Otto von Ballpark

John, this does come off as somewhat insulting. "Extreme"? "Nearly detached from reality"? "Fringe"? "Borderline untethered"? You are framing the situation to make it seem that way. First, your reference to the team as "suddenly competitive, still a handful of games from a Wild Card spot, past the trade deadline, a game under .500 and experiencing a renewed interest in the team after four years of abysmal results..." ignores their massive recent slide and more-or-less punting at the trade deadline (and arguable punting of a game against their biggest wild card rival in Toronto by debuting Duffey). Your only reference to Hunter is as "a $10 million free agent who has been a productive player and who also is a crowd favorite and AND as recently as Friday night was celebrated as a game-winning, team-rallying hero." Ignoring that he is also: - a 40 year old signed to a one-year deal by a rebuilding club looking for mentorship - on pace for his fewest starts in the field for a full healthy season in his whole career - his lowest OPS since his last minor league stint 15 years ago - his 4th consecutive season of declining OPS Then, your description of Buxton is "a 21-year-old coming off a thumb injury who had previously skipped AAA and gone directly to the majors (and didn't have immediate success)". No mention of - top 1-2 prospect in baseball for 2-3 years running - best Twins prospect since Mauer - important enough to get called up immediately after the likely Super 2 deadline passed in June - a clear candidate to be an opening day starter in 2016 but could benefit from more MLB experience, having only received 39 MLB PA so far Also, I am not sure that many reasonable posters here are calling for a full benching of Hunter, just that he and his OF caddy Robinson cede the most playing time of our current OF to audition (and mentor!) the #2 prospect in MLB for a starting spot in 2016. I also suggested that maybe Mauer, with by far the lowest OPS of his career, should be reduced from his career-high pace of games started and plate appearances to assist in this endeavor, with Sano getting some reps at 1B and adding a few more DH games for Hunter. I am curious to see how you will mischaracterize that suggestion as "nearly detached from reality." Your framing of this situation is closer to the post-and-run Adam Brett Walker boosters here than an honest, accurate assessment. EDIT TO ADD: Not that my assessment above is any more accurate, but I have no interest in this kind of selective fact presenting to paint other people's views as extreme.

Yes. If Meyer is injured anytime between now and before he is optioned in spring training 2016, he would need to open the 2016 season on the MLB disabled list. He can't be optioned in spring training unless he is healthy. It's probably happened to a pitcher out there somewhere. From a quick Google search. Nick Kingham of the Pirates is a current example -- he was on the 40-man roster but in AAA when he had TJ surgery earlier this season. If he's still not ready next spring, he will need to go on the MLB disabled list at that point. Gibson 2013 is almost identical to the current Buxton situation. He was added to the 40-man in June 2013, then optioned in August. Then Gibson had a minor injury while at AAA and missed the remainder of the season, so he wasn't recalled for September (whether they planned to do that or not, it could have just been a paper transaction meaning he wouldn't have to pitch) and burned an option year. He was activated, as all disabled players are, when the MLB season ended in October, because his injury and roster status at that point did not matter, other than that he was still our protected property on the 40-man roster.

Yes, that is the estimated cutoff for players to be eligible following this season. But the trend is clear. The Super 2 group size increased from 17% to 22% in December 2011, so last year's Super 2 arbitration eligibles already had their entire careers under the new system. And the cutoff then was 133 days. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/04/projected-super-two-cutoff-3.html http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/04/projected-super-two-cutoff-5.html I don't think any elite prospect recalled in June in recent years has ever become eligible for Super 2, so teams know what they are doing. Most Super 2's are lesser players (Plouffe) and/or players in very different circumstances (Harper, Bryant).

Guys that get injured on optional assignments indeed go on the minor league disabled list. But optional assignments and disabled lists cease to exist at the conclusion of each season. As does the 25 man active roster. The only roster/list in the offseason is the 40 man, and all the players on that have to be re-assigned in the spring to a new 25-man roster, new DLs, and new optional assignments. Basically, all DL players are activated again when the season ends in October. See two recent Twins to end seasons on disabled lists, Mauer and Gibson in 2013 -- their official MLB transactions show both were activated in October 2013: http://m.mlb.com/player/502043/kyle-gibson http://m.mlb.com/player/408045/joe-mauer The Twins clearly wouldn't have done that with Gibson if they didn't have to. And in neither case was a corresponding player removed from the 25 man active roster to accommodate the activated player, because the 25-man roster didn't exist anymore. You are correct that guys get optioned/reassigned quickly in spring training for this reason, but already injured players on the 40-man can't be optioned/reassigned like that, regardless of when and where the injury took place. Buxton would have to be optioned while healthy next spring, THEN injured, to get on the AAA disabled list to begin the 2016 season.

Also, while needlessly burning an option year would be dumb, it's not my primary concern. I'm more concerned with the implication that he's going to spend more than 20 days in AAA now, and thus not get a serious MLB look before the end of the 2015 season. Which would almost force us to pursue or retain a FA outfielder (Hunter again?) to be Plan A entering 2016.

Buxton was recalled on June 14. From there, through the end of the season on Oct. 4, is 113 days. The Super 2 cutoff has never been below 122 days. This year's projected cutoff was 140 days. There was already basically zero percent chance of Buxton qualifying for Super 2. Correa was called up 6 days before Buxton. Lindor was called up the same day. Pretty sure those teams weren't accepting of a "small" chance their players would be Super 2 eligible.

This is incorrect, as far as 2016 service time is concerned. Disabled lists and optional assignments cease to exist in the offseason. Any injured players on the 40-man roster will have to go on the MLB disabled list in the spring, and thus will accrue MLB salary and service time, regardless of when and where the injury was suffered in 2015. So at best, they buffer themselves from ~50 days of MLB service time if he injured himself again today. (Although if it was a re-injury of the same thumb, Buxton would probably have grounds for a grievance that he wasn't fully healed and shouldn't have been optioned, and could probably get awarded the lost service time regardless.)

My fear is that we plan to keep him in AAA much longer than most of us expect. It wouldn't surprise me if they were preparing to option him when he got injured -- remember, he was initially recalled when Hicks got injured, and Hicks was only about 4 days away from being eligible to return when Buxton got hurt (and 9 days away from Hicks' actual return). So to salvage service time savings, they optioned him basically as soon as they were allowed by the rules. So far, it's the one explanation that make the most sense.

It has been pointed out. But I am not sure how smart it is. Buxton was optioned on August 10th. He will need to be recalled on or before August 29th now to avoid burning an option year in 2015. Alternatively, a position player can have up to 20 days of rehab. So Buxton could have stayed on the DL, and simply been activated any time he was ready between now and August 27th. So either way, we lose the benefit of the September 1st roster expansion. Optioning him on August 13th would have made more sense in that regard. At best, we bought an extra two days before we will need to make a roster move to accommodate Buxton, but at the same time prevented us from recalling him before August 20th, barring an injury to someone he could logically replace on the MLB roster (presumably we wouldn't recall him if a catcher or infielder was injured).

Isn't that what we expected last September with Suzuki and Pinto? If they are not willing to meaningfully reduce Hunter's playing time on August 10th, I doubt they will be September 1st.

Keeping Hunter as starter means Robinson is not a backup, but a 2-3 times per week part-time starter. I can see how Buxton could be an improvement over that arrangement, or at least deserve a chance to be.

Hunter is defying his age? His OPS+ is his worst in 12 years, and his "starting job" also requires giving regular starts to Shane Robinson. I do not think a suggestion to bench him, even just half time or so, for another outfielder is crazy at all, particularly not the #2 prospect in baseball. And if you told me before the season they would be .500 at this point, I would be neither excited nor impressed. There are a lot of different ways to achieve a .500 record, and the Twins 2015 way has felt particularly empty in some ways so far.

Any theory why? You TD guys have some connections with the Twins, right? Why option him so quickly into his rehab?

This is correct. So it becomes harder not to burn an option with today's news that he has been activated from rehab and optioned to AAA, because that clock to 20 has now started. Hopefully it means we will see him back here within 20 days. Otherwise, they could have maximized his rehab, then optioned him to finish the AAA season if they wanted, and he still wouldn't have burned an option this year. Not sure of the benefit of optioning him now, although I guess the Twins get to pay him a AAA salary for the next couple weeks.

I did a double-take on this one. Roy Smalley, #1 overall pick? Yes, but it was the old "January phase" of the draft, which is probably worth noting! http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?overall_pick=1&draft_type=janreg&

All those guys (except Alvarez I think, who I already noted) were already on the 40-man roster, or had recently been on the 40-man (maybe DFAs?), or in the case of Speigner, was on another team's 40-man (he was a rule 5 pick).

Washington guaranteed the option year, but also had to promise him the exclusive closer's job for him to approve the deal.

Huh? Houston hasn't been .500 since April 19th. They haven't been fewer than 7 games above .500 since April either.

Exactly. If we win, we apparently didn't need the help. But if we lose, any moves wouldn't have helped enough anyway. The maddening thing is that we're generally not getting blown out either. Our starting pitching (where no one was recommending external moves) has been acceptable (Duffey excepted). An extra bat or arm in the pen (several of which were available for non-top prospects) could have made a HUGE difference in multiple games recently.

Why is "do something once they got there" suddenly the standard, when it never was for the 2001-2011 Twins? Especially since the playoffs have since expanded. I'm not sure it's the trade deadline approach for the vast majority of contending MLB teams either. (Also, an aside: Cap'n Piranha, you were ultimately correct that Papelbon was traded for meager return, although it was probably more about his no-trade clause and closer demands than anything else. Would you have endorsed the Twins acquiring him cheaply, and moving Perkins out of the closer spot?)

Why is Duffey a more logical choice than Berrios? Other than Duffey needing Rule 5 protection this winter. Berrios has roughly the same innings at the same levels, 3 years younger, with notably better K/9 and H/9 rates, only marginally worse BB/9, and basically the same career HR/9 (granted Duffey has been stingy with the HR this year).

A quick combing of Baseball Reference suggests this was perhaps only TR's 4th trade of players not on (or recently on, in the case of DFAs) the 40-man roster, in his 17 years as GM.

Har-har. Vargas was an obvious move for a team batting Escobar and Nunez at DH. Not so much this time, with Sano at DH.

Obviously Arcia isn't a savior, but I think he could help this moribund group. I think some of his struggles in AAA are due to frustration. Park either Mauer or Hunter on the bench every day and you'd barely even have to see Arcia in the OF too.

You're entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine. I've backed up my opinion with 17 years of results and media reports. You are free to back up your opinion with whatever you wish. And who's to say what kind of streak these teams will be on come October? Or who will be suspended or hurt? Or if Price will even be available to start a wild card game? (They might need him just to get into the game.) I am sure glad the 2009 Twins didn't pack it in because the Tigers had an ace in Verlander...