More roster moves and a new coach

One day of the Handbook and back to news. The Twins front office, after taking the weekend off, got back to the roster shuffle on Monday, clearing three more spots on the 40-man roster and filling out their coaching staff.

• Pitcher Nik Turley was claimed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• Catcher Chris Gimenez and pitcher Ryan O'Rourke were outrighted.

None of these cuts were particularly surprising.

O'Rourke was still listed on the Twins website as of Monday afternoon as being on the 60-day disabled list, but outrighted is outrighted. He's coming off Tommy John surgery, and I think he'll likely stay with the Twins organization.

Gimenez has been through this drill repeatedly.; I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in training camp with the Twins, but personally I'd prefer to see Mitch Garver get the backup catching job.

Turley had a nice season in Rochester, but showed nothing useful in the majors.

Counting the three pitchers remaining on the 60-day DL, the Twins now have 34 players listed on the 40.

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We're excited to welcome our new bench coach, Derek Shelton!

2018 marks Shelton's 14th season as a coach at the major league level. pic.twitter.com/LFhgpz821g

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) November 6, 2017

Shelton was the "quality control coach" for Toronto last year after 11 seasons as hitting coach with Tampa Bay and Cleveland. He's also managed in the minors in the Yankees system. Another guy who's been around a number of sabermetically-oriented organizations.

From this Rhett Bollinger piece on Shelton's hiring, an explaination of what a qaulity control coach is:

"The job description was fairly fluid," Shelton said. "Day to day, there was analytical stuff and advance scouting reports. I helped with hitting because that's my background, but I integrated into defense more than I had at the Major League level. And there was relationships with the Minor League coordinators about developmental roles. The job itself was ever-changing, and I looked at it as growth for me, especially because the bench-coach role was something I was looking to transition into."

Wonder how long it will take me to refer to him in the blog (or the column) as Blake.

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Sad news: Former Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek, one of the true characters in the game, has lost his battle with cancer. He was 69.

— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) November 6, 2017

Rest in peace, Stelly. He lasted a long time on the Twins staff -- 32 years under five different managers -- but he was pretty obviously in rough shape last summer.

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.

Chris Gimenez, Nik Turley and more pitching moves

Thurday's rain delay was apparently the longest in Twins history -- five hours -- and it sure didn't take long for the Twins to suspect that they should have just postponed it.

It was still the first inning when I sent this tweet:

It's early, but I think Chris Gimenez is likely to pitch in this one

— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) June 22, 2017

And sure enough, the Twins backup catcher pitched the ninth inning, his sixth pitching appearance of the season.

There was a lot of chatter leading up to the draft about two-way players, and the question arises: At what point to we consider Gimenez a two-way player? My answer is: When his pitching is not limited to the ninth inning of blowout losses.

That said, Gimenez has now pitched five innings with a 7.20 ERA this season. The Twins have used 25 pitchers (and counting; two new names, Dillon Gee and Trevor Hildenberger, are being called up). Six of them have worse ERAs than Gimenez and eight have fewer appearances.

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Nik Turley is one of the six and of the eight (ERA 16.39 in three games, all starts, total of 9.1 innings). The Twins merely optioned him out rather than designating him for assignment Thursday, but the Twins need to make space on the 40-man roster today for both Gee and Hildenberger, and DFAing Turley is an obvious possibility.

I feel for the guy. He was a 50th round draft pick, spent a decade in minors, finally gets to the show and gets three starts, every one of which goes poorly, every one worse than the one preceeding it.

Indeed, he may be the least effective pitcher in Twins history, although I'm not sure how to weigh ERA vs. opportunity. For example: Randy Rosario has an ERA of 30.86, but Turley has seven more innings and two decisions.

Having written that, I looked up Steve Carlton's Twins record. The no-doubt-about-it Hall of Famer pitched 53.2 innings for the Twins at the end of his marvelous career with an 8.54 ERA, going 1-6 in 1987-88. Andy MacPhail and Tom Kelly gave him a lot of rope.

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As for the new guys: Gee was signed to a minor league deal earlier this week, and presumably he's going to take Turley's rotation berth, although I wouldn't care to wager that he's ready to go deep into his first start. As I said when he signed, I don't expect much.

Hildenberger is a sidearming right-handed reliever who has shot up the minor league system, posting some ridiculous ERAs in the process. Last season he had a combined 0.75 at two levels (high A and Double A). That is not a typo: Zero point seven five. This year's ERA is a more normal 2.05 with 35 strikeouts in 30.1 innings at Triple A. That K-rate is roughly what he's posted consistently.

No velocity; if he threw hard he would have been up earlier. I don't know how his style is going to fare in the majors and particularly against lefties, but

• he's been getting outs in the minors and
• the Twins are in no position to ignore that.

He calls to mind Anthony Slama. another funky righty who never got a real chance with the Twins despite some overwhelming minor league numbers. Slama had some bad timing with injuries, but at the core of his lack of opportunites was a belief that his minor league success was based on minor league hitters chasing pitches out of the strike zone. Slama always walked more guys than Hildenberger has, though.

Notes, quotes and comment

The Twins ended their essentially successful West Coast marathon (6-4) with another dud of a bullpen performance on Sunday.

I wrote a lot last week about Matt Belisle specifically and the thinness of the bullpen in general -- pretty much every post from Monday through Saturday dealt with the relief corps -- so it was probably fitting that Belisle had a central role in Sunday's late inning collapse.

Belisle's ERA for the season now stands at 8.59, with almost all the damage coming in four appearances. He always figured to be an ill fit for a high-leverage role, but I don't know who else Paul Molitor can use in those situations with the current bullpen without wrecking Tyler Duffey and Brandon Kintzler with overuse. There are just too many mop-up type arms on this staff.

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The draft begins tonight. I devoted the Monday print column to my thoughts on who and what the the Twins should do with the first overall pick. With, of course, the disclaimer that the Twins know a lot more about this than I do.

I don't expect the Twins to follow my "recommendation," and I certainly won't criticize them when they don't.

One thing I didn't get to in a slightly longer than usual column: Sports Illustrated did nobody any favors by putting Hunter Greene on its cover a few weeks ago. The people who cover the scouting and prospect world for a living say the consensus is that Greene is a lesser prospect than a couple of high school righties from the previous two draft classes.

What makes Greene unique is that he's a viable first-round pick as both a pitcher and a shortstop. But I can't imagine that anybody is going to let him throw a few dozen high-velocity fastballs on Tuesday and play shortstop on Wednesday. He's going to do one or the other.

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Catching up on the Twins roster moves: Randy Rosario was indeed shipped back to the minors (to Triple-A Rochester rather than Double A Chattanooga, from whence he was called up) to make room for Nik Turley, the Sunday starter, on the 25-man roster, To make room on the 40-man roster, Dan Rucinski was designated for assignment.

Turley wasn't great Sunday -- four innings, eight hits, four runs -- but he didn't walk anybody and struck out four and threw 46 strikes in his 73 pitches. I expect he'll get more starts; Phil Hughes hasn't thrown since going on the DL, so he's not close to returning, and Hector Santiago doesn't have a timeline to return either.

Jorge Polanco is to rejoin the team from his breavement leave today, so another move is coming.

Notes, quotes and comment

Pretty impressive game for Ervin Santana on Friday night in San Francisco: A 91-pitch complete game shutout (a "Maddux") plus three RBIs on a "double." A single, certainly, but Denard Span dove for, came up short and knocked it away from himself and right fielder Hunter Pence.

If Span were as good a defensive center fielder as some in Minnesota seem to think he is, he catches that ball. Byron Buxton probably catches that ball. But Span is 33, his defensive metrics are in decline, and he didn't get there.

Twins fans have been blessed with some truly great defensive centerfielders over the past 30-plus years -- Kirby Puckett, Torii Hunter, Buxton, Carlos Gomez. Span, even at his best, was never in their class.

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Paul Molitor said after the game that Nik Turley will get Sunday's start, filling in for Hector Santiago, who went on the disabled list after his Tuesday start.

Turley is a left-handed refugee of indy ball who entered the pros as a 50th-round draft pick back in 2008. The draft doesn't go that long anymore. He spent years in the Yankee system, then a year in the Giants organization. He split 2016 between a Red Sox farm club and an independent team.

He's 27 and didn't even get an invite to major league camp this spring, but he has put up a combined 2.05 ERA between AA Chattanooga and AAA Rochester (52.2 innings) this year. Perhaps more impressive, he's struck out 84 men in those 52.2 innings with just 15 walks.

I don't know what to expect from him. His stats for this year say he deserves the opportunity. His track record over the previous nine years doesn't necessarily agree.

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No corresponding move has been made yet; my assumption is that Randy Rosario will be demoted, but that remains to be seen. The Twins won't bring Jorge Polanco off the bereavement list until they return to Minnesota after the weekend; the shortstop is in his native Dominican after the death of his grandfather. Kennys Vargas is back with the team for now. So there are roster moves ahead.