GKuehl

Royce Lewis Brooks Lee Emmanuel Rodriguez Edouard Julien Connor Prielipp Louie Varland Marco Raya Matt Wallner Austin Martin Yasser Mercedes Jose Salas Simeon Woods-Richardson David Festa Ben Ross Jose Rodriguez Jordan Balazovic Noah Miller Matt Canterino Yunior Severino Danny De Andrade

Fixed my post, I was confusing my left and right -- a bit directionally challenged here obviously. We're in agreement -- Solano was brought in to be a platoon bat who mashes lefties (aka infield Kyle Garlick), but he simply hasn't mashed lefties and provides next to nothing else.

Sorry, I meant to say LHP and fixed it in my own post! What else was confusing?

Larnach getting optioned for Kirilloff makes more logistical sense. I just don't really understand what Solano provides to the team. Solano is atrocious defensively (even at 1B), he has been worth -0.3 WAR, and his OPS against LHP (the only reason he's on the team) is .571, .140 points lower than his OPS against RHP. Even if he starts hitting against lefties, he doesn't provide any power to make them pay -- he might just get a bloop single. Solano's contract is small enough, $2.5 million, that the front office could easily cut their losses. I would much rather see Castro remain on the team as someone capable of filling in at every non-catcher position and pinch-running in close games than a no-defense singles hitter who doesn't even hit that many singles.

Plus, Kirilloff would be a much more valuable pinch hitter than Nick Gordon or Willi Castro.

Who cares if AK can't play everyday yet? Get this guy up to the big league club -- why waste bullets when he only might have a limited number of bullets left in the chamber? There isn't even a place for Kirilloff to play everyday with the Twins -- Gallo and Kirlloff can rotate at 1B with Gallo, Kepler, and Larnach rotating through the corner OF and DH spots when Buxton needs the day off.

Continuing to play Julien at 2B seems odd with the way the Twins' system currently looks. We can have Polanco return at a reasonable $10.5 million salary next year, a no-brainer if he plays like the borderline all-star he's been before when healthy. Royce Lewis' long-term home also seems to be 2B, though he can also play 3B, all 3 OF spots, and serve as our backup SS. Brooks Lee looks like he'll either play 2B or 3B. Austin Martin could contribute at 2B as well. All 4 of those players seem likelier to stick at 2B than Julien because of their defensive chops. There's also a bit of a logjam at 1B, with Kirilloff and Miranda likely platooning at 1B when Lewis or Lee take over at 3B for Miranda. That leaves the corner OF spots, where hopefully Larnach, Wallner, and Martin develop into long-term starters. It seems like Julien's path to playing time lies in his versatility, mixing and matching at 1B, 2B, LF, and DH. This post might be wishful thinking in believing that our young players will be long-term contributors. But 2B seems like the MOST clogged position in the Twins system, and I would love to see Julien show some versatility.

In full agreement on Balazovic converting to middle relief. It seems the team might already have that in mind, since he's only pitched 7.2 innings in 5 appearances so far this year. I'd give him a look and send Moran down to AAA for a mental reset and to work on his command.

I don't think any of us want to lose Gordon for nothing, especially after he showed last year that he can be a useful bench piece. However, with the current makeup of the roster, I just don't see how he stays on the roster all year without an abundance of injuries. With Kirilloff raking at AAA, Royce Lewis due to come back in less than 2 months, and Farmer likely returning in a month or so, I can't imagine Gordon remaining on the team for the entire season. Gordon's play has been atrocious and every swing Kirilloff takes for the Saints is a waste, especially with how listless our offense has been. I would cut bait with Gordon right now, knowing that he doesn't have a long-term roster spot anyway. Lewis can replace 110% of his versatility (especially since we actually trust Lewis to play SS) when he's healthy, and Julien or Wallner can come up and replace Gordon's lefty bat if injury strikes. Kirilloff should be our everyday starting 1B against RHP, sliding Gallo to LF, and Larnach and Kepler rotating in RF. When Kirilloff needs a day off (which could be fairly frequent with his wrist injury), Gallo can slide back to 1B, with Larnach and Kepler in the corner OF spots. Additionally, the Twins have avoided deplying Kepler in CF because he prefers to play RF, but why should we care where Kepler prefers to play? At this point, he should be our 4th OFer, and should be treated as such -- Jake Cave didn't get to choose to exclusively play RF. Kepler should start some games in CF when a RHP is on the mound to stack the lineup with lefty bats.

It often seems like he's not particularly focused on the mound. This would explain his control issues. During his outing on Tuesday, Vazquez at one point made a very demonstrative gesture indicating that Moran needed to lock in and focus on throwing strikes.

Infuriating game all the way around. How German was allowed to remain in the game is just baffling (except for the fact that he plays for the Yankees so of course he was given a free pass). If a player on any other team is caught pitching with a foreign substance that is suspicious enough to merit a 5 minute discussion, they’d be tossed and MLB would investigate further. Not the best day at the yard for Twins pitchers — none of the 3 (Mahle, Morán, and Alcalá) looked sharp. Hopefully we can win the series tomorrow! P.S. Kepler feels like a bench player if everyone is healthy. I can’t see him starting over Larnach, Gallo, or Kirilloff in the corners on an everyday basis.

One of the most memorable wins in recent Twins history — this one was fun! Our bullpen has so many stud arms. If our starter can keep going 6 innings, we’re going to win a ton of ballgames.

Kepler for Wallner Saturday or Sunday, whenever Kepler is healthy. Wallner needs to be getting consistent at-bats, which is unlikely to happen with Larnach, Kepler, and Gordon hoarding the corner OF starts. Varland for Sands for today's start. Winder, Headrick, or Megill for Varland tomorrow. I would love to see Winder healthy enough to fill a middle reliever role. It's become evident we don't need a long man in the bullpen, and Winder likely ends up as a reliever anyway due to durability concerns -- Winder could be the next Griffin Jax. Gallo for Garlick whenever Gallo's healthy. I'm not too concerned about Garlick passing through waivers -- it would be nice if we could keep him around in St. Paul, but even if another team claims him, I'm guessing that he would be back on waivers within a few weeks. It'll be interesting to see what happens in a few weeks whenever/if Polanco and Kirilloff are ready to join the big league club (provided that the current roster stays healthy which ......... is unlikely, but we can dream). My guess would be that Polanco takes Castro's spot with Kirilloff taking Julien's spot. HOWEVER, what if Julien is tearing the cover off the ball as our leadoff man? This is where it could get really interesting, especially since Julien can DH once Buxton is healthy enough to play CF and also rotate through at 1B and 2B. Would Gordon be on the chopping block if he keeps failing to produce? Would Kirilloff just spend time in the AAA? Would Larnach be a candidate for AAA? I know this hypothetical won't come to fruition because someone will be dealing with an injury and need some IL time, but I would love to see what would happen if this team could stay healthy.

Jovani Moran’s rough start to the year makes me wish even more that we hadn’t let Danny Coulombe go for nothing (especially considering Moran still has options). We could use another sole LHP in the bullpen right about now.

If Buxton continues to need consistent time at DH over the next 5 years, losing CES won’t hurt too bad, considering he’s likely to be a negative in the field, even at 1B. Although both Steer and CES will likely be good regulars at the MLB level, our farm system is full of near-MLB ready prospects like Julien, Lee, Lewis, and Martin that made Steer and CES particularly expendable.

Sands continues to feel like a waste of a roster spot. I don’t think there will be many games where we need a reliever to pitch 3+ innings, especially considering the depth of this starting staff.

I'll be curious to see how the Saints manage their rotation. That is a lot of capable starters that the team will want to keep fully stretched out and, especially in the case of Varland, SWR and Headrick, gaining experience. I'm guessing they'll want Ober, Varland, SWR, and Headrick to pitch every 5th or 6th day, so it might be tough for Sanchez, Dobnak, and Balazovic to get into a starter's rhythm. It also seems likely that Megill will serve in the closer role. Could be some good experience for him -- he'll probably be in the Majors fairly soon, considering he's on the 40-man.

It actually made some sense to pull Pablo Lopez after 5 1/3. Thielbar had started warming up the inning before when Lopez had the bases loaded with 1 out in the 5th inning to face Pasquantino (for the lefty on lefty matchup). We know how much Rocco hates for a guy to warm up but not use him in the game, so when Lopez got out of the jam, it seemed somewhat natural to use Thielbar, especially early in the season where our bullpen is fresh. Also, Lopez was cruising for the first 3 innings but ran into some trouble in both the 4th and 5th innings, so Rocco probably didn't want to test his luck.

Fantastic pitching throughout the game -- Pablo Lopez did a good job getting out of a few jams, and the bullpen was lights out (great to see our 4 big guns in the bullpen looking really good right out of the gate).

With the quality of our rotation, the opportunity for a long reliever to go 2-3 innings is much smaller than it was last year when Bundy and Archer were starting 40% of our games. I don’t see the need for a guy like Sands.

In your hypothetical, they could have used Coulombe for a week or two and then DFA’d him and called up Sands. Or another reliever might get injured and we wouldn’t want Coulombe on the St. Paul-Minneapolis express. The “fascination” stems from the fact we just lost a pitcher for nothing who had a 2.92 ERA in 49.1 innings as a Twin.

What a bad turn of events — first we learn that we’re keeping Cole Sands in the major league bullpen to have a 4.75 ERA and only pitch mop up innings and now we learn that we just lost a solid major league reliever for nothing. I’ve been saying for weeks that Coulombe should make the opening day roster. This looks especially bad since Sands has options and could have been called up the instant one of our relievers inevitably gets a hangnail.

Paddack needing Tommy John definitely made the rotation even worse last year than it already was. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can impact this year’s team in the 2nd half.

I've been on the Coulombe hype train, but it seems like Hoffman has the inside track on the final bullpen spot. This makes sense considering their respective contract situations, with Hoffman able to opt out of his Twins contract if he isn't on the major league roster. Coulombe can start the year in AAA and serve as the next man up in the bullpen when injury strikes (which would require a corresponding move -- i.e. moving Henriquez to the 60-day IL).

DANNY COULOMBE