chance to make a real move coming off his best season in 2022.
3] Schobel, Shuffield, Ross, Ortega, and and Perez. Honestly, make your own choice.
Ross has helium due to talent, production, and independent leagues.
Schobel was a 2nd round pick with a few AB that showed little in those. Do we care at this point?
Suffield is older and re9ached AAA simply because they neeed someone to play and didn't think he'd be overwhelmed. To his credit, he did OK.
Ortega is a big bat Dozier kind of player getting ready for 2023.
Perez is a great athlete from a great family. He's shown signs of ability. Can he harness that ability?
These are ALL draft picks the last couple of seasons. A couple might actually stick at SS. Any 2B prospect other than these are just too far away to project to anything.
 
 

Larnach!  I would like to say Julien......but....... even with injuries and a hot start in the minors, they won't/can't bring him up until thy get past the date where he gains a year on free agency.  (end of April?)

This excellent article made me wonder which players would be in the starting lineup if the choice were based on merit vs. other factors (i.e. reputation, $’s, FO/Manager ego, etc.)? One take:
Larnach (LF), Gordon (CF), Kepler (RF), Farmer (3B), Correa (SS),  Julien (2B), Miranda (1B), Vasquez (C), and Buxton (DH). Gallo, Solano, and Taylor on the bench. On the bump, Ober over Maeda; but Maeda over Pagan as a reliever.
 

Agree with the top three comments: Larnach played his way onto the varsity - hard to have a better spring than that; Ober is way too good to have languishing on the JV - the Twins are foregoing their best chance for wins by not having him start every fifth day; Rocco once again does not appear to have his team ready to go out of the gate - but we shall see.
Also, Kepler had a nice spring.  

I'd say Ober is looking like he may be more than a #4. He is turning into the prototype of what we have been waiting for from Falvey based on his Cleveland days; take a relatively unheralded pitching prospect and turn him into a top half of the rotation starter. It seems criminal to keep him off the opening day roster. 

Trevor Larnach has good spring training stats.  Thanks for a good article.

Good list and you are probably right.
I'm going with Alex Kirilloff and Edouard Julien.

I am a pretty big believer in Larnach and Kirilloff.  
 
 

Crossing my fingers and toes for Bailey Ober. I like pitchers with a little something funky in their stuff. 

The pitching in the KBO is probably similar to AA ball (without the top-end MPH.)  Unfortunately, I don't know that this is something a person can simply "adjust" to. 

Looks like Silva has potential. Don't have any info on defense which is so important at catcher.

I don't see it happening unless there's a major injury at 1B. Which is totally possible - Miranda's already got a bum arm and if Kirilloff goes down, someone needs to keep it warm. 
White's last MLB season was in 2019 when he hit .208 and had an OPS of .612 in 240 ABs.  The last few years he's been strictly an AAA guy, looks like at 32 years old he's just playing things out as organizational filler.  I don't think he'll make the team, he might not even make the St. Paul roster. 
It goes without saying of course that most of us would trade places with him in a second. The guy's living the dream, and will gladly show up to the ballpark and suit up if there's a team that wants him. 

Half of the roster would have to be on the IL for this to happen.

I’d say zero chance. Miranda has now been cleared for all activities and is starting to throw. Gordon has been cleared for all activities. Polanco is on track. If Kirilloff isn’t ready for opening day, and that looks very iffy, Larnach or Wallner will. We have Solano, Miranda, Gallo and Farmer who can play first. Then the question of who comes off the 40-man to make room? Yeah, zero chance. 

Has Max Kepler been mentioned enough in trade scenarios to pass Brian Duensing as the default sweetener to any hypothetical our-side-wins deal from now on?

Not even close.  Duensing had about 3-4 years of it (plus a couple of years of "maybe we can re-sign him and add him to the trade" after he was gone. )

It's tough to replace a legend.

It will be interesting to see him compete in the WBC 

I like the thought behind this, but I think you are over estimating the value of Farmer and Kepler. To get most of those players the Twins would have to add prospects, IMO.

Very interesting. Farmer is superfluous now that the Prodigal Son has returned. Not many teams would carry a starting quality shortstop for a "spare" and doing so blocks a couple of our Pipeline Shortstops from getting a taste of the Bigs filling Farmer's spot on the bench. I'd say make a deal; Farmer and maybe one of our retread outfielders (Hello Gallo) for LA's best catcher prospect.

Very interesting idea, I imagine you have a good view of the LAD talent, LA. I love LAD #9 catching prospect Dalton Rushing's bat & arm but I'd like him to be more agile & closer to MLB ready.
Even if LAD are desperate, we won't get much for Farmer. Furthermore, Farmer's immediate INF depth especially at SS is crucial for the Twins. Who knows after Lewis rejoins the Twins and the opportunity is still there, I'd be all in.

Maeda was primarily a starter for the Dodgers. At the end of two different seasons he was the low man and got slotted into the Pen. That said, I agree Ober should be the 5th starter. My logic is two pronged. First, Ober is not durable and if he’s pitching well coming out of Spring Training, don’t disrupt that and take advantage of as many innings as we can get out of him while healthy. No reason to have him burning up innings in St. Paul. Second, Maeda is coming off elbow surgery at 35. Having him strengthen our Pen out of Spring Training seems logical. If Ober fades in June/July & Maeda has only thrown 45 innings through June, he’s ready to stretch out over a month and we’re set.
 

Ober will be 28 in July, there is ZERO reason for him to be in the minors, if he isn't good enough to make the opening day roster this year, how can you expect him to be part of the rotation going forward. If I was in charge of this team, I would be go with a 6 man rotation for a couple of starts and tell Ryan, Ober and Maeda, prove to me your deserve one of the top spots, and the other guy would go to to pen.

Agree on a strong preference to Julien to get time in AAA. 
Interesting that amidst my typing comments, I see this post regarding the Twins rotation: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?s=ober. I have wondered about a six-man rotation if all are healthy. The downside is that it shortens the bullpen. Otherwise, I see the health of the other starters being the primary determinant of whether he starts in the Twins rotation vs. the one in St. Paul.