Notes, quotes and comment

Remember my (no doubt silly) notion of including catching prospect Mitch Garver in a starting pitcher deal? Much less likely now ...

Source confirms ex-#mntwins catcher Chris Gimenez is signing with #Cubs. I'm told it's a minor-league deal. @ChrisCotillo 1st.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 23, 2018

The Twins have signed some other catchers to minor league deals, but Garver is clearly (and correctly) ticketed for the backup role now. Bringing back Gimenez was almost certainly the preferred fallback.

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Does this imply that the Twins are out on Yu Darvish? I doubt it. The personal connections stuff we've heard about -- Thad Levine in the front office, Gimenez behind the plate -- is nice, but the real reason Darvish is still a free agent some three weeks before pitchers and catchers report is money. Nobody is offering (yet) the years and total he's looking for, and he isn't settling for less (yet).

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#mntwins lose LHP Bully Bouch (aka Buddy Boshers) on waivers to #Astros. Held lefties to .258 OBP last season. https://t.co/q6idVTJ0mS

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 22, 2018

And good for Boshers, who gets to remain on a 40-man roster, at least for a few more days.

Berardino noted later that the last two World Series winners have this offseason claimed lefty relievers off the Twins, the other being Randy Rosario by the Cubs. I think the Twins are more likely to regret losing Rosario than Boshers, but that may well be me being fascinated by bright shiny objects.

The Twins have no shortage of lefty relief possibilities without them.

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The Twins have five prospects on Baseball America's Top 100 list, released Monday,. Royce Lewis leads the way at No. 24, and the other four (Brent Rooker, Nick Gordon, Wander Javier and Stephen Gonsalves) are in the 90s.

Of note: The BA overall list includes Gordon, who was No. 8 on the Twins list compiled by Beradino, and not several guys Beradino had higher.

One win, one loss, lots to talk about

Glen Perkins, in the first of Thursday's games, became the 32nd player to pitch for the Twins this year. Simply getting back onto a major league mound after essentially having his shoulder reconstructed is quite an accomplishment.

That said, his outing wasn't good. He hit two batters, walked another, threw more balls than strikes, got just one out.

He hit 93 at least once, but he didn't have command. He says he'll be better in future outings. We'll see. I'm pleased he's back; now I want to see him be effective enough to justify a role.

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Aaron Slegers, in the second game, became pitcher 33. He was pretty impressive in his big league debut: 6.1 innings, two hits, two walks, three strikeouts. Paul Molitor pulled him after just 82 pitches, which struck me as a prematurely quick hook.

Slegers is being sent back to Rochester, as he was the 26th man for the doubleheader, the Twins are in the midst of a staff-straining seven-games-in-five-days stretch and he can't help further with that, and, well, numbers, man.  (Despite what Dick Bremer kept saying during the telecast, my understanding of the rules is that he could remain and somebody else removed from the 25-man roster, but all the somebodies who could be sent down in his stead might help in the next five days.)

But it's really difficult to concoct a baseball rationale for keeping Kyle Gibson in the rotation and Slegers in the minors. Plus there's an opening in the rotation with putative fifth starter Dietrich Enns going on the disabled list.

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Enns went on the disabled list to make room on the 25 man roster for Perkins. Enns missed considerable time earlier in the year with a shoulder issue, but he was quoted as saying that this is in a different area of the shoulder.

Buddy Boshers gave up another homer in the first game and was demoted to Rochester between games, with Nik Turley activated. Bet you forgot Turley was still on the 40-man roster. (I knew only because I've been trying to figure out how to open enough space on the 40 to add all the Rule 5 eligible players I want the Twins to protect this winter.) Turley at least gives them another long man in the bullpen (and a potential starter). If he's still around a week from now, something went very wrong.

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Robbie Grossman broke his left thumb bumping into Byron Buxton in the outfield. He's out probably three weeks or so; Molitor suggested he will be able to hit before he can throw again.

Mitch Garver, primary position catcher, was called up during the night to take his place on the 25-man roster. Garver has played a few innings in left field for Rochester, but I wouldn't advocate having him platoon in right field with Max Kepler, which was a significant portion of Grossman's playing time.

The move means the Twins don't have an true fourth outfielder. Presumably Zack Granite (left-handed hitter) will be back when rosters expand, if not sooner. Either way, with Grossman out, I'd just as soon see Kepler play even against lefties. He's too young and talented to condemn to a strict platoon role. He's not going to get better against southpaws facing them this infrequently.

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My commentary on the major league team will be muted at best the next few days; I'm headed to Cedar Rapids for my annual look-see at the Kernels.

The Perkins question

Another shortish start Tuesday night -- Bartolo Colon went just five innings and was fortunate to escape with just three runs allowed -- and another game in which the "nonleverage" half of the Twins bullpen struggled to get outs. Specifically Buddy Boshers, who allowed three runs in one-third of an inning to turn a 3-1 deficit to 6-1.

Boshers, of course, is left-handed; so is Glen Perkins, who was in the Twins dugout Tuesday night after pitching Sunday and Monday for Double A Chattanooga. The back-to-back outings were, in theory, the final marker in his rehab schedule. The 30 days of his rehab assignment ends Saturday.

The former All-Star expects to be activated this week. Derek Falvey indicated last week that he would be. Paul Molitor's pre-game comments on Perkins seemed unenthusiastic about his return: “We’ll contemplate what the best move is moving forward, not only for him, but for our team.”

Bert Blyleven, back in the TV booth. suggested Tuesday that the Twins could just wait until the rosters expand to bring Perkins back. With the rehab period nearly expired, that's not really an option.

The realistic choices are:

• activate Perkins, which will require somebody to come off the 25-man active roster (there are open spots on the 40) or
• release him.

Releasing him won't save the team any money, and would be a pretty sour way to treat him at the end of a long recovery process.

For what it's worth -- and that isn't much -- Perkins put up a 6.14 ERA in 7.1 innings over three levels in eight games on the rehab assignment. More important than those results is the caliber of his pitches.

Perkins reportedly touched 93 with his fastball velocity in his final outings, but he apparently sits around 90. That's quite a bit lower than in his glory days, but pretty impressive considering how badly his shoulder was damaged.

Velocity is only part of the equation. Also to be factored in are his command (or lack of it) and the quality of his slider. (Perkins as been a a two-pitch pitcher since moving to the bullpen.) If he has limited command of a diminished fastball and an unreliable breaking ball, he can't help the big league team. If he has a usable slider and can locate the mediocre velocity, he can.

Boshers was optioned out at the start of the season, so he can be optioned out now. It's not like replacing him with Perkins for the last two weeks or so of August will cripple Molitor's bullpen strategies, and it's not like activating Perkins will require that he step back into the (vacant) closer's role, or even be used in game situations. (Twenty of Boshers' 26 appearances have come with the Twins behind, and three of the other six have come with a lead of four or more runs.)

I say activate Perkins. It may not help, but it won't hurt, and it's the right thing to do.

Gee, the bullpen B's

Dillon Gee will probably feel like a ping pong ball soon, if he doesn't already.

The right-handed pitcher was released on June 18 by Texas. The Twins signed him to a minor-league deal on the 22nd. The Twins then called him up on the 24th. He spent three days sitting in the Twins bullpen, and Monday night he was optioned out to Rochester without getting into a game. And even though he hasn't pitched since June 14, there's a pretty good chance the Twins will make him their doubleheader callup for Saturday in Kansas City.

I had assumed Gee, in his eighth major-league season, was out of options when I speculated in the Monday post that the most likely demotions (to make room for Hector Santiago today and probably Phil Hughes later in the week) were from the trio of Trevor Hildenberger, Adam Busenitz and Buddy Boshers. Gee went first. But somebody is likely to go later in the week, and that adds intrigue to Paul Molitor's bullpen choices late in Monday's game.

Jose Berrios gave up two runs in the first (and was probably fortunate that it was only two), then settled in for the next five. But the Twins couldn't do much with Chris Sale and trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh. Berrios was pulled in the seventh with men on first and third, one out, for Matt Belisle.

Comments: Belisle has a lousy ERA, but almost all his bad outings have come when he started an inning. He's actually fared fairly well at stranding inherited runners; entering Monday's game, he had inherited 12 runners and allowed just two to score. Whether that's just random success or some sort of skill -- and I'm inclined to the randomness theory -- that is doubtless part of why Molitor continues to use the veteran in game situations.

And why not one of the "big three" in the Twins bullpen (Tyler Duffey, Taylor Rogers and Brandon Kintzler)? Probably because

• The Twins were already behind
• That trio was worked pretty hard in the Cleveland series
• Santiago in't likely to go much more than five innings tonight. If he can keep the Twins in the game, Duffey will likely be needed for one of his usual two-inning stints..

So it made sense to go to the bullpen's second line.

Belisle gave up a single to Dustin Pedroia, driving in a run. Then he threw a sub-optimal pitch that Chris Gimenez failed to corral (ruled a passed ball), putting runners on second and third. Molitor granted Xavier Boegarts the intentional walk, then pulled Belisle for Buddy Boshers with the bases loaded and one out.

Comments: Belisle didn't give Molitor a lot of reason to stick with him in the Pedroia/Boegarts at-bats, and Molitor has seen too many big innings from Belisle already. Can't blame him for getting him out of there. I'm not a fan of the intentional walk to load the bases, but there is a logic behind setting up the double play.

The intriguing thing here is the use of Boshers over fellow lefty Craig Breslow. Boshers worked two innings the day before, and Breslow has pretty clearly been higher in the bullpen heirarchy. But Breslow have given up nine runs in his last seven innings.

Mitch Moreland hit a deep fly off Boshers -- there are several parks in which that ball is a homer -- and the Red Sox had another run, Boshers got the next man to fly to center also, and that ended the inning.

Busenitz got the eighth, and worked a 1-2-3 inning, flashing upper-90s velocity in the process.

So what does all that tell us?

• Boshers may be in better position to stick than Breslow.
• Belisle's status as the "No. 4" reliever, probably based on his success at stranding inherited runners, may be in jeopardy.
• Busenitz has the stuff to be a power reliever.

I don't know long the ropes are for the veterans, Breslow and Belisle. I would like Molitor to be open to replacing either or both, and that may be happening already with Breslow. But that's going to be a process.

Contemplating Buddy Boshers

Pretty good weekend for the Twins in Cleveland. They swept the defending AL champs and returned, narrowly, to first place in the Central Division.

And give a lot of the credit to the oft-criticized and oft-battered bullpen. The Twins allowed just two runs in the three games despite getting just 15.2 innings from the starters. The bullpen worked four innings in Friday's shutout (Tyler Duffey two, Taylor Rogers one, Brandon Kintzler one); 4.1 in Saturday's win (Duffey 1.1, Matt Belisle 0.2, Rogers 1.1, Trevor Hildenberger one) and three Sunday (Buddy Boshers two, Kintlzer one).

Broken down like that, we see the usual pattern in use. Paul Molitor used each of his three most-trusted bullpen arms (Duffey, Rogers, Kintlzer) twice. He even used Duffey in back-to-back games, which is not part of the usual pattern. Molitor tried again to get crucial outs from the veteran Belisle, and Belisle gave up the one run the bullpen yielded all series.

Having gotten 10 outs from Duffey (and seven from Rogers) in the first two games of the series, Molitor pretty much had to find somebody else Sunday for the bridge role. That somebody was Buddy Boshers.

And that went quite well. Two innings, no hits, one base runner (a disputed HBP), one strikeout.

It was Boshers' 11th outing for the Twins this year, and his first in a game they ultimately won. (He does have one hold, which came in a game in which Belisle and Craig Breslow combined for a nine-run meltdown after Boshers threw a scoreless inning.) Sunday wasn't a hold, because the Twins had a four-run lead when he entered, but Boshers definitely got the job done. His ERA is down to 2.50.

The Greg McMichael Rule comes into play: Get outs and they'll find a role for you. (Greg McMichael was a pitcher with the Atlanta Braves during the height of the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz era who was a minor league free agent in spring training and the closer by the second half of the season.) Boshers has gotten outs, and a bigger role is clearly available.

But ...

The pitching staff's revolving door is about to spin some more, with Hector Santiago coming off the DL for Tuesday's start in Boston and perhaps the return of Phil Hughes. The Twins had nine guys in the bullpen in Cleveland, and three of them (Breslow, Adam Busenitz and Dillon Gee) didn't pitch. I would expect Gee to be "piggy backed" with Santiago on Tuesday; I certainly don't expect the Twins to try to demote him before pitching him.

Belisle and Breslow can't be optioned out; clearing them off the major league roster means waiving them. So the bullpen options for clearing roster space for Santiago and/or Hughes would seem to be Busenitz, Hildenberger or Boshers. We'll toss starter Aldaberto Mejia into that mix as well, even though he has the third best ERA of the nine men who've started.

It's a bit of a puzzle. The Twins signed Belisle and Breslow with an eye to leavening the inexpeience on this pitching staff. They haven't been very good, but they are difficult to move. I don't think the Twins will option out Boshers to make room for Santiago or Hughes, but it's hardly impossible. One good outing doesn't make his job safe.

A ping-pong ball on the table of the Twins

Buddy Boshers was one of the last men cut in training camp. He wasn't pitching particularly well in Rochester when the Twins decided to ship out Aldaberto Mejia, but he was on the 40-man roster and he was available to pitch, sp they called him up.

For one day. He flew into the Twin Cities last weekend, worked a couple of innings in a short-start game Sunday, and, since

• he couldn't go again for a few days and
• Nick Tepesch was nearing his opt-out date

the Twins optioned him back to Rochester on Monday. He had just one day on the active roster.

On Tuesday Hector Santiago's grandmother died. Santiago made his start on Wednesday. Thursday was an off-day. Santiago went on the bereavement list Friday and Boshers was called back up. He pitched Friday in Kansas City (and gave up a homer to a left-handed hitter, a no-no for a LOOGY).

Bereavement leaves don't last long, and Santiago is to start return Monday, so Boshers isn't likely to stay long this time around either.

Notes, quotes and comment

Buddy Boshers didn't last long on that callup. He pitched Sunday -- long enough that he wouldn't be available for a day or two -- and was shipped back down Monday. Nick Tepesch was called up, and Ryan O'Rourke was put on the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster.

Tepesch was apparently nearing his opt-out date. He was putting up better numbers than Boshers in Rochester, and he's a better fit for the long man role anyway.

O'Rourke is making little progress with his arm injury and is to get a second opinion today from the Rangers team doctor. The lefty hasn't pitched off a mound in six weeks.

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MLB issued a one-game suspension for Miguel Sano.for his role in Saturday's fracus. He's appealing the suspension, so that's in abbyance.

What frequently happens in these cases is that the Twins and Sano will pick a game that they plan to rest him in anyway and drop the appeal. Reading between the lines, that may not happen this time. They may think they have a legitimate chance to win that appeal.

I do find it amusing that the Twins TV crew seems absolutely intent on ignoring the underlying trigger of the sequence of events: Justin Haley hitting JaCoby Jones in the face with a pitch. Matt Boyd at least kept his pitch below the shoulders.

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Chih-Wei Hu, the Taiwanese righty the Twins signed, then traded as a Class A pitcher to Tampa Bay for Kevin Jepsen in 2015, made his major league debut Monday. I wish him well; I said at the time of the trade that I was lukewarm on it, having already made an emotional investment in Hu after seeing his Low A debut in 2014 while recognizing the Twins need for immediate bullpen help at the time. It was, and remains, a justifiable trade.

The Twins got what they were after in 2015 from Jepsen; he almost got them into the playoffs. He crashed and burned the next year, of course, and he doesn't appear to be in organized ball this year.

Notes quotes and comment

Two more cuts from Twins camp on Tuesday: the suddenly homer-prone Buddy Boshers and non-roster invitee Tommy Field. Boshers was optioned out, Field reassigned.

Boshers' departure, and Ryan O'Rourke's injury, pretty much secures a bullpen spot for Taylor Rogers, and I'm fine with that. My sense is that Rogers is the better pitcher, but, as I said before, I don't know that I can prove it.

Field ... I never considered him a candidate for a utility job, and I'm a bit puzzled that he made it into the final week of camp.

More cuts -- and something at least close to a definitive opening day roster -- expected today.

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An interesting piece here by Grant Brisbee, who found video of two games, one in 1984 and the other 2014, with almost exactly the same number of pitches, baserunners, runs, mid-inning pitching changes. The 1984 game took 2 hours 31 minutes; the 2014 game took 3 hours six minutes.

Why the difference?

I was certain that Brisbee would find that the difference is in the commercial breaks. Not really.:

Based on one unscientific deep dive into a pair of similar games, though, the biggest problem with the pace of play is, well, the pace of play. Pitchers don’t get rid of the ball like they used to. Hitters aren’t expecting them to get rid of the ball like they used to. It adds a couple minutes to every half-inning, which adds close to a half-hour.

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Toby Gardenhire was named to the Rochester Red Wings coaching staff. The son of the former big-league manager was already part of the player development system, but now the Triple A team has an extra full-time coach.

This is almost certainly rooted in the auto accident early in spring training in which Mike Quade, the Rochester manager, was rear-ended and wound up needing shoulder surgery. He can't throw batting practice. Neither, because of a shoulder injury of his own, can hitting coach Chad Allen. There is a certain amount of physical labor involved in coaching. Young Gardenhire will get to do a lot of it.

The roster shuffle

No holiday in Twins transactions this past weekend.

• DFA'd: Kevin Jepsen.
• Put on the disabled list: Trevor Plouffe
• Reactivated from the disabled list but outrighted to Triple A: Darin Mastroianni.
• Optioned to the minors: Buddy Boshers
• Recalled from the minors: Eddie Rosario and Kennys Vargas
• Reactivated from the disabled list: Trevor May

I commented Monday on the Jepsen move. Let's sort through the rest ...

All told, the Twins have cut down from 13 pitchers to 12 on the active roster. That might suggest that they've grown comfortable with the starters' ability to go six-plus innings, but I suspect that this has at least as much to do with the All Start break coming in less than a week.

May: I suggested in the Monday print column that the Twins might be well advised to return May to the starting rotation. Right now they have every slot filled, and Jose Berrios is probably ahead of May if a rotation spot opens. May rehabbed for relief work, and that's the plan.

Supposedly May has shortened his stride during his delivery to reduce the strain on his back and hips. We'll see how well that works.

Plouffe: Out, they say, for three to four weeks with a cracked rib. In the short term, it opens third base for Miguel Sano, but it also probably keeps Plouffe from being traded this month. Which means that, when Plouffe is healthy again (or at least sound enough to play) there will be two third basemen on the roster.

At least this will give his wonky groin a chance to heal.

Mastroianni: It was easy to forget that Mastro was officially on the active roster, but he was hitless in nine official at-bats. He has the right to opt out of his contract, but he's expected to forgo that and remain in the organization.

Rosario: Optioned out because pitchers were exploiting his inability to gauge the strike zone, he hit .319 and slugged .538 in Triple A. He also drew just seven walks, which suggests that Triple A pitchers aren't good enough to exploit his free-swinging ways -- which further suggests that he's going to have to learn at the major league level.

Question: Where do his at-bats come from? He played left field on Sunday and Monday. Robbie Grossman was the DH in one game and sat the other. Presuming Byron Buxton and Max Kepler are to be in the lineup (and they should), Rosario and Grossman will be dueling for left field time.

Vargas:  The big switch-hitter was, according to the radio guys Sunday, leading the International League in RBIs when called up. Statistical luddite Dan Gladden finds that significant. Those of us with a better understanding of how to interpret the stat line don't.

This might be Vargas' last chance with the Twins. They have plenty of DH alternatives, and I have to believe Byung Ho Park still ranks ahead of Vargas in their long-range thinking. And the DH slot offers a chance to feed at-bats to one of the young outfielders, so his opportunities may be limited.

Boshers: Never thought I'd be irritated to see him sent down, but he has a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings with 14 strikeouts. His demotion flies in the face of the Greg McMichael Rule (If you get outs, they'll find a role for you.) He got outs, and he's going back to Rochester.

For now. He'll be back before August, whether to fill a gap created by a trade, an injury or because they need to go back to 13 pitchers. Boshers lost the job not because he failed, but because he was a spot with roster flexibility.

Buddy Boshers and the failed bullpen

Buddy Boshers had
an ERA of 1.42 with
Rochester when he
was called up.

The Twins went back to an eight-man bullpen Wednesday, adding indy-ball refugee Buddy Boshers. To make room on the 25-man roster, Darin Mastroianni went on the 15-day disabled list; to make room on the 40-man roster, Glen Perkins went on the 60-day disabled list.

Boshers is a 28-year-old lefty who got 15.1 major league innings back in 2013 with the Angels and walked eight in those innings. He spent seven seasons in the Angels system and pitched last year in the Atlantic League. He was a non-roster invitee in training camp, one of the pack of guys I categorize as: If  he pitches in Target Field, something went wrong.

Something went wrong is an understatement this Twins season, of course. That Boshers and Brandon Kintzler are in the bullpen is a symptom; that Perkins is out until nobody-knows-when is part of the cause.

The Twins were counting on a late-inning trio (or foursome) of Perkins, Kevin Jepsen, Trevor May and maybe Casey Fien. Perkins was ineffective before being sidelined, and May and Jepsen have essentially matching ERAs of 5.56 and 5.59 respectively. Fien has been waived twice, first by the Twins and then by the Dodgers.

Minnesota's most effective bullpen arms have been Fernando Abad and Michael Tonkin, neither of whom were expected to carry much of the burden coming into the season. Neither has managed to creep into game situation use, although there really haven't been many late leads or ties to protect.

Boshers got the call over J.T. Chargois presumably because (a) he reportedly has a June 15 opt-out in his contract and (b) he's left-handed. There's speculation that Abad and his 0.51 ERA might be spun off relatively soon, which would make more sense than signing him to a mult-year deal.

But Chargois has a chance to be a genuinely useful piece. That cannot be honestly said of most of the current bullpen.