DuluthFan

I'm fairly certain that a player on the 10/15 day IL can stay on the IL longer than the 10/15 day minimum. There is no need to put the player on the 60 day IL unless you need to make room on the 40-man roster so you can call up a non-roster player to the 26-man MLB roster.

Apparently no one remembers the extension given to another injury prone player on this same team. Byron Buxton anyone? Wait until he can put together a few seasons without missing half the year due to injuries. This team cannot afford two large multiyear contracts for players who end up spending more time on the IL than on the field.

The union negotiated the 26th man on the active roster for the full year in exchange for the limit on september call ups. The limit was set at a point so all teams would be able to play with rosters of the same size. In the past, playoff teams would only call up a couple players while rebuilding teams would essentially call up everybody on the 40 man. It is a matter of fairness that both teams play with the same roster size.

I would like to see the Twins sign an elite pitcher with pitching bonuses structured similarly.

Either Pineda or Perez could become bullpen pieces if another starter or two is acquired before the trade deadline. Both have pitched from the pen in the recent past.

This might be a roster replacement for Buxton / Sano. If Buxton isn't working out, Kepler gets moved to center which frees up a corner outfield spot. Rosario could play either left or right with Gonzalez playing the other position. If Sano cannot play, Gonzalez takes third. While Gonzalez could take Adrianza's spot, Ehire has no options. Astudillo has options. Possible 40 man cuts could be Austin, Arraez, Torreyes

Regular season average .199 Off season average 1.000

A player the Yankees cannot get out. Keep him around for the Yankee series next year.

This is a welcome development. Escobar has clearly outplayed and earned the 3B spot. If a guy like Sano can't hit his home runs, he needs to at least get on base, unfortunately he hasn't been able to do that. Shuttling around Cave and LaMarr can only do so much to improve the offense this year. Looking back through the lineups clearly point to both Sano and Buxton as being the weakest links. If the team scores more runs without them, then clearly they need to work on something.

Seems like Romero has just thrown his hat into the ring for making room for Santana / May.

The Twins would most likely let it play out as-is for awhile. The Castro 40 man roster spot will most likely be saved for the return of one of the injured pitchers. Acquiring another catcher to take Castro's spot now would most likely mean Wilson gets DFA'd when either May or Santana returns. You might as well evaluate Wilson for another month before replacing him if needed. Garver is handling himself OK right now, so there is no need to panic.

"Cup of coffee" has a different meaning in reference to baseball players. Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/coffee.shtml Cup of Coffee Players A player with a "cup of coffee" is one who has played only one game in the majors as either a pitcher or a batter. Probably not the best analogy in reference to Castro.

They are protecting ALL of the minor league players that are not currently on the 40 man roster. The Twins need right now is for a backup player who has options and can sit at AAA all season until there is need for an injury replacement. Why start someone's options clock ticking when there is no need. If no injury replacement is needed this season, then you would have wasted someone's option year. Cave has already started his option years, Vargas had none and no position open for him. Grossman doen't have options remaining but at least he has several positions he can play.

Cave had to be kept on the 40 man roster. The Yankees DFA'd him from their roster. The Twins essentially jumped to the head of the waiver wire by trading for him. He is depth for the Twins so they can preserve the options and development time for their non-roster prospects. They now have two outfielders (Granite & Cave) they can freely bring up and down as the need requires.

The team should return or trade the rule 5 pick Kinley first. You would only lose one player from the 40 man roster. By keeping Kinley and waiving anyone else you potentially could lose two players on this one decision. You would lose the waived player plus Kinley as well if he doesn't make the 25 man roster. A trade to attempt to keep Kinley won't work in this case because he would have to pass through waivers after being removed from the 40 man roster to make room for Reed.

Buxton has yet to establish a baseline or floor on his production. Is he a career player like the first half or second half? You can't offer a long term extension based only on half a season's worth of production. He won't accept a contract based on his first half and the team cannot offer a contract based only on the second half. If you wait until numbers are exchanged in the first year of arbitration, you will find out what kind of numbers the player is looking for. At worst the team will be on the hook for a single year contract based on his actual production in comparison to other players of similar age and skill. A long term extension can then be negotiated with an idea of what both sides are looking for. Buxton also ended the year with an injury. It would be hard to sign a long term contract with an injured player without seeing if that injury had affected his play.

I was unaware of the search for new writers. I was aware of the blogs section but have never really spent time reading from there. Perhaps a link to a permanent page explaining the search and possible pay of writing for the blogs and eventually the site. Also regularly (weekly/monthly/or bimonthly) promoting a blog to the front page would keep the idea fresh in the viewers minds that there are other articles in the blog sections.

Four spots remaining? Could it be room for free agent pitchers? Please?

The player has to be on the 40 man roster for an option to be used when a player is sent down. Park is off the roster so if he starts in the minors he is not using an option. Players added mid-year who do not get sent back down, do not use an option. The 'option' is only used when the player is sent down from the big league team while still being on the 40 man roster.

Exactly! Plus at the time of the move, everyone wanted to copy the blueprint of the KC Royals with 3 hard throwing, strike-em out relief pitchers at the back end of the pen. May was the only one on the roster who fit the bill.

Hahahaha! Always fun to read an article by someone who has overindulged in recreational drugs. No, just no.

There IS a reason to not bring him up. The Twins need to evaluate the rest of their pitching prospects. I think it is safe to say that Mejier WILL be on the 40 man roster if not the 25 man roster next year. The Twins need to evaluate the rest of the roster and to decide whether to bring any of them back. They need to use September to try out some of the AAA staff if not to look for major league players for next year, but to find possible DFA candidates to make room for promotions from the AA team and for rule 5 considerations. Mejier's evaluation will take place in AAA this year and in spring training next year.

I have to point out that the multi-year contracts have mostly gone to the elite players, not the marginal, or just average player. Duffy would have to put up elite level, all-star numbers to be considered for a multi-year extension. The Twins especially have been tight with the multi-year extensions for players under team control. You can expect Duffey to be year to year through his arbitration years. The Twins have three starting pitchers under long term contracts already with a potential fourth's pending free agent (Milone) having just been sent to the bullpen. Now the process does have some merit, but they must factor in arbitration salaries which contrary to popular belief is somewhat projectable. Twins Daily and other bloggers and analysts have predicted somewhat reliably the arbitration salaries of many players in the last couple years. You can bet that Fantex can or has done the same. The potential PROBLEM I forsee is if and when Fantex and similar investors become involved in salary negotiations and arbitration. They could push or insist for higher contracts for their clients so they can get paid off. You could potentially see an end to arbitration settlements and more going the distance. No more hometown discounts in contracts or even early signings. Players will be encouraged by their investors to not take the deal but to go to free agency. Taking the Duffey $2.23 million dollar amount and assuming the 10% per year cut, Duffy would need his earnings over his career to be at least $22.3 million dollars for Fantex to break even. I don't see him making that through his arbitration years, so he would need one or two year's worth of free agent money for Fantex to break even. Could he even retire early if he wanted to? It's not like a normal agent's agreement where the agent is paid a portion of the salary. It's a loan from his 'agent' that has to be paid back. Does he have a regular agent as well as Fantex to pay? What if it doesn't look like Fantex is going to be able to collect enough to pay back it's initial investment? Could Fantex perhaps encourage it's client (Duffey) to throw a game or two?

You leave all the pitchers in the minors where they are. You wait until someone is injured at the MLB level and then you call up whomever is pitching well at that time. The Twins are a team who cannot afford to waste depth on the whims of a few panicked fans. Someone will get hurt eventually. They always do. When a move is made, I would start with either Duffy or Myer since they are already on the 40 man roster. If Berrios is called up before september and is sent down before the season ends you will have needlessly wasted an option year when there were available alternatives. The Twins cannot just casually throw away options when situations like this year may come up later. I believe Myer may be out next year.

Longoria after first week: .300 BA, went on to play in all star game, won rookie of the year finished with .272 BA, 27 HR Buxton after first week: .091 BA, finished with .209 BA, looked lost at the plate most of the season. Also injured for parts of the last 3 seasons. It would be foolish to extend a player with those numbers to a six year deal. What's the saying for free agent contracts? "The value is based on past performance." Is a .209 BA worth $24 million over 6 years? Nope. It gets you a one year league minimum contract. If you are a GM in this situation, you play it safe with a one year deal. Image trying to explain a six year deal to the owner if the player ends up spending all three option years moving back and forth between the majors and minors. A player in that situation would not likely command much in arbitration and may even be in a postition to just be cut from the team.