stringer bell

Canterino is currently on the 40-man and was on the 40-man all last year. There is absolutely no reason to promote guys to the 40-man until it is necessary. I’m still not sure what the process is to take him off the 40-man at this point.

Three 2024 Twins that were cut loose by the team have made Opening Day rosters. Matt Bowman (Orioles), Steven Okert (Astros) and Manuel Margot (Tigers). There may be more ex-Twins on major league active rosters that I haven't noticed. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/montero-okert-will-make-astros-roster-singleton-will-not.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/orioles-select-matt-bowman.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/tigers-to-sign-manuel-margot.html

To put it another way. There is enough talent there, but it's really hard to see enough going right with both performance and injury avoidance to see the Twins as a legitimate playoff team.

The MLB Trade Rumors report says that both Blewett and Misiewicz have been informed they won't make the Opening Day roster. Of the options available in the organization, no one jumps out IMHO. There are several guys who have been cut loose. Personally, I wanted the Twins to pick up Yarbrough, but the Yankees snapped him up quickly.

I recall very few occasions where a Rule V guy gets claimed rather than returning to his original franchise. Whoever would claim him would have to work with the same restrictions that the Twins had.

Yep and everybody who said that was wrong. IMHO Margot got old at age 29 and wasn't a major league caliber outfielder, hitting, running or fielding.

I have no illusions about Bader. He won't hit a lot, but he'll be good in the field and run the bases well. That's more than Manuel Margot, but less than Max Kepler. The concern I have is that Baldelli will be starting him often against right handed pitching when he has better offensive options.

Keaschall isn't going to help the Twins in March and April, especially since he hasn't played at all in the field. Yes, he looked good hitting and he might turn out to be an answer in the infield going forward, but he has only a few PAs in AA and if he's going to play for the Twins it won't be as only a DH.

Just when it looked like Gasper had the team made, he got a nice slash on his leg. Strange that he walked off the field without even favoring his injury and then had to be on crutches later. I really doubt he will avoid the IL with the gash he suffered, but I would guess he will do everything he can to stay off the Injured List. So far, all of the injuries to Lee, Stewart and Gasper would seem to be minimum stays without lasting effects. Supposedly Lee's injury is pretty minor and at a different location in his back (we'll see) and Stewart's IL stint is more about getting up to speed after being delayed by the leg injury (again we'll see).

I would consider Martin an athlete in search of a position. He runs well, but that hasn't translated to range and since his arm injury, he's no longer considered for the long throws at shortstop, third base or right field. I still think he can be an effective table setter and develop into a decent defender either at second base or in the outfield. Provus said that his defense was much improved this year. Maybe he was blowing smoke, but maybe he's not going to be as poor as he was in 2024. On a related matter, I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how supposedly fleet-footed DaShawn Keirsey Jr. has a sprint speed at the 38th percentile on StatCast in approximately the same sample size as Gasper, who came out .1 ft. faster. I can't imagine Keirsey Jr. being anything more than average if his speed is only average or slightly below.

I said yesterday, I'll consider Topa healthy and on the Opening Day roster when the National Anthem is playing in St. Louis on Thursday. He looked okay yesterday facing mostly minor leaguers, but I'm not convinced he'll last the season with the Twins even if he can stay healthy.

Yes, that appearance is disheartening to say the least. The last bullpen spot could easily go to someone let go by another team. I saw that Drew Pomeranz was released (meh at best) and Ryan Yarbrough opted out with the Rays (I'd consider him). There will be more, I'm sure.

They aren't going to add Prielipp with his injury history and limited experience. Maybe, if everything breaks right for him, sometime later in the summer. There will be a 40-man spot open (Castellano's spot) but that spot will be taken by whoever is the last guy in the bullpen.

What that means is another club could claim Castellano and they would be subject to the Rule V procedure, where he would stay on the active roster or be offered back to his original franchise.

The Twins have announced that Brock Stewart will start the season on the Injured List, along with Michael Tonkin and Royce Lewis. They currently have 31 rostered players in camp. With the subtractions of Tonkin, Lewis and Stewart, that would leave 28 players, so only two players would need to be cut to reach the 26-man limit. Subtracting the Injured List guys, there remain only 13 pitchers. That would mean that without an addition from off the roster, the pitching staff is set and Eiberson Castellano would make the team. There are two "extra" position players and it appears that the combatants for the last two positions are Edouard Julien, Austin Martin, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Mickey Gasper. My best guess is that one infielder and one outfielder make it for the last two positions, but any of the four has a case and most likely all four will see time with the Twins. The Twins could claim somebody cut loose by another team or they could keep a non-roster player for the last guy on the team. A couple of pitchers have performed well and have major league experience. Scott Blewett and Andrew Misiewicz have been pretty good. A lot can happen in five days. Another injury could occur and mess with projections or a player could be brought in from another team via trade or waiver claim. I'll believe Justin Topa is healthy and ready to contribute until they're playing the national anthem on Thursday. Brooks Lee has missed two days with a sore back. Who will be on the final 26 and who will be the last guys cut (or placed on the IL)? Please comment.

Bobby Nightengale is reporting that Brock Stewart, Royce Lewis and Michael Tonkin will start the season on the IL. There are currently 31 on the active roster, so reducing that by three leaves only two cuts to be made unless the club purchases a minor league contract.

I agree with your general sentiment, but I believe in 2022 the Twins were #2 in missed man/games and the players missing were high impact guys. They have gambled more than most on the health of guys with long injury histories IMHO, but every team gets hit hard by injury. As sobering and disappointing another Lewis injury is for the Twins, the Yankees starting staff led by their ace Gerrit Cole has suffered a devastating bad run early in 2025.

Provus announced that Paul Bunyan Communications was adding Twins games on a channel (558) for the 2025 season. I presume this will be the model for other cable operations. I'm not sure if they'll be on the same channel for everyone. Does MLB have to negotiate with every cable outfit in Twins Territory and also does the cable operator set the price and terms? I have friends who are wondering how they'll get their Twins on TV this year despite the news that mlb.tv was carrying Twins games. Edit to add: Paul Bunyan Communications is in northern Minnesota, covering an area from Bemidji to Grand Rapids. I googled them and they announced the Twins were coming to Paul Bunyan Communications. There is no indication about an additional charge to watch the games.

Gasper is behind the plate again today. There's been quite a bit of speculation about how viable he is as a catcher. It seems it is beyond the "emergency catcher" threshold of Kyle Farmer the last two seasons. Farmer came to the majors as a catcher, but hadn't played behind the plate for several years. Gasper seems more likely to be similar to Willians Astudillo, who actually started a few games at catcher in his Twins career. Having a third catcher would be a nice bonus, allowing Jeffers to DH some without the worry of losing the DH if Vázquez has to come out of a game or if the Twins would need to pinch run for a catcher late in the game.

I bolded the portion of the posting by @tony&rodney that illustrates to me what the recent injuries (after the two ACL surgeries) and the struggle have done to the fan's perspective. Lewis is no longer thought of as one of the coming megastars. Twins fans are hoping he can be a good regular player who is on the field most of the time. As far as the back and forth about training and injury prevention, yup every franchise suffers injuries and the Twins are no exceptions. If there is some blame to pass, I would say the FO has been willing to take risks on guys (Mahle, Paddack, DeSclafani) who were obvious injury risks and sometimes double down. Correa was re-signed because two other teams thought the risk for injury outweighed his talent and the Twins chose to downplay that risk (correctly, so far) but he's come up with injuries to both feet. I consider that bad luck. They also signed Buck to an extension despite his being on the IL every year, in large part because the terms were favorable. We Twins fans see "our" team's injuries and want to shake our fist at the sky. Most, if not every, other team has the same response. Every team runs into injuries and finding guys, like Carlos Santana, who never get hurt is pretty doggone difficult. I doubt training methods are much different through all the major leagues. Probably the most successful trainers and medical staffs success is more about communication than it is about methods.

Five days before the start of the season, Kyle Gibson finds a job with a contender. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/orioles-sign-kyle-gibson.html

Diego Castillo (the infielder) signs a minor league deal with the Mets. Eight PAs with the Twins in '24. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/mets-sign-diego-castillo-to-minor-league-deal.html

Pretty sure at some time I'm going to have to learn how to spell "Misiewicz". He might even make the club out of Spring Training, if both Topa and Stewart hit the IL.

I brought up the example of Cole Sands (2023) in another thread. Several factors came into play in Sands' case that may or may not play out in 2025. 1) The starting staff was toward the top of the league in innings. 2) The heart of the bullpen was healthy and available a great majority of the time. 3) Both the IL and Sands' option were used. If Sands didn't have an option, he might have had to perform in another game or two that had medium or high leverage, it is pretty tough to reconstruct the season with different constraints. The reality is that Sands was on the active list for most of the season and was almost always used in low leverage. I think it can be done, but situations have to play out according to plan and that is pretty rare. Also of note, it appears that almost all of the Rule V picks are being returned. I don't think it's a defeat if Castellano is returned. It's a gamble that didn't pay off.

A while ago, one of the last of the original Minnesota Twins passed away. His name was José Valdivielso, who had an unremarkable major league career mostly with the original Senators. While noting his passing, I checked on how many of the Opening Day Minnesota Twins were still living. That total is five, or seven if you count players who played for the team sometime during their inaugural season. The next step down the rabbit hole for me was to see how many Griffith family Senators (the Twins predecessor) have survived and that answer was seven including four 1961 Twins--Jim Kaat, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos and Don Lee. Those four guys threw a majority of innings for the '61 Twins--Pascual was an All-Star, Ramos a solid starter as was Kaat in the beginning of a Hall of Fame career. Lee was a swing man in the era of four-man rotations. So naturally, I thought about other "dead" franchises. How many Brooklyn Dodgers are still drawing breath? How about the New York Giants? St. Louis Browns? Boston Braves? Philadelphia Athletics? For these franchises, I was aware of a couple of players, but a check at Baseball Reference revealed more information. First of all, the Boston Braves have no surviving players. Del Crandall started his career with Boston and passed away in 2021, marking the end of living Braves from their original home. All of the other franchises that moved in the '50s have survivors. The Giants and Dodgers both moved late in that decade and still have a few players living. Notable among the Giants is ex-Twin Al Worthington, the oldest survivor who played for the Giants and for the Dodgers Sandy Koufax, "the Left Arm of God", who retired early and has been in the Hall of Fame since 1972, that's eleven years longer than the youngest HOFer (Joe Mauer) has been alive. The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954, so over 70 years ago, and two players are still with us. The more notable is Billy Hunter, who went on to a six-year major league career and later managed the Orioles. The Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955 and one Athletic remains. His name is Bobby Shantz, who will be 100 years old this year. Bobby Shantz was the AL MVP in 1952, before there was a Cy Young award and won eight Gold Gloves as a pitcher. He is the last living player to have played for Connie Mack. Here is a complete list of survivors of defunct teams that moved in the '50's and early '60's. Washington Senators (1901-1960)--Ken Aspromonte, Jim Kaat, Don Lee, Bob Oldis, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Bob Ross. New York Giants (1883-1957)--Joey Amalfitano, Jackie Brandt, Ray Crone, Joe Margoneri, Bill White and Al Worthington. Brooklyn Dodgers (1884-1957)--Bob Aspromonte, Jim Gentile, Fred Kipp and Sandy Koufax. St. Louis Browns (1902-1953)--Ed Mickelson, Billy Hunter, Philadelphia Athletics (1901-1954)--Bobby Shantz. Photo of Shantz in a Philadelphia A's uniform in 1953.