stringer bell

Gleeman is now reporting that the three starters for the Mets series will Ryan, Ober and Festa, so nevermind.

Concur. Miranda was a middling prospect who absolutely destroyed the minors as he broke out, but he was never considered that highly nationally. There aren't many sure things in baseball and many of the sure things don't pan out, usually due to injury. I think Miranda might get another chance after a reset in St. Paul, but the sands in the hourglass are dwindling for sure. Personally, Miranda is exactly what the Twins have too much of, that is a guy whose value is tied to one skill--the ability to hit--and when that breaks down he doesn't have the tools to be a team asset. Larnach, Wallner and Julien to varying degrees have the same profile.

Michael Fulmer, a Twins mid-season acquisition in 2022, is back in the majors for the first time since 2023. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/red-sox-place-richard-fitts-on-15-day-il-select-michael-fulmer.html

They are on a long stretch without days off and I think the plan was to give the starters an extra day in the middle of the long stretch.

Apparently Zebby will start on Monday and they'll have to make a place for him. Funderburk? Put someone on IL? Usually, I can see a fairly easy way to handle the roster churn, but I don't see an easy way to get Matthews on the 40-man at this point.

As the last guy on the bench, I can see Gasper filling that role. Obviously, he hasn't hit and if that continues, no one, no matter how good a fit on the roster, can stay in the big leagues. Gasper is a 29-year old with handy versatility (first base, second base and some catcher) who is a switch hitter with a very good AAA resumé. The team doesn't have to worry about stunting his development and he can fill in a lot of places. A similar case can be made for Keirsey--he offers a couple of handy skills (pinch running and defensive replacement), but if he can't hit, a roster spot is pretty valuable to give him. It's hard to give Keirsey much playing time because Larnach, Wallner and Bader haven't been too bad.

Lee for Miranda. It’s possible that the Twins might go with more regulars and less platooning. Outside of the catcher alternation, Baldelli has France Julien, Correa, Lee, Larnach, Buxton and Wallner and Castro to start in the eight other positions with Bader able to step in for someone. It leaves Keirsey Jr. with pinch-running and defensive replacement duty and maybe Gasper as a short-side platoon option. The three switch hitters are probably pretty much in the lineup against lefties along with Correa, Buxton and France, but there would be room to use one or two of the lefty hitters against southpaws.

A bit surprised, but I think it’s a good move. Miranda has shown flashes of ability to hit, but hasn’t been able to sustain it. He’s really slow and not a gifted defender. He’s got to hit to be an asset and so far he’s not hitting.

Is there a timetable for Keaschall to be a full-time defensive player? I know both his innings and appearances have been managed as he recovers from TJ surgery. It would appear that he is pretty close to ready as a hitter.

Tight zone tonight.

The team hasn’t succeeded, so Rocco is probably toast. We can second-guess the next guy. I’d be very surprised if he’s going to magically always be right when it’s time to lift a pitcher.

Given the coming schedule and being down one of their best starters, I think this will be the deciding stretch of the season. Selling off assets and bringing up young players could be coming as soon as May 1, even with lame duck ownership and field staff.

Yeah, it looks really bad and it might be bad all season. While I am not sure I buy the salary limits, if we accept they couldn't spend much more than the salaries in front of them this season, counting on improvement and better health to improve their hitting. They have many guys--Miranda, Lee, Julien, Larnach, Wallner and Jeffers to name a few--that could excel and thrive or burn out. I think it is time to find out about these guys. So far, no one has thrived and a few have stumbled, but the real culprits have been the most established players--Correa and Buxton--have been the biggest problems in the offense. I think this is the last chance for this manager and many of the players and if they fail major changes are in the offing probably with a mostly new front office. Rocco Baldelli has followed the blueprint of the front office and after initial success, there has been more disappointment than progress. They haven't been able to put together a sustained offense and they've acquired players with injury histories who surprise! have continued to have disabling injuries. So, circling back to the comment by @nicksaviking, I think the minimal change was a gamble worth taking (if the "salary cap" model is to be believed). It's early and there has been close to zero reason to be optimistic and the front office reliance on guys who aren't athletic and have little speed has shown up in below average defense and base running. The hitting will almost surely improve, but it might be too late.

I absolutely approve of the usage of Larnach and Wallner--the two guys who were often pinch hit for as early as the middle innings. Give either or both of them days off when a lefty starts, but don't automatically pull them when a lefty comes out of the bullpen. With the exception of Correa and Buxton, I can see occasional days off for all of the other guys, usually when a same-handed starter is on the hill and Buxton will get some days off (as he did yesterday). Adding Lee as the primary second baseman makes room to move Castro to third, where he's graded well the last two seasons and would leave one of Julien, Miranda, Castro, Lee or France on the bench against a right handed pitcher (unless Willi is in the outfield).

I confess to not having seen too much Twins baseball this season (and maybe that's a good thing), so I'm probably more swayed by what little I've seen. Gasper's brutal error on Tuesday is fresh in my mind and I saw all of his PAs and they were poor as well. I like the idea of having a guy on the bench that can get a pinch single and fill in at both second and first base as well as finish a blowout at catcher, but he has to be able to hit and so far Gasper has looked pretty clueless at the plate, with most of his PAs coming from his weak side. I'd rather see Austin Martin or a host of other minor leaguers fill the role Gasper has been assigned. I think Lee would provide satisfactory defense at second or third and provide a decent backup for Correa. Again, he's got to hit to be a real asset. We've seen this movie the last three years early in the season. The tea is on the bottom of almost every offensive stat. They're slow and ungifted most places in the field and it is tough to watch and cheer for them. The offense will improve, but the team might still be fatally flawed. Yesterday's win was nice, but unless they start playing much better immediately, I can see things going pretty bad. To the OP, yeah, call up Lee whenever he can play nine innings three days in a row and Gasper is the best bet to be sent down. Fixing the whole team is a lot tougher call and several guys need to get it going.

Gasper is poorly served playing perhaps his worst position and batting from his weaker side, but he might only be a Triple A talent as a hitter.

Caleb Boushley had his contract purchased by the Rangers. Boushley pitched in two games last year for the Twins. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/rangers-select-caleb-boushley.html

Shades of Jorge Alcalá (August ‘24).

It is great to see Buxton demonstrating his elite speed. SSS, but he still runs further down the line than anyone when sprinting to first, so he still seems to have a bit of a problem slowing the freight train down, but the speed is legit and compared to just about every other player on the roster, it is otherworldly. It wasn't classic Bailey Ober yesterday, but he got through four innings and only allowed a solo homer to score. Pretty gritty. I've seen a couple references to his velocity, but 91-92 on a cool day in early April looks about right for him. I continue to wonder what the Twins have in Topa. There is some funk to his delivery and if he can keep making hitters pound ground balls, he should be all right. In addition, he's only had one healthy season in the majors and he's 34 years old, so I think that will be a worry. It's hard to trust Alcalá or Varland. Alcalá can blow up out of nowhere and Louie er Louis allows a lot of hard hit balls, but as middle men all three guys (including Topa) look satisfactory. In one or two run games, it looks like Sands, Jax and Durán are the obvious choices.

The bullpen is looking pretty good. Alcalá seems to be either dominating or very concerning. He walked up to the brink today, but recovered to work a scoreless inning. The offense has looked mostly feeble, with a few big innings and they really need to put more pressure on the other team.

Nick Gordon acquired by the Royals. He could be back in the AL Central soon. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/royals-acquire-nick-gordon.html

I've been pretty downbeat on Miranda in this thread. I'll say this now if he's in the right situation, he could thrive. Put him on an athletic team where all he has to do it hit and he might fit right in. I'm thinking Cardinals or Orioles. As far as a package goes, I think the Twins could possibly deal someone currently in the rotation with team control because the options at Triple A are pretty good.

Under the current rules, the Twins did the prudent thing. Dobnak made the Opening Day roster precisely because he was a minor asset who they wouldn't lose in a DFA. The Twins get to keep Dobnak in their system for future use and Dobnak continues to be well-paid as a 4A pitcher. Nobody loses. Randy Dobnak pitched on a big league stage and had an audition for 30 major league teams. Good for him. He accrued a few additional days of service time, also good for him. Since his minor league "home" is just a short commute, there was little uprooting in his life. This particular scenario is about as good as it gets for both the player and team. Other end of the roster transactions are not as benign. Players who get DFA'd three and four times and never make the major league roster is another story altogether IMHO. The move from one minor league team to another and get constantly uprooted and they don't make big league pay. Another scenario is guys who get called up to start a single game--three ex-Twins come to mind (Chi Chi Gonzalez, Tommy MIlone and Devin Smeltzer). These guys have been in the spot start business at some point in their careers, without the guaranteed contract that makes Dobnak pretty much untouchable. They start a game and are promptly DFA'd, maybe if they pitch well someone else will claim them. If not, they are unclaimed and go back to the minors. The better they pitch, the more likely someone claims them. The Twins have used a couple guys like that as well, but their names escape me right now. The other factors in all of this is pay and benefits. I think players on the 40-man roster have a higher base than other minor leaguers (not sure) and I think perhaps changes could be made wherein someone on the 40-man is guaranteed a certain number of days on the 40-man roster when claimed or selected or maybe granting some number of service time days if claimed or selected. This might slow the DFA merry-go-round a bit. Minimum big-league salary is a lot of money and a great reward for pursuing your dream. I think the business will always treat the fringe players less well than those who are or could be stars. Assigning higher minimum service time and major league pay for transactions makes sense to me to make the players a little less disposable. One of the worst things about today's MLB is position players pitching. If rules changes could be made to eliminate this practice, I'd be all in favor of them. Of course, it might tie in with end-of-roster transactions, but eliminating position player pitching would be a step forward IMHO.

Do you really believe that Rocco consults his laptop and signals in every pitch? I really don't. Pete and the pitcher might consult on what to throw, but the pitcher and catcher don't have time to look to the dugout for every pitch. There's plenty to debate about any big league manager and Baldelli isn't without flaws, but this managing from a laptop stuff is overblown.

I think the fact that Brown is throwing might have a part in the decision.