A trade tree

Follow the bouncing roster spot:

In 1999 the Twins drafted right handed pitcher Travis Bowyer in the 20th round. In 2001 they drafted Scott Tyler, also a right-handed pitcher, in the second round. Tyler never got above Double A, but Bowyer reached the majors for eight appearances in 2005.

The Twins traded the two after the 2005 season to the then-Florida Marlins for veteran second baseman Luis Castillo. Castillo was one of the "Piranhas" in 2006; in 2007, with the team out of contention and Castillo approaching free agency, the Twins shipped him to the New York Mets for two minor leaguers, outfielder Dustin Martin and catcher Drew Butera.

Martin is still active, playing this year in the Mexican League, but he has not reached the majors. Butera caught for the Twins 2010-13, then was traded to the Dodgers in a deadline deal for Miguel Sulbaran, a left-handed minor league pitcher.

The following spring, 2014, acting general manager Rob Antony (filling in while Terry Ryan recovered from his cancer treatment) traded Sulbaran to the Yankees for Eduardo Nunez. Sulbaran reached Triple A last year but has not appeared in a game at any level for any team this season.

Nunez, as we know, was a reserve player for the Twins in 2014 and 2015 before emerging as a superutility regular this year, starting games at shortstop, third base and second base and gaining the Twins' All-Star roster spot. As we also know, he was traded Thursday night to the Giants (Antony again) for Adalberto Mejia, a left-handed minor league pitcher.

And the future will tell what Mejia will do -- or be turned into.

This has not been a highly productive trade tree. The Twins have gotten a little more than two seasons of leadoff hitting (Castillo in 2006 and more than half of 2007 plus Nunez this year) and a handful of bench seasons (Butera and Nunez). But it's been more than 17 years since the Twins drafted Bowyer, and that move is still faintly echoing in the system.

Pondering the use of backup catchers

Torii Hunter got Thursday off, which made sense; day game after a night game, and he's not a young guy. Kurt Suzuki started at catcher, and that surprised me. I figured it a good chance to get Chris Herrmann a start. Day game after night game, right-handed pitcher for Detroit, and Herrmann last started on May 6.

That start came against a lefty (Scott Kazmir). Herrmann's previous start was on May 3; it too came against a lefty (John Danks). Thirteen of Herrmann's first 30 plate appearances came against left-handed pitchers. That's probably suboptimal for Herrmann, and I infer that Paul Molitor isn't as interested in matchups with his catchers as I expected him to be/

Suzuki has started 28 of 35 games behind the plate, which pales in comparison to Salvador Perez of Kansas City. Perez sat Thursday; it was only the third game he didn't start behind the plate this season.

Perez's current backup is Drew Butera, who came to the Royals a week ago from the Angels in a trade that involved a minor-league infielder. He's already made two starts fo K.C., which suggests that either

• manager Ned Yost knows he's got to pull back on Perez or
• Yost trusts Butera a lot more than he trusted Eric Kratz, who opened the season as the No. 2 catcher.

Or maybe both. Kratz is on the disabled list, but he barely played when active. A lot of fans look at Butera's anemic hitting stats and wonder why he keeps finding jobs, but managers really do like his defensive chops. Yost has been reluctant to rest Perez for years because Perez is so good defensively; Butera's no Perez, especially throwing, but he's good enough defensively that the dropoff is manageable.

Thoughts on a too-long doubleheader

Kris Johnson walked six and struck out
five in 4.1 shutout innings, an odd
combination of effective inefficency.

Neither Mike Pelfrey nor Kris Johnson did their careers any favors with their performances Thursday.

Johnson wasn't going to stick around after his spot start in the night cap anyway, but six walks in 4.1 innings will not sit well. In and out of trouble; he got 13 outs and allowed 10 baserunners, but somehow no runs.

Pelfrey's issues continue, and the buzz after yet another dismal performance suggested the Twins are about ready to pull the plug on him in the rotation.

If so, the dual questions are: Who replaces him in the rotation, and what do they Twins do with him?

The two are connected. If the Twins decide to move Sam Deduno back into the rotation, they can stick Pelfrey in the long relief role and see if they can't find some value for their $11 million investment. But if they (as I've theorized based on the lack of opportunity given Deduno to make the rotation) prefer to have Deduno in the bullpen -- or if they want to slide Trevor May or Alex Meyer to the big club -- they might wind up releasing Pelfrey and eating the money.

Pelfrey apparently has an option left, but he has enough service time to reject the minor league demotion, and I suspect that would be his choice.

I didn't expect him to be great, or even particularly good, but I didn't expect him to be this bad either. The velocity is down and the command is as spotty as ever. He's a pitch-to-contact guy who pitches as if he's afraid to pitch to contact. That cannot work.

---

I wasn't a bit surprised, after watching Aaron Hicks run into the centerfield fence in the second game, when he left with "concussion-like symptoms." Frankly, he looked on the TV screen like he was concussed. The surprise was that he remained in the game as long as he did.

---

Drew Butera, offensive machine: The weak-hitting former Twin, effectively the Dodgers' No. 1 catcher while A.J. Ellis is on the disabled list, had two hits Wednesday in his return to Target Field. On Thursday, he hit a home run and drew two four-pitch walks.

There may be no greater testimony to the struggles of the Minnesota pitching staff than that.

Kurt Suzuki and other catchers

Kurt Suzuki strokes a two-run double Monday.

Kurt Suzuki hit second in the Twins lineup on Opening Day, and for one day, at least, it worked. The veteran catcher singled and doubled and had all three of the Twins's RBIs.

Good for him. The fact remains that he has complied more than 3,200 major league plate appearances and has a career OPS-plus that is 14 percent below league average. He doesn't belong in the upper half of a major league lineup.

My fear is that Ron Gardenhire will remember this one game of production and base the lineups for the next month on it.

---

The Twins had a chance late in the game to get back in it. They were down three going into the eighth, and Aaron Hicks led off with a double. With Pedro Florimon due up against the lefty Chris Sale, Gardenhire sent up a pinch-hitter — not hard-hitting catcher Josmil Pinto, but light-hitting Eduardo Escobar.

Really.

Escobar struck out (I'm tempted to say of course), and while Suzuki later drove in Hicks, the potential rally went no further. Pinto never got into the game.

Keeping Jason Bartlett over Chris Herrmann is a curious decision on the face of it. If this kind of player use is the result, the roster decision looks even worse.

---

Remember 2011, when Joe Mauer missed about half the season and the catching load in his absence was carried by the duo of Drew Butera and Rene Rivera? Yeah, you were trying to forget that; those two make Suzuki's numbers look good.

Well, Butera made the Dodgers roster; he's the backup to A.J. Ellis. And Rivera not only made the Padres roster, he started their opener Sunday night.

Never underestimate how much teams value defensive skills at catcher.

---

The Washington Nationals were (are) not only counting on Wilson Ramos (once the Twins' top prospect) as their regular catcher, but as their cleanup hitter as well.

The oft-injured backstop didn't make it through Monday's opener, however. He left in the seventh inning with a hand injury, and the Washington Post reported he fractured a bone. The Nats announced, however, that a preliminary X-ray showed no fracture. More exams are expected.

The end of the Drew Butera era

Drew Butera leaves
the Twins with a
lifetime slash line of
.182/.230/.263.

In the end the Twins did make a deadline deal Wednesday: They shipped catcher Drew Butera to the Dodgers for the proverbial player to be named later. Or cash. My guess is that, as with Jim Thome a couple years ago, it will wind up being cash, and not a lot of it.

Butera has serious defensive skills behind the plate, but he is well short of being a major-league hitter. If one could combine his defense with Ryan Doumit's bat — at least the Doumit of previous seasons — you'd have a star. Heck, if he could just hit like Brian Dozier, he'd be a legitimate regular somewhere.

The Dodgers apparently picked up Butera because they intend to carry three catchers after the rosters expand in September and they like Butera more than their current options for catcher No. 3. As anemic as Butera's bat is, he might be better than their current No. 2, Tim Federowicz, who is hitting .204/.243/.347.

Butera's future once past this season isn't particularly bright. I believe this was his final option season, which means teams will be reluctant to sign him to major-league contracts unless they expect to carry him on the 25-man roster. He's probably now looking at a series of minor-league deals and seasons at Triple A waiting for a gap to open on the big club.

As for the Twins, they still have four catchers on their 40-man roster — Joe Mauer, Doumit and Chris Herrmann on the major league club and Josmil Pinto, who's been hammering the ball in Double A. Mauer is Mauer, Doumit has another year on his deal, Herrmann is a rookie and Pinto has yet to make his debut, so there really wasn't much room or need for Butera, especially with his roster flexibility vanishing this winter.

All the multi-position catchers

Dan Rohlfing has
had a good spring:
.296/.367/.593 in
30 plate appearances.

 

The Twins on Monday optioned out Drew Butera, which means they'll carry two catchers — Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit — who'll both be in the lineup at five to six days a week. Catching, DHing, corner outfield, first base — flexibility is the byword.

Flexibility and hitting. Mauer's a gifted defensive catcher and Doumit is not, but they both hit well enough to be used at less important defensive positions. Butera is a good receiver, but he's not a quality hitter; there's no gain to have him play first base or left field.

The Twins also on Monday officially reassigned Dan Rohlfing, the last of the many non-roster catching invitees, to minor-league camp, but kept him on the major league side for depth. I'm not sure what, as a practical matter, the difference is between being a non-roster invitee and being a minor-leaguer on the major league side, but Butera's gone from the clubhouse and, at least as of Monday, Rohlfing was not.

Rohlfing's minor league record doesn't scream prospect, but he appears to have made an impression in camp, even if (or perhaps because) he played quite a bit at other positions than his native catcher.

Multi-position catchers seem to be proliferating in the Twins organization. Mauer. Doumit. Chris Herrmann, who figures to play at lot at Triple-A Rochester, has played considerable outfield in the Twins system and was a third baseman in college. Rohlfing, who has split the past two years between high A and Double A, has a few dozen games in the outfield in the minors and has played considerable first base this spring.

Catcher is a specialty position, and as illustrated by the fact that Drew Butera has almost three years and more than 500 plate appearances in the majors with a  .183 career batting average, defensive chops behind the plate are valued. Most catchers are strictly catchers.

The Twins appear to be making a conscious effort to break that mold.

But Herrmann and Rohlfing and any other multi-position catcher — perhaps Mike Kvasnicka, the Minnesota native and former Gopher the Twins traded for Monday — have to hit to make their multi-position ability meaningful.

Do the Twins need a pinch-hit specialist?

Chris Colabello
hit .284/.358/.478
in his first season
in the affiliated
minors last year.

For most of 2012, the Twins carried three catchers, two of whom were generally in the starting lineup. Joe Mauer had about half his playing time behind the dish (72 starts) and split the rest between first base (30 starts) and designated hitter (42 starts); Ryan Doumit started 56 games at catcher, 48 at DH, 16 in left field and six in right field; Drew Butera started 32 games at catcher; and Chris Herrmann picked up the other two catcher starts.

The primary reason for carrying the third catcher was the 90 games — a bit more than half the season — of DH duties for Mauer and Doumit. Catcher is a highly specialized defensive position, and managers are loathe to be without one on the bench in case of injury. While a DH can take the field, the result is that the pitchers would have to hit for the remainder of the game.

Mauer, at least in theory, is to catch more this year, and if that does occur, Doumit is likely to get a heavier share of the DH duties. In which case the basic motivation for granting a roster spot to Butera remains intact, even though the playing time would diminish.

But Ron Gardenhire said last week that he's not committed to carrying three catchers, and that he wants to have a pinch-hitting threat on his bench this year — probably thinking in terms of hitting for Pedro Florimon, the front runner for the shortstop job.

This line of thought, coupled with Jim Thome's public appeal for a job, has a goodly portion of the Twins twitterverse hoping for Thome's return. I'm not in favor; I think Thome's about done, and even if he isn't, he's not a particularly good fit for the Twins roster.

Thome's tried being a pinch-hit specialist a couple of times for National League teams, and has found he needs a steady dose of at-bats. Using him as a DH would necessarily take at-bats away from one of the Doumit-Chris Parmelee-Mauer-Justin Morneau-Josh Willingham collection of catchers/first basemen/corner outfielders. While it's not a bad idea to spell Doumit (and perhaps Parmelee) against left-handed pitchers, Thome is not the guy to do that with.

If the Twins do forego a third catcher in order to carry a bench bat, better that it be a right-handed hitter. I don't know that they have that guy in camp — maybe non-roster invitee Chris Colabello, a 29-year-old refugee from an independent league who had a big season with the Twins Double A club last year. Colabello will be leaving camp soon to play for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, but he's gotten a couple of notable hits in the early exhibition games.

If Colabello, or someone of his right-handed ilk, wins the roster spot, he could get his "stay-sharp" at-bats against lefties and, at least in theory, improve the lineup by limiting Doumit's right-handed at-bats.

Gardenhire has shown little concern over the years about maximizing the platoon advantage with his hitters, and would probably prefer Thome to Colabello (or any right-handed hitter). That scenario appears to me a case in which the front office — meaning general manager Terry Ryan — needs to protect Gardenhire from himself.

What to make of all these catchers

Ryan Doumit started
56 games at catcher in
2012, 48 as the DH,
16 in left field
and six in right field.

One of my Tweeps expressed surprise last night that the Twins would have nine catchers in training camp. My response was that, with 34 pitchers scheduled to be in camp as well, they need a lot of catchers to handle all those throwing sessions. (Last year they also had nine catchers in camp.)

The truly noteworthy thing is that so many of the nine -- five -- are on the 40-man roster:

• Joe Mauer, three-time batting champ, former MVP, perennial All-Star, future Hall of Famer -- and the starter of just 119 games the past two seasons behind the plate;
• Ryan Doumit, whose left-handed bat is strong, whose right-handed bat is relatively weak and whose defense (at catcher, in the outfield or at first base) is weaker still;
• Drew Butera, a fine receiver who cannot hit;
• Chris Herrmann,who had a good season in Double A and is probably ticketed for Triple A Rochester; and
• Josmil Pinto, who made Baseball America's Class A all-star team for his .295/.361/.473 season at high-A Fort Myers and matched those numbers in a brief Double A stint.

The four non-roster invitees, who will be there to handle bullpen sessions and ease the strain on the other five:

Danny Lehmann
hit .185 in 164
plate appearances
last season in
Double A and
Triple A combined.

• Eric Fryer, a minor league free agent and Triple A veteran;
• Danny Lehmann, a Butera type who split 2012 between Double A New Britain and Triple A Rochester;
• Dan Rohlfing, who split 2012 between Fort Myers and New Britain; and
• Kyle Knutson, a former Gopher who spent 2012 at low A Beloit and figures to move up to Fort Myers.

A few years ago, when the Twins were carrying Mauer, Butera, Mike Redmond, Jose Morales and Wilson Ramos on the 40, they were the only team with so many backstops on the roster. It's not so unique now -- both Boston and Tampa Bay currently list five catchers on their 40-man rosters, and I only checked the one division -- but it still seems like a lot of catchers. Five catchers is 12.5 percent of the roster space.

In the Twins case, at least two of the five -- Doumit and Herrmann -- figure to see considerable time in the outfield. Mauer is supposed to see his time behind the dish escalate, and it will be worth watching to see who loses time as a result, Doumit or Butera. One hundred twenty starts for Mauer leaves 42 for the reserves, and that's a fourth of the season. That's a good slice, but it's about half the load they had to carry in 2012.

Drew Butera has a
$700,000 contract for
the coming season.

Butera, we can easily see from his stats, is a terrible hitter. It's less easy to see in the stats that Doumit is a terrible catcher, but that's his reputation. And the sabermetric research into catching, primitive as it is, backs his reputation as a lousy receiver.

If Mauer is really going to start 120 games behind the plate, do the Twins need to carry three catchers? My guess is that Doumit would see most of his playing time at designated hitter, and given the uniqueness of the catching job, Ron Gardenhire's going to feel a lot more comfortable with Butera as his defensive insurance policy. If Doumit truly gives away as many runs as the piece linked to above surmises, the pitchers will be a lot better with Butera getting the bulk of those 42 games anyway.

These, then, figure to be the catching battles to come in training camp:

• For playing time behind Mauer, between Doumit and Butera;
• For a roster spot, between Butera, Herrmann and every option that doesn't include a third catcher (the two-catcher approach being more of a threat to Butera this March than Herrmann is);
• For jobs in the high minors behind -- probably -- Herrmann at Triple A and Pinto at Double A, between Lehmann, Fryer and Rohlfing. Their positions get all the weaker if Butera doesn't stick in the majors.

Eye on 2013: Drew Butera vs. Chris Herrmann

Chris Herrmann hit
.276/.350/.392 in
New Britain.

With both Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit sidelined by injuries that may well prove persistent for what remains of the season, the Twins decided to add a fourth catcher.

The arrival Friday of Chris Herrmann is seen in some corners of Twinsdom as the next step in supplanting Drew Butera as the No. 3 catcher. I'm not so sure.

Herrmann is a left-handed hitter who has displayed strong on-base skills but limited power in the minors. He was an outfielder in college, so he's spent a couple of years being converted to catcher, but has gotten considerable playing time in the outfield as well as behind the dish.

This makes Herrmann something of a mirror image of Butera — a bit rough defensively, a left-handed hitter who can reach base. Sort of like Jose Morales, who lost out to Butera for the backup job a few years ago, except with position flexibility. Or like Doumit, only with less power (and a bit more speed).

Which is why I doubt that Herrmann is likely to supplant Butera next season. I think it more likely that Herrmann, who spent this season at Double A, will play in Rochester next year. The Twins demonstrated a couple years ago that they preferred Butera's defensive chops to Morales's batting average; there's not a lot of sense in having two bat-first backup catchers. Doumit and Herrmann are rather redundant; Doumit and Butera are complementary.

Rene Rivera hit
.226/.307.385 in
Rochester.

Meanwhile, Rene Rivera — who spent a good part of 2011 on the active roster and all of 2012 in Triple A Rochester hoping for a call — is apparently steamed at being passed over for Herrmann.  Rivera on Twitter Friday:

I guess I should not expect promises to be kept. Best of luck to everyone #Disappointed #Lies

Well ... Redundancy again. Rivera is the same kind of player as Butera:  Catch-and-throw guy, not a good hitter, right-handed all the way. Were it, say, Mauer and Butera who were hurt, calling up Rivera to back up Doumit would provide a mix of skills. Herrmann gives the Twins a mix.

That kind of logic, obviously, isn't going to salve Rivera's wounded feelings. I would anticipate that he won't be re-signing with the Twins this winter, that he'll find another team to serve as organizational depth.

The holes in the rotation

I missed out on almost all the Twins four-game winning streak last week while on my minor league journey. The games and my schedule were so aligned that even with the MLB At Bat app I was out of touch for all but a handful of innings.

So I missed the good stuff and was back in the loop for the latest -- and perhaps the last -- exhibition of pitching malpractice from Jason Marquis.

It may seem inarguable that Marquis should be out of his job, but the Twins haven't yet made it so. And it may be that putting Nick Blackburn on the disabled list has given Marquis a bit more rope.

The Twins have one (temporary) rotation hole to fill. Release Marquis, and they have a lasting hole to fill. What are their options?

1) Francisco Liriano. Ron Gardenhire has said that the Liriano-to-the-bullpen move was intended to be temporary, that he wants Liriano back in the rotation sooner rather than later.

Liriano got through some high-leverage outings during the winning streak. I don't know if he was so good that Gardenhire can feel confident that Liriano is ready to return to starting -- and I would think that they'd want to avoid starting him until they are sure they won't be pulling him out of the rotation again.

2) Liam Hendricks. The Aussie, demoted after four increasingly ineffective starts, has been impressive in three Triple A starts: 2-0, 1.93, 16 strikeouts in 18.2 innings. He remains the best long-term starting prospect in the upper levels of the system.

3) Cole DeVries, a right-handed pitcher, Minnesota native, 27 years old, at Rochester. His 1-4, 4.20 record  isn't impressive; his walk/strikeout ratio is. Seth Stohs, who knows the Twins system better than anybody else not employed by the team, is agitating for DeVries to get his shot.

4) Brian Duensing. He's been effective as a relief pitcher, and Gardenhire was talking a while back about returning him to the rotation on the throughly correct logic that his bullpen work was of little use if the starters were taking the team out of games early.

Duensing lost his starting job last year because he couldn't get right-handers out. So far, he's gotten the job done against righties.

5) Drew Butera. OK, not really. But the catcher showed off mid-90s velocity in his inning of work mopping up Sunday's mess, and didn't appear to be working all that hard.

Sort of makes me wonder if he shouldn't have been made a pitcher from the get-go.

Thoughts on Butera, Burroughs and Plouffe

Drew Butera is to
open 2012 in the
minors.

The Twins optioned out Drew Butera this morning and told him they were going to carry two catchers.

J.R. Towles remains in camp, and I believe fellow non-roster invitee Danny Lehmann does as well, but their status will change in the coming days.

Reading between the lines, it is increasingly obvious that Justin Morneau is going to spend most of his time as the designated hitter, which means Ryan Doumit will get most of his at-bats playing a position. This is not going to help the defense, but many of the Twins decisions of the past week have been in the direction of sacrificing defense for offense.

* The chatter this morning has Sean Burroughs making the 25-man roster. I don't see a good reason for this.

What is his role? Burroughs is not -- or shouldn't -- going to play third ahead of Danny Valencia. He's not -- and even more emphatically shouldn't -- play first ahead of Chris Parmelee. While there was chatter all spring about running him out at second base, that hasn't happened, nor should it.

Sean Burroughs has
a career slugging
percentage of .357
in more than 1,800
MLB at-bats.

Burroughs profiles as a pinch-hitter. Left-handed, hits for average, almost no power, limited on defense to the corner infield. (Not that he's good there either; on Friday, playing first base, he allowed a Boston runner to score from second on a sac bunt.) That makes him a reasonable fit on a National League roster, not so much on an AL squad -- especially one that doesn't have a legitimate middle infield backup.

* In connection with that last point, Trevor Plouffe is starting Saturday's exhibition game at second base. This is apparently to prepare him for such use after pinch-hitting for Alexi Casilla or Jamey Carroll.

It's perfectly logical. He has established that he's an awful middle infielder, so the Twins had him spend the   winter and spring focusing on becoming an outfielder. This is bound to make him a better infielder. How can it not?

Camp battle: Extra catcher

Drew Butera had
the most time behind
the plate for the
2011 Twins.

The Twins have nine catchers in camp: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Drew Butera, Rene Rivera, J.R. Towles, Danny Lehmann, Chris Herrmann, Dan Rohlfing and Danny Rams.

The first two are assured spots on the 25-man roster. The second three are duking it out for a likely roster spot, with the two losers going to Rochester to await a call. The other four are around to catch bullpens, fill in at the end of exhibitions and try to leave a positive impression on Ron Gardenhire and Co.

Of those four, Herrmann is the one with the brightest future, but he remains a bit raw behind the plate. For this spring, he's not in the running; by next year, he might be the frontrunner to the backup catcher job.

For now, it's Butera, Rivera and Towles. A quick summary:

The Twins outrighted
Rene Rivera after the
2011 season, but
he opted to return on
a minor-league deal.

Butera has the advantage of being on the 40-man roster. He still has an option. A good defensive catcher (which Doumit emphatically is not) but no hitter.

Rivera is somewhat like Butera, except slower and not on the 40-man roster. Rivera put up even worse numbers in 2011 than Butera.

Butera's OPS+ -- a figure that adjusts On-base Plus Slugging for park effects and league -- was 24, which means he was 24 percent of league average at the plate. Rivera's OPS+ was 13. It is astoundingly difficult to hit that poorly and remain in the majors.

Which brings us to Towles, a thus-far failed prospect signed as a minor-league free agent after years in the Houston organization. He burst through the Astros system in a rush, but was unable to hang on to the job there in three opportunities.

While his minor league numbers generally look good, it should be remembered that the Texas League (Double-A) and Pacific Coast League (Triple A) are generally better for hitters than the Eastern and International Leagues, where the Twins have their affiliates.

J.R. Towles signed
in mid-December as
a minor-league free
agent.

I will take it for granted that Towles is a better hitter than Butera or Rivera; he can hardly be worse. And I will also take it for granted that Towles is a better receiver than Doumit; again, he can hardly be worse.

This may come down to how much the Twins really want Doumit to catch. He's supposed to do the bulk of the DHing, but the Twins under even the most optimistic scenario need someone other than Mauer to catch 30 to 40 games. If they are willing to live with Doumit's defense in most of those games, a defensive specialist might make sense; Butera or Rivera would be around to serve as a defensive sub for Doumit or a caddy for Mauer (taking the final few innings in blowouts).

But if Doumit is to be more tightly limited than that, the No. 3 guy might wind up with 200 or so plate appearances, and the Twins may well prefer Towles for that job.

The Twins "fun bunch"

John Shipley, beat writer for the Pioneer Press, was on ESPN 1500 Wednesday night talking about covering the Twins at the end of their misbegotten 2011 season. I listened to some of it on a static-ridden car radio while waiting in a parking lot for my wife.

Trevor Plouffe  

It shouldn't be any surprise to hear that September was a miserable month to be around that team. A lot of grumpy people taking too many losses and itching for the season to end.

What I found interesting was Shipley's description of what he called "the fun bunch" -- a collection of young players who didn't appear to be taking the job seriously. He named, specifically, Trevor Plouffe, Danny Valencia and Drew Butera, and said that the team took steps to split them up in the clubhouse (I assume by shifting lockers.)

Chris Parmelee was emphatically not part of the fun bunch. He saw September as a chance to make an impression, and he took advantage. As a serious fan watching the games, I was impressed by the consistent quality of Parmelee's at-bats; Shipley was impressed by his demeanor.

There was an incident, fairly early in the season, in which it was reported that a "veteran" had loudly and profanely told off "a young player" who was pleased with himself  during a losing streak. While it was never specified who was who, my assumption was/is that the veteran was Justin Morneau or Michael Cuddyer and the youngster was Valencia or Plouffe.

Whoever was involved, Shipley's description of September suggests the lesson didn't take.

I'm unsure how much weight to put on this. None of the three players Shipley named had a good season, but is that the result of a "who cares" approach, or is the attitude an attempt to cope with failure and maintain the emotional "even keel"  that Tom Kelly talked about so much? I don't know.

But if (a) a player isn't doing the job as well as expected and (b) the people in charge perceive him as being flippant about it, then (c) that doesn't bode well for the player's future.

Pic of the Week

Drew Butera goofs in the rain on Sunday in Cleveland.

This kind of thing — a player going out during a rain delay and sliding on the tarp — happens occasionally, but nobody ever did it with more flair than Rick Dempsey, who I think started the whole thing.

Once a year or so Dempsey would provide some entertainment for those fans sticking around during a rain delay with his Babe Ruth act. He would stuff a pillow or two under his uniform shirt and mimic the Bambino: Stand at home plate left handed and pantomime the Babe's swing, then trot down to first base —and then start doing belly-whopper slides into second, third and home.

Dempsey was the king of the rain delay sliders. All others are pale imitations.

Preparing for the return of Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer has spent most of the past two months in
Fort. Myers, Fla., on a rehab assignment.

This jab at the AL All-Star voting has a more subtle implication as well: It illustrates how much better Joe Mauer is than the rest of the league's catchers. Mauer has played in nine games this season, and he still leads all backstops in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) year-to-year.

Speculation has Mauer's return to the lineup near -- perhaps as soon as Tuesday -- and that, in turn, has me wondering how the Twins will make room on their roster.

Obviously, one of the two current catchers will be removed from the 25-man roster. I don't know what Rene Rivera's option status is, but I'm sure Drew Butera has options left. It would be easy to clear space off the active roster by demoting Butera.

But there's more to it than that. Mauer is on the 60-day disabled list, which means he's not on the 40 man roster. To put him on the 25 he has to be on the 40, and right now there's no room for him.

If the Twins (a) prefer Butera to Riviera and (b) doubt anyone would claim Rivera, they could designate Rivera for assignment. I think it more likely that they'll waive a pitcher (Dusty Hughes would be a prime candidate) and option out Butera. That will let the Twins keep control of both.

I wish, however, to point out that Butera now has a seven-game hitting streak (yes he does),  including three doubles, a home run, six runs scored and six RBIs. This burst of heavy hitting leaves him with a slash line of .174/.207/.261, which is still pretty pathetic.

Rivera isn't a great hitter either -- if he were. he wouldn't have washed out with Seattle, wouldn't have gone five years between major league appearances -- but he's better than Butera. Butera probably has better defensive skills than Rivera, but Rivera is a good receiver too.

If Mauer's sound, either is an acceptable reserve.

Notes, quotes and comment (catcher division)

A s a general thing, backup catchers aren't asked to win games so much as they are expected to avoid losing them. 

Steve Holm takes that concept a bit further:

"I think most people are realistic in knowing that no team has someone who's going to replace Joe Mauer," Holm said. "It's not like I'm trying to actually do that. ... You don't try to duplicate that.

"Like the old adage, you don't want to be noticed. You just want to do your job, and at the end of the day, don't do anything noticeable."

The first part, about not trying to replace Mauer, is eminently sensible. The part about not doing anything noticeable ... well, that might be part of why Holm's spent so much time in the minors. Drew Butera, after all, had three RBIs Monday night, which is certainly noticeable.

---

We're more than a week from this becoming an issue, but I'm wondering what Holm's option status is. My assumption with a 31-year-old player with his tenure in the minors is that he's out of options, but Holm may not be. He does have two partial major league seasons, so I'm sure at least two of his three options are gone. 

This becomes relevant when Joe Mauer is ready to return to action. If Holm is out of options, the Twins would have to waive him to send him back to Rochester. If the Twins don't want to risk losing him, their alternative is to instead option out Butera.

---

Jose Morales, traded during the winter to Colorado, is the Rockies backup catcher. I got to see a few innings of the Rox' win against the Cubs on Sunday with Morales behind the dish. He's hitting .273 in 14 at-bats, which seems about right.

I wrote about this at the time, but given the Twins' current catching situation it's worth repeating: The Twins traded Morales because he was out of options and behind Butera on their depth chart, the Twins having decided they prefer Butera's superior defense to Morales' batting average. They used the roster spot opened by the trade to sign Jim Thome.

Had they kept Morales and dumped somebody else to make room for Thome, they still would have had to move Morales at the end of spring training (unless they decided to keep him over Butera). So I don't fault the Twins for trading him.

Meanwhile, the minor league pitcher the Twins got in the deal, Paul Bargas, is apparently in tough shape with an unspecified neurological condition. 

The Twins' Thursday curse

When and if Joe Mauer moves to another position,
the odds are back problems will be a catalyst in the shift.

Another Thursday, another Twins loss, another key injury.

Last week it was Tsuyoshi Nishioka's broken fibula; yesterday it was Joe Mauer's "bilateral leg weakness." He was put on the disabled list and is to see the specialist who treated his sacroiliac joint in 2009.

This diagnosis was a new one to me, but the more I learn of it the more concerned I become. Presumably this is rooted in his back, and it is back issues that generally sabotage the careers of tall catchers. Mauer is listed at 6-foot-5 and may be taller than that; he is definitely a tall catcher.

I've been dismissive of the chronic talk of moving Mauer to another position, and I would like to continue to be dismissive of that notion. Two disabling back injuries in a little more than two years (if that's the cause) makes that a difficult position to maintain.

There is much unknown about the outlook, including the exact cause and even when Mauer will see the specialist. so it's premature to declare that his catching days are numbered. What we do know for a fact is that he won't be catching for at least two weeks, and we also know that the Twins, having traded both Wilson Ramos and Jose Morales in the past year, are not particularly deep in catchers now.

Presumably Drew Butera will be the primary catcher while Mauer is sidelined. Steve Holm, a 31-year-old minor league veteran who hit .400 (in 15 at-bats) in spring training, has been called up to serve as the backup. Holm has all of 53 major league games on his resume -- which is what Butera has after Thursday's game.

There is, obviously, a big drop off from Joe Mauer to Butera and Holm. If Mauer's going to be out for a prolonged period, the Twins may have to shop for outside help.

Resting Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer caught last night for the Twins. This is noteworthy only because Carl Pavano was the starting pitcher, and Pavano has been paired for months with backup catcher Drew Butera.

There were good reasons for breaking the pattern Thursday.

• Jason Kubel was out with an injury;
• Starting Butera means sitting either Mauer or Jim Thome;
• It was a game to really break any hope of resistance from the White Sox.

So Mauer played, and got another couple of hits (including his 42nd double; the team record is 47). And the Twins won, and now have a nine-game lead in the division.

And I fully expect Mauer to get a full day off this weekend, maybe a DH day as well. He should.

Regular time off from the rigors
of catching benefits Joe Mauer,
but it's easier said than done.

A Free Press colleague, Chad Courrier, was telling me Thursday of a talk-show caller who claimed the biggest hit of the Twins season was Mauer's failed bunt. After that, the reasoning went, he got hot. There's some truth to that, but it oversimplifies things.

You may remember the play. On July 20, the Twins were rallying. Two on, one out, tied game -- and Mauer tried, and failed, to bunt for a hit. Kubel also went out, and the Twins lost the game by a run. Mauer was royally reamed in press and cyberspace.

My take on the play was that Mauer was admitting on the field what he may not have been willling to admit in words -- he was too beat up, too sore, to play at his accustomed level.

These things happened shortly after that: Jose Morales was called up. Mauer got a cortisone shot in his ailing right shoulder. Butera caught every day for a week, nine starts in 15 games. For more than two weeks, Mauer spent little time behind the dish. He got rested, and he started hitting again.

And ... Butera was paired with Pavano, building an automatic day off from behind the plate into Mauer's schedule.

I wrote here during spring training that, for purposes of keeping Mauer healthy and productive through the length of his contract, that he should be limited to 125-130 games caught in a season. He's at 108 now, with the postseason still to come.

That total is about right. How they got there was dicey.

Gardenhire's iron men

Day game after a night game, and Drew Butera had caught four in a row. But Joe Mauer's shoulder is still bothering him, and the Tampa Bay Rays run the bases too aggressively for Ron Gardenhire to tolerate having Jose Morales catch, so Butera started Thursday's nooner. (Actually, 11 a.m. in Florida.)

Which fits the ethos of the backup catcher. The criteria of resting the catcher doesn't apply to him. His father, Sal, knew about that. In 1981 the elder Butera caught 25 games in 28 days when the Twins were shorthanded behind the dish. In that span, his only days off came when the team didn't play.

So it wasn't overly surprising that the younger Butera caught Thursday. He even had an RBI double.

What DID surprise me was that Gardy brought in Jesse Crain to pitch for the fourth game in a row. Gardenhire loves to ride hot hands in the bullpen, and annually is at least among the leaders in using pitchers on back-to-back days, but four in a row was pushing it.

He had an almost-equally hot Ron Mahay warming up at the same time but brought in Crain with the bases loaded (two out) to face the switch hitting Willy Aybar. Aybar for his career is better from the left side, so that wasn't the point of bringing the righty.

Crain walked Aybar to force in a run. Then Mahay entered and perhaps demonstrated why Gardenhire has been reluctant to use him in game situations; pinch-hitter Jason Bartlett hit a grand slam to tie the game.

The Twins wound up winning anyway, with a little help from the bizarrities of Tropicana Field.

I will be very surprised if Crain pitches Friday. Or Saturday.

On Number 4

As a copy editor who makes his share of on-deadline mistakes (and perhaps other people's share as well), I should be loathe to jeer at somebody else's.

That said ... during my dinner break Wednesday evening I was pursuing how the metro papers handled the Brett Favre story, and was struck by this phrasing in a Pioneer Press story bearing the byline of John Shipley, who has spent much of this season covering the Twins:

... only the latest in a long line of hemming and hawing from Minnesota's favorite No. 4 (sorry, Drew Butera).

You probably know the problem with that. Drew Butera wears No. 41.

According to this compilation of Twins jersey numbers -- which is up-to-date enough to have Alexi Casilla wearing No. 12 this year (having yielded his old 25 to Jim Thome) -- no Twin has worn No. 4 since the immortal Augie Ojeda in 2004.

I'm not sure why there've been no 4's since then. It's not like they're expecting to retire the number as soon as Ojeda gets elected to the Hall of Fame or something, and it's a pretty good number to have vacant for so long. But Paul Molitor is working in the system, and I've seen him in uniform during spring training, so that's probably the reason.

Molitor and Favre. No. 4 seems to have a pretty strong Minnesota-Wisconsin connection, doesn't it?