Tinkering with the edges of the 40-man roster

The Twins on Friday announced that four players — outfielder Jason Repko, catcher Rene Rivera, pitcher Anthony Slama and infielder Matt Tolbert — had been outrighted to Triple-A Rochester and thus removed from the 40-man major league roster.

The four are all low-ceiling players and out of options. The move also indicates that the Twins don't see them as likely to make the 25-man roster coming out of spring training, which is interesting since two of them (Repko and Tolbert) did in 2011.

Let's read between the lines on each player and try to decipher what their demotion tells us about the Twins' plans for 2012:

Jason Repko hit
.226/.270/.286.

Repko: Had he remained on the 40, he'd have been arbitration eligible, and thus in line for a substantial raise. That wasn't going to happen.

Beyond the finances, Repko's value is diminished by the rise of Ben Revere and Rene Tosoni. Repko isn't needed as a backup center fielder. Tosoni is a better hitter — and a left-handed hitter, something managers tend to value in a fourth (or fifth) outfielder.

We don't know how the Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel free agencies will play out, but right now we can assume that the Twins will break camp with Revere and Denard Span as outfield regulars, Tosoni as a reserve, and a veteran holding down right field while Joe Benson gets a year in Triple A.

Rene Rivera hit
.144/.211/.202.

Rivera: Drew Butera stays, Rivera goes. Both are catch-and-throw guys; neither can hit. On a team whose regular catcher starts 130-plus games, either is an acceptable backup; you don't want them catching 100-plus games.

So how do you pick between the two? I believe Butera still has options. I rather expect the Twins to look this winter for a No. 2 catcher who offers something at the plate, in which case Butera goes to Rochester and waits for an injury.

Slama: His minor league numbers have always been better than his scouting reports. The Twins clearly don't think his stuff and command will work in the majors. Plus he had some arm issues in 2010.

He may not have gotten a clean shake from the Twins — seven major league innings is hardly enough to prove that what worked for him in the minors won't work in the bigs — but life isn't always fair.

Matt Tolbert hit
.198/.252./.266.

Tolbert: A victim of the numbers game. The Twins know they have to revamp their middle infield. They have an investment in Tsuyoshi Nishioka; Alexi Casilla was the best of a bad lot; Trevor Plouffe still intrigues somebody with his bat. Plus there's Brian Dozier, their minor league player of the year, who ought to get a good look during spring training.

That's four holdovers, plus the likelihood that the Twins will import somebody from the outside.

Like Repko, Tolbert is arbitration eligible; again, there's no way the Twins were going to give him a big raise.

Misplaced blame

Another Twins game, another Twins loss, another Twins
injury: Jason Repko left Sunday's game after being hit
in the head by a Justin Masterson pitch.

The Twins found a fresh way Sunday to extend their losing streak (now at eight games). Instead of having their starting pitcher get shelled early, they took a 3-0 lead into the seventh and then imploded.

I got some sour amusement out of listening to Dick Bremer try to put the six-run seventh off to bad luck. On the assumption that most of you were watching the Vikings, here's how it went down:

Shelley Duncan homered. 3-1 Twins.
Lonnie Chisenhall reached on an error by first baseman Chris Parmalee.
Jason Donald flied to right.
Ezequiel Carerra grounded into a force play (Twins unable to get two on a grounder back to the mound).
Lou Marson singled; first and third,
Kosuke Fukodome walked. Bases loaded.
Jose Mijares relieved Carl Pavano.
Jason Kipnis walked; Carrera scored; 3-2 Twins.
Alex Burnett relieved Mijares.
Carlos Santana walks; Marson scored; tied at 3.
Glen Perkins relieved Burnett.
Jim Thome broke his bat, beat out an infield single, Fukodome scored. 4-3, Cleveland.
Duncan doubled to left;  Kipnis and Santana scored, 6-3 Cleveland.
Chisenhall grounded to second.

You go through that mess, and what at-bats jump out at you? Parmalee's error; the failed DP ball; the bases loaded walks by Mijares and Burnett, the bullpen's one-out specialists.

What jumped out at Bremer? Thome's broken-bat infield hit.

Look, that was just bad luck. Perkins did his job; the infielders were playing Thome where they're supposed to play him. The error, the uncompleted DP, the bases loaded walks — those were bad plays. By the time Thome came up the lead was gone. Had the Twins made the plays in the field, Pavano finishes the seventh with a 3-1 lead. Had Mijares or Burnett performed their speciality jobs, the inning ends before Thome's at-bat with the Twins in the lead.

To call Thome's fluke hit the key at-bat of the inning, as Bremer did repeatedly, is to twist the actual event beyond recognition.

Jamie Hoffmann, Jason Repko and the "ideal" backup outfielder

The NUN -- that's "New Ulm Native" -- Jamie Hoffmann had just four days in The Show before being shipped back to Triple A. One pinch-hit appearance, one start in left field, 0-for-4. Called up on April 11, optioned back out on the 15th.

Like Jamie Hoffmann,
Jason Repko came up
though the Dodgers
farm system.

I suspect one reason his career isn't getting much traction is that he hits right-handed. And when one ponders the makeup of most major league benches, that's a bit of a drawback.

Every team has, or at least needs, a fourth or fifth outfielder capable of filling in at center field for a few days. That player, as a rule, will be fast but not a particularly powerful hitter. (Someone like Willie Mays would be the ideal fourth outfielder, but nobody has three outfielders good enough to force a Mays to the bench.)

The Twins' fourth outfielder, strictly speaking, is Jason Kubel, but he's not a CF candidate. Jason Repko is the backup CF, and he's right-handed, which makes him an exception to the general rule. Lefties and switch-hitters get the edge in this competition because most pitchers are right-handed and, when dealing with marginal talents, the platoon advantage matters. Repko fits the need because the Twins regular lineup is so left-handed.

Hoffmann, in contrast, is blocked by Tony Gwynn Jr., who can't hit like daddy did (few do) but is a very good defensive outfielder and hits left-handed. Last spring, as a Rule V player with the Yankees, Hoffmann lost out to a pair of veterans in Randy Winn (left-handed) and Marcus Thames (right-handed), but the job of second center fielder was filled by Brett Gardner (left-handed), the regular left fielder.

The game has a bias for left-handed players. Hoffmann, so far, has been handicapped by being a righty.

Interpreting the Neshek and Repko contracts

Generally, when arbitration-eligible players sign contracts just before the tender deadline, it indicates that

• They were candidates to be dropped by their team; and
• They weren't sure they would land 40-man roster spots elsewhere.

Things aren't necessarily
looking up for Pat Neshek

Thus the Twins' Pat Neshek and Jason Repko, who each inked one-year deals for less than $700,000 on Thursday.

Repko is a first-rate defensive outfielder, but he's a reserve outfielder because he has shown little evidence that he can hit. And, remember, he only got to the active roster last season because Justin Morneau's concussion moved Michael Cuddyer from the outfield to first base and left the Twins without a fourth outfielder.

Assume that Morneau is indeed sound next season and that the Twins sign a part-time DH (whether it be Jim Thome or, as Seth Stohs suggested on Friday, Matt Diaz, non-tendered by Atlanta). Further assume that the Twins carry their usual 12-man pitching staff.  The four-man bench may not have room for Repko, as it didn't last spring:

• Extra hitter (Thome/Jason Kubel/Cuddyer/Delmon Young)
• Backup catcher (Drew Butera)
• Utililty infielder (Alexi Casilla/Matt Tolbert)
• ??

If the Twins figure, as they did last spring, that Cuddyer is an acceptable fill-in in center, that fourth slot might go to another infielder. If they sign Tsuyoshi Nishioka and keep J.J. Hardy, they may well keep both Casilla and Tolbert, who is out of options.

There is, on the other hand, an obvious opportunity for Neshek. The Twins middle relief corps must be rebuilt; there is no way they will retain all four of their prominent relief free agents (Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Jon Rauch and Brian Fuentes).

But Neshek did not pitch well in his first season back from ligament-replacement surgery, not in the majors and not in Triple-A. His velocity was not at its accustomed level when I saw him pitch in September.

This contract suggests to me that the Twins aren't confident he's going to help them this year either -- but neither are they ready to cut bait.

Shuffling the roster

Photo above: Orlando Hudson figured he can't hit Yovani Gallardo with a bat, so he tried it without one.

The Twins get swept by the Brewers, and suddenly the Tigers are just a half-game back and the White Sox 2.5 back.

We can sum up Thursday's debacle thusly: Nick Blackburn (2010 ERA: 6.10) makes it easy to lose games, and Yovani Gallardo (12 strikeouts and no walks) made it impossible to win that game.

The TV boys started speculating about moving Blackburn to the bullpen to make room for Brian Duensing in the rotation. (Duensing had 3.1 shutout innings in relief Thursday, 47 pitches.) I have no idea if there's fire to that smoke, but 6.10 in late June is 6.10. Sidney Ponson didn't get this much rope.

And Brendan Harris finally got keelhauled, with the immortal Jason Repko called up. Repko isn't going to wedge his way into the lineup on a daily basis (I hope), but he is a legit center fielder and can't hit any worse than Harris has this season.

One thing this indicates is that Ron Gardenhire seems ever more intent on using Michael Cuddyer at third base. I am not enthused by that prospect. But this team isn't providing much reason to be enthused this week.