Notes, quotes and comment

It's official: ByungHo Park was given his release Friday. He's going back to Korea and the Nexen Heroes.

I still think it could have worked here, but he got one chance, and whether it was because of injury or his skill set, didn't take advantage of it. And he never got another.

---

Former Twins outfielder Oswaldo Arcia is taking his power bat and stubborn approach to Japan. So he's gonna get paid: $1.7 million guaranteed from the Nippon Ham Fighters. He'll be teammates with Michael Tonkin again.

----

The Twins have hired Joel Skinner to manage their Triple A team. Fans of a certain age might remember him as a light-hitting catcher in the 1980s with three AL clubs (White Sox, Yankees, Indians). Fans of even older vintage might remember his dad, Bob Skinner, who was the left fielder for the 1960 World Series champion Pirates and later a major league manager.

Joel Skinner had a very brief stint as Cleveland manager himself (2002; he was 35-41) and has managed in the minors 13 seasons. He's been in the White Sox system for the past five seasons.

---

Twins signed infielder Taylor Featherston, outfielder James Ramsey and catcher Wynston Sawyer to minor league contracts.

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) December 15, 2017

Ramsey appears to be the most interesting name of the bunch. The Twins drafted him out of high school in 2011 but didn't sign him; he went to Florida State instead and was a first round pick of the Cardinals. He really hasn't hit enough at any level to justify that draft pick, and he hits left-handed, which doesn't really fit with the Twins outfield. A right-handed hitter would be more useful.

I would expect to see Sawyer in training camp, because he's a catcher and they need guys to catch all those bullpen sessions, but he's probably Double A fodder. Featherston has somehow gotten more than 200 plate appearances over the past three years with three different major league teams. Utility infielder on a team that doesn't have an opening for such on the major league roster. 

From the Handbook: Oswaldo Arcia, pinch non-hitter

Who was the worst pinch-hitter in the majors in 2016? The former Twin, Oswaldo Arcia.

Arcia got 13 pinch at-bats in 2016, scattered among four different clubs (Twins, Rays, Marlins and Padres.) He went 0-for-13 with five strikeouts.  Batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, all .000. Alexi Amarista and Brian McCann (each 0-for-14) at least drew a walk, and Amarista had a pair of RBIs.

Pinch-hitters are notoriously inconsistent from season to season, even the ones with successful track records. But 0-for-13 is pretty futile.

The thing is, Arcia fits a historic profile for a successful pinch hitter: Left-handed, free swinger, genuine power and genuine defensive liabilities (the latter being the reason good pinch-hitters aren't in the lineup).

A time-honored approach to pinch-hitting is: Swing at the first fastball strike you see. But Arcia's career is floundering in large part because he struggles to identify fastball strikes. Whether in the lineup or pinch-hitting, getting a good pitch to hit is an essential part of the formula, and Arcia simply fails at that.

Ex-Twin watch: Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia has
a .229 batting average
on the season with
two teams.

When the Twins gave up on Oswaldo Arcia in June, they traded him to Tampa Bay for a player to be named or cash.

The Rays designated Arcia for assignment Friday, which cleared him off their 40-man roster. So presumably the return for him won't be much, if anything.

Arcia's numbers with Tampa Bay -- at least before spending the past three weeks or son on the disabled list -- weren't bad. His OPS+ with the Rays, according to Baseball Reference, was 111, meaning he was 11 percent above league average.

Almost all that production, however, came in four games early in his Rays tenure. His July slash stats -- .147/.256/.265 -- were atrocious. And, of course, he's still a defensive liability. When he was ready to come off the disabled list, the Rays decided they had better things to do with the roster space.

Tampa Bay is near the bottom of the league in runs scored. Their designated hitters haven't done much to aid the cause. I'm a little surprised the Rays didn't give Arcia more time in that role, but presumably they saw enough of his flail-and-fail approach to hitting to decide to try something else.

And that's not a good sign for Arcia's fading status.

Notes from the weekend

I said last week that the Monday print column would be about the trade of Oswaldo Arcia, and so it is. A tangent or two I didn't follow in that piece:

I expected that Tampa Bay would try to protect its pitchers by restricting Arcia to designated hitter. But his first two games with the Rays came in right field.

Arcia drove in four runs in those two games. The Rays lost them both anyway; they have lost 11 in a row, a depth even the Twins haven't plumbed this year.

---

One of my first thoughts at the news that Arcia had been traded to Tampa Bay for a player to be named was: "Maybe they can get Hu back."

Chih-Wei Hu is the Taiwanese right-hander the Twins sacrificed last year to get Kevin Jepsen from the Rays. I hadn't checked in on him this year, so that thought prompted a stat check.

Conclusion: Not very likely. Hu, now 22, plays for Montgomery in the Double A Southern League (same league the Twins have their Double A affiliate in), and he put up a 2.34 ERA in  his first 13 starts. He also has one Triple A appearance, which didn't go as well as his one Triple A appearance last year did.

Arcia will have to be mighty productive in Tampa Bay to merit an upper-level prospect as productive as Hu has been.

---

Tyler Duffey had been pretty brutal in recent starts, but he sure had a good one Sunday: two hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in eight innings.

Whatever inclination the Twins might have had to move Duffey out of the rotation has probably been shut down now.

Notes, quotes and comment

Oswaldo Arcia's time in designated-for-assignment limbo ended Friday when the Twins traded him to Tampa Bay for cash or a player to be determined.

I expect to make this the topic of the Monday print column, so suffice it to say that I think the Rays are a good team for him. They're smart enough that they aren't likely to insist that he play outfield.

---

Trevor Plouffe's most recent injury (groin) is probably behind the latest change in plans with Miguel Sano's rehab assignment. The description supplied earlier in the week was: third base on Friday, DH on Saturday, right field on Sunday, see where he's at. By Friday it had become: Five innings at third on Friday, seven innings at third on Saturday, DH on Sunday.

At which point they may well stick Plouffe back on the disabled list and bring Sano back.

---

Alex Kirilloff, the high school outfielder the Twins selected with the 15th overall pick earlier in the month. signed for slot ($2.8 million) this week and is expected to make his debut today with Elizabethton in the Appy League.

The Twins have signed 28 of their 42 picks. That may be a higher-than-usual percentage, but they went heavy on collegians in the second and third day, and the bulk of draftees who don't sign are later-round high schoolers who can reasonably hope that a few years in college will boost their status.

Perkins, Arcia and D. Santana

Oswaldo Arcia struck
out 46 times in 114
plate appearances this
year. 

Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia both made the major league roster coming out of spring training largely because they were both out of options.

Arcia was the first to run out of chances. He was designated for assignment Thursday night to make room on the roster for Santana, who is ready to be reactivated from the disabled list after his second hamstring injury of the season.

I saw this coming last winter and said so repeatedly. Arcia is just 25, and he has genuine power. That is the sum and total of his positives. On the other side of the ledger, he's an awful defensive outfielder, his strike zone issues are significant, he hasn't hit lefties much and he's not much of a base runner.  And he wasn't getting better at any of those things.

Santana is a flawed player also. But he has a wider set of tools. He can run. He can throw. He switch hits. He can play infield and outfield. There are, in short, more things the manager can put him in the lineup to do than there is with Arcia.

That makes him a better bench piece than Arcia. And neither could be projected as a regular at this point. Arcia does not deserve playing time over the likes of Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Robbie Grossman or Eddie Rosario.

Neither, for that matter, does Santana.

---

I surmised earlier that Glen Perkins' pending visit to noted orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache suggested that the three-time All-Star wasn't likely to pitch again this season, and so it is. ElAttrache is to attempt to repair Perkins' frayed labrum in the next seven to 10 days.

The hope is that Perkins will be back next year. But shoulder surgeries are tricky; as a general thing, shoulders are to be maintained and elbows repaired. It was, you may recall, a frayed labrum that drove Brad Radke into retirement at age 33. Perkins happens to be 33 now himself.

It would be unwise to count on Perkins as a key bullpen piece in the future. If it happens, great. But the Twins shouldn't plan on it.

8-24

This pretty much sums up the Twins' first 32 games: Even when they catch a remarkably fluky break, it does them no good.

Two on, two out in the ninth inning Tuesday, and Adam Jones of Baltimore smashes a line drive at Oswaldo Arcia in left field. Arcia steps back, then comes in, then dives and misses the ball, which bounces in front of him and scoots past -- only to meet Arcia's flailing left foot, which deflects the ball directly to center fielder Danny Santana, who holds Jones to a single.

That ball gets by Arcia, it's a triple at least, perhaps an inside-the-park homer. If the kicked ball isn't directly to Santana, it's at least an extra base for Jones, and maybe more. But it was more than enough to bring home two runs, break the tie and ultimately give the Orioles the win and the Twins yet another loss.

It's not hard to find a bit of fault-finding in the post-game comment of beleaguered closer Kevin Jepsen before he catches himself pointing fingers and accepts the blame:

Jepsen: "Off the bat I thought (Arcia) he had a shot at it (but) it hung up. I got to get that third out. That’s just the bottom line."

— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) May 11, 2016

Not that it does Jepsen any good, but yeah, I too thought Arcia should have made that play. But he's Oswaldo Arcia, and he is not a good defensive outfielder. He's in the lineup for his bat, and on Tuesday his fielding hurt more than his hitting helped.

Tuesday's outcome takes the Twins record down to 8-24, a .250 winning percentage. That also happens to be the winning percentage of the 1962 Mets, a team of legendary ineptitude whose failings have become the stuff of comic lore. Arcia's kick would have fit in with the stories of Marv Throneberry and Hot Rod Kanehl. It's not so funny when you're living it, though.

Outfield misadventures

Oswaldo Arcia brings his home run home Wednesday
night at Milwaukee. What he gained with his bat he
gave away with his glove defensively.

Long-time readers of this corner of cyberspace know that I believe that the quickest way to improve a bad pitching staff is to improve the outfield defense.

An outfield with both Oswaldo Arcia and Miguel Sano, I believe, is too heavy a burden for the Twins pitching staff to carry.

I recognize the tradeoff involved. Teams need to score some runs, and corner outfielders are expected to produce at the plate. That, at least, Arcia has done in his limited playing time. Sano, not so much.

On Tuesday it was Sano whiffing on a catchable ball for an error and misplaying a catchable ball at the wall for a "double" that had Ervin Santana gesturing in frustration. On Wednesday it was Arcia failing to cut off a single for an error and allowing a fly ball to land on the warning track for another "double."

Somebody has to catch the ball in the outfield and keep the pitchers in the game. The Twins can probably live with one butcher in an outfield corner. They cannot contend with two of them.

Thoughts from the weekend

A happier image for the Twins than in yesterday's post:
Oswaldo Arcia and interviewer Marney Gellner get doused
by Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario after Arcia's game-winner.

A few comments after the Twins swept the Angels during the weekend:

* The late-inning bullpen work was part of the problem in the nine-game losing streak that opened the Twins season. But on Sunday Kevin Jepsen and Trevor May had strong one-inning outings, and Casey Fien/Ryan O'Rourke combined for a hitless inning.

Perhaps the revelation was Michael Tonkin, who overpowered Mike Trout and Albert Pujols (and others) in his two-innings stint. Tonkin essentially made the roster out of camp because he was out of options. Sunday was just his third outing, and he looked, for once, like a pitcher who could dominate the International League (which he did last season).

I'm not forecasting an immediate role promotion for Tonkin. But what I've long called the Greg McMichael Rule always applies: Get outs and theyll find a role for you.

*Oswaldo Arcia hit the go-ahead homer on Saturday and got the game-winner on Sunday -- and went opposite field on both. I suspect he hasn't had two hits to left field in the same month previously. (And he had another left-field hit on Sunday.)

Terry Ryan on Arcia from the gamer by the  Pioneer Press' Mike Berardino:

“I guess I have to keep reminding myself that lad is still 24,” Ryan said. “It seems like he’s 34, he’s been around so long. Maybe I have to make sure everybody else remembers it as well.”

Well, yeah.  I was ready to discard Arcia during the offseason. And, to be blunt, it takes more than a good weekend to discard the label I'd put on him from three seasons' exposure. Maybe he's figured it out. And maybe he'll revert to the pull-happy defensive butcher he's been in the past.

The Twins have plenty of outfielders to pick from. Arcia this weekend put himself back in the running for playing time.

* Trevor Plouffe left the game with what was deemed a strained intercostal muscle. Supposedly he's day-to-day, but these things have a tendency to linger.

Whether Plouffe is out two games or two weeks, do not expect Miguel Sano to start at third. The big guy hasn't taken grounders there since winter ball. He's an outfielder now. I'm not saying he's a good outfielder now, but he wasn't a good third baseman either, and the Twins are not going to yo-yo him back and forth.

Here's an issue, however: if Plouffe stays on the active roster but can't play, there Twins now have no backup infielder. Presumably Eduardo Nunez will play third, but the four-man bench will be Plouffe, the backup catcher and two outfielders. Sano and Eddie Rosario have infield experience. If something happens, somebody will have to play second or third.

Condition not the real issue with Arcia

Pat Reusse's column this morning out of TwinsFest is a month-early version of the spring training chestnut: So-and-so has spent the winter working out and is in marvelous condition.

The so-and-so in this case is Oswaldo Arcia. Pardon me while I don't care about Arcia's new workout regimen.

Oh, it may well be that a routine that increases flexibility will help him avoid the repeated injuries that have helped stall his career. But the slugger's career has stalled as least as much on his stubborn, all-or-nothing approach at the plate and his ineptitude afield.

This except from Reusse's column made me shake my head:

Asked if he felt his brother would be in the big leagues this season, Oswaldo nodded his head. As for his chance with the Twins, Oswaldo responded in Spanish and Andy the Barber relayed the answer: 

“He knows what he can do with the glove. He knows what he can do with the bat. He has worked hard every day to be in the big leagues.’’

"He knows what he can do with the glove." I know what I've seen him do with the glove, and it's not good.  This is still the guy who got skulled by a foul fly a couple years back.

Arcia's 25. He's out of options. He has the single biggest tool an outfielder can have, which is power. All this points to him making the roster. And yet, I'd rather see Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler playing. That's four guys for three outfield spots.

Outfield options: Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia
reportedly turned down
an opportunity
to play in Asia next year.

Oswaldo Arcia didn't sustain a career-threatening injury in 2015. But he damaged his career enough to threaten it.

He went from a 20-homer season in 2014 and a cinch to be in the major league outfield to mired in Triple A for the vast majority of the season -- and he put up a dismal .630 OPS in Rochester. He didn't even get a September callup,

Arcia is out of options now, and in my opinion should have been waived to clear room on the 40-man roster. I think he would have cleared waivers; if not, let somebody else carry him on their 40. The Twins are being more patient than that, but the rules limit their patience; he either makes the 25-man roster out of spring training, or gets waived then.

By now you know his pluses -- genuine power from the left side of the plate, and he doesn't turn 25 until May -- and his considerable minuses, which are pretty much every other aspect of the game. He's a horrid defensive outfielder, doesn't run the bases well, hasn't hit lefties at all, can't or won't adjust as a hitter, has displayed poor strike zone judgment. He's best suited to being a platoon DH, and that doesn't work when half the roster consists of pitchers.

Despite all that, he's got a genuine chance to revive his Twins career in 2016, but he probably needs some help.

The retirement of Torii Hunter and the trade of Aaron Hicks opens two outfield slots (the other being filled by Eddie Rosario). As matters stand, those slots could/should go to Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, but  ...

• Sano might not become an outfielder.
• Buxton might be sent to Triple A.

Take either of them out of the equation, and Arcia's current outfield competition dwindles to Danny  Santana and Max Kepler. Kepler is more likely to get sent to Triple A than Buxton is, and Santana's status isn't much better than Arcia.

The help Arcia needs to get another genuine opportunity with the Twins is a Trevor Plouffe trade. That would take Sano out of the outfield picture. Even if Buxton is, as I think he should be, the center fielder on Opening Day, that still leaves a regular outfield job open.

One can even imagine a scenario in which  Plouffe isn't traded, Buxton and Kepler are sent to the minors, and the Twins torture their pitching staff with an outfield of Arcia and Sano flanking Rosario in center. I think it's unlikely; Paul Molitor might be willing to have one defensively challenged outfielder in the lineup, but not two.

Even if Arcia opens the season in the lineup, I expect it will be short-lived. Kepler is a better long-term bet than Arcia is. The blunt truth is, the Twins have many better alternatives for their outfield.

Good-bye, 'Sugar Shane'

We've signed outfielder Shane Robinson and catcher Adam Moore to minor-league deals with Spring Training invites. pic.twitter.com/NzxO1WCCzC

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) November 19, 2015

Shane Robinson made it through the entire season with the Twins and set career highs in at-bats, hits and runs, but it's hardly surprising that the veteran reserve outfielder went elsewhere. He barely played in September/October before being removed from the 40-man roster and declaring free agency.

The Twins were interested in bringing him back on a minor league deal, which is all he got from Cleveland, but there's more opportunity for him to make the 25-man roster this year in Cleveland. The Tribe at this point are shy of outfielders and are said to be looking for one in trade.

Robinson is no solution to a lineup issue. He's a  bench piece with a variety of skills that make him worth using in specific roles. He's the opposite of Oswaldo Arcia, who has power vs. right-handed pitchers and nothing else to recommend him. As a fourth outfielder, Robinson makes more sense than Arcia, but so does, let us say, Danny Santana. I hold little hope that either Arcia or Santana will be productive major league regulars, but I hold no hope for Robinson in that regard either. The other guys have higher ceilings; they're just unlikely to reach those ceilings.

The outfielder who isn't there

Most of my posts in recent days have been about which outfielders are playing. Is Torii Hunter in the lineup, or is it the "outfield of the future" -- Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton and Aaron Hicks?

Forgotten is the Opening Day left fielder, Oswaldo Arcia. He got hurt early, was sent to Triple A on a rehab assignment, then optioned out. He never made it back to the big club, not even as a September callup, And even a cursory look at his numbers with Rochester -- a slash line of .199/.257/.372 -- tells us he didn't deserve to return.

We've seen his power. We've also seen his flaws. He's a poor defensive outfielder. He doesn't hit lefties at all. His strike zone judgment is lacking. None of that has changed.

Arcia poses an interesting roster challenge for the Twins this offseason.

Question: How does he fit in the Twins plans for 2016? My answer: He doesn't.

It's not just the Buxton-Hicks-Rosario trio of multi-tooled outfielders ahead of him. There is also Max Kepler, who dominated the Double-A Southern League and is likely to be called up once Chattanooga is finished with the playoffs. I can't see how Arcia can return to the head of the line for a regular job.

Even as a bench player, Arcia is a poor fit because he has just one tool worth deploying, He has more power than Shane Robinson, but Robinson does everything else on the field better. There was a time when a team could carry a platoon DH, but not now, not if that team has the now conventional 12- to 13-man pitching staff.

Question: What's his trade value? My answer: Practically none.

Arcia isn't even appealing as a "lottery ticket" because (a) he's on a 40-man roster and (b) out of options in 2016. That means he either makes his team's major league roster out of camp or is exposed to waivers. Nobody's going to trade for him on the basis of we can stash him in Triple A and see if he figures it out. That period of his career is done.

Question: Is there any point in the Twins keeping him on the 40-man roster this winter? My answer: I'd hate to lose a player in Rule 5 in November because a 40-man spot was tied up in Arcia. If I had a vote, I would cast it for waiving him now and see if he clears. He's going to get waived before April one way or another; I say do it early and increase the roster flexibility. He's certainly more valuable on a minor league contract than on a major league one at this point.

Arcia is still only 24. There's still a chance he will find himself. But he is deservedly much further down the depth chart today than he was six months ago, and he's about out of time with the Twins.

Ranking the Twins outfield priorities

Byron Buxton was 0-for-4 in his debut Sunday with a
pair of strikeouts and a failed sac bunt attempt.

Other than his highly anticipated and greatly heralded presence, Byron Buxton didn't have a great impact on Sunday's game in Arlington, Texas. Yes, he scored the winning run, but scoring from first on a two-out gapper would be routine for most baserunners. He ran down a potential gapper in the field, but I suspect Aaron Hicks would have made that play also, if not as easily.

Hicks, of course, wasn't available Sunday; the Twins put him on the disabled list as the move to get Buxton on the active roster. With Torii Hunter serving Game Two of his suspension, Paul Molitor deployed an outfield of Shane Robinson in left, Buxton in center and Eddie Rosario in right, and that is a pretty close to optimal defensive alignment.

The Twins have a bunch of outfielders now -- on the active roster, on the disabled list, and in the minors but still seen as significant pieces. Let's sort through the priorities.

1) Buxton. Yes, he has all of one game in the majors. He's still the single most important piece of this team's puzzle, the cornerstone player for the anticipated success ahead. He's here; he's playing.

2) Hunter. He's 39, but the team didn't commit $12 million to him to sit on the bench. I'd prefer to see him DHing than playing right.

3) Rosario. Debuted May 6 and has played in all but a handful of games since. Has so far lived up to his minor league billing, with arguably more power (three homers in his first 100 at-bats) than should be expected. Between his youth/developmental needs, his bat and his defensive skills, he should be in the outfield on a near-daily basis. Despite being in the running in training camp for the center field job, he has been strictly in the corners since his call-up, which is proper.

4) Oswaldo Arcia. Spluttering with a .167/.189/.229 slash line in Triple A, he appears to have been eclipsed by Rosario in the corner outfield plans. He's a better hitter than that .418 Rochester OPS suggests, but so what? His fielding woes negate the hitting, and between Hunter and Kennys Vargas, there's not much room available at DH. He's still only 24, but he's out of options after this season. A trade seems inevitable, and right now his value is probably as low as it's ever been.

5) Hicks. Buxton pushes him out of the center field job. His bat pushes him out of a regular corner outfield role. That makes him a fourth outfielder, which is not what he was drafted in the first round to be. Is the organization willing to accept that, or will they dump him? He's also out of options after this season.

6) Shane Robinson. Too flawed to be an outfield regular, but he does enough things well to use him. A prototype reserve outfielder.

7) Jordan Schafer. Rosario has already garnered 40 more plate appearances than the Opening Day center fielder. Schafer wasn't anywhere near the player this year that he was in August-September last year, and I don't see a role for him after he comes off the disabled list. Hicks and Robinson rank ahead of him as reserve outfielders, and nobody needs four center fielders on the roster.

8) Eduardo Escobar. I'll list him here because Baseball Reference has him as the regular left fielder so far. If he's still so listed after the All-Star break, Molitor is doing it wrong. Even if the Twins decide to turn to Jorge Polanco or Danny Santana at short, Escobar shouldn't get outfield time ahead of the first five on this list. He's an infielder. Use him as such.

The roster shuffle

Tommy Milone starts
today, but we don't
yet know who leaves
the active roster
to make room for him.

Between Monday's rainout, Wednesday's resultant doubleheader and the mystery of Ricky Nolasco's ankle, the Twins are in another period of roster instability.

There was another noteworthy roster move unrelated to the rainout or Nolasco's uncertainity, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Michael Tonkin -- who in my opinion ought to be on the roster anyway -- got a one-day reprieve from last week's demotion to serve as the 26th man for Wednesday's twin bill. He appeared in the day game, gave up a homer, and now returns to Rochester. As I understand the rainout roster expansion rule, the emergency callup cannot remain.

Tommy Milone -- he of the one earned run allowed in five Triple A starts -- is to be added to the roster and start today. Kyle Gibson gets his start pushed back to Friday. Nolasco is tentatively scheduled to start Saturday, but that depends on how his troublesome ankle responds to a scheduled bullpen session today. If he is deemed able to go Saturday, somebody else has to go to make room for Milone on the roster. If Nolasco goes on the DL, the question of how Milone fits on the 25-man roster is answered, but Saturday becomes a "bullpen game." Which has been known to be the case with Nolasco starts anyway.

Nolasco is said to be resistant to another stint on the disabled list, and I don't blame him. But I don't like the other choices for fitting Milone on the active roster or in the rotation. Shelving Nolasco is the simplest solution. The other routes are more complicated.

Then there's the Oswaldo Arcia move announced between games Wednesday. The slugger was officially activated off the disabled list and optioned to Triple A Rochester, where he's been on a rehab assignment and struggling at the plate.

The Twins didn't have to make that move Wednesday -- there's still time on Arcia's rehab clock -- so it raised some eyebrows. But it fit my view that the Twins are now serious about outfield defense, and that part of that emphasis involves not having a set DH. Arcia remains a poor fielder, and, as with Kennys Vargas, there's only part-time at-bats available at DH. With all the pitchers on the roster, the bench guys have to have some defensive role.

In that view, Arcia simply doesn't fit. There's another factor to this timing, however, one that doesn't involve fidelity to the notion of outfield defense. Arcia's option clock is now started, He can be recalled in 10 days, If the Twins actually want to bring him back soon but deemed him unlikely to be ready when his rehab eligibility expired, optioning him now quickens when he can return to the big club.

The outfield defense and a dead cat bounce

Oswaldo Arcia and his fly ball drop.

I encountered a co-worker -- actually my boss -- around noon Monday, and he said something about the Twins playing better now, and I replied: It might be what is known on Wall Street as a "dead cat bounce."

Saying things like that just before fiascoes like Monday night's game is part of how I got a reputation around the office for knowing something about baseball.

For a variety of reasons it was basically a radio-and-Twitter night for following the game for me. Dan Gladden really went off on Oswaldo Arcia for his dropped fly ball to open the three-run sixth inning; Gladden accused Arcia of "hot-dogging." The radio boys also surmised that the pop-up that fell in front of Jordan Schafer did so because Schafer called off Brian Dozier. Corey Provus recalled Terry Ryan saying this spring that the outfield defense wasn't that bad, and then said it has to be a concern. (Provus also mentioned the infield defense.)

There are a lot of things that ought to be a concern.

Kyle Gibson had a "Nick Blackburn start" -- no strikeouts in five-plus innings. This gives him a total of three strikeouts in three starts this year. His strikeout rate had been going up near the end of last season, and there was hope this spring that the change-up he was working on would garner some swings-and-misses. Not happening so far.

Blaine Boyer had a deceptively good line score with two hitless innings, But his wild pitch ultimately allowed two inherited runners to score. And Caleb Thielbar and Tim Stauffer combined for a crooked number in the eighth to put the game out of reach. The bullpen behind Glen Perkins and Casey Fien is simply not reliable.

And while batting average is hardly the be-all measure of offense it was reckoned to be 40 years ago, Monday's lineup featured five starters who ended the game under the Mendoza line. That's not going to work.

In the glare of the sun field

Part of the company line about moving Oswaldo Arcia to left field was the notion that the overhang in right field was preying on Arcia's mind. Getting Arcia away from the overhang, Terry Ryan predicted this spring, will make him a better outfielder.

There's an underappreciated aspect to left field at Target Field, however. It's the sunfield in that park, and while that may be less crucial than it was in an era when night games were rare, it is still a factor at times.

I was in the lower left field seats for the home opener, a bright sunny day with a 3 p.m. start, which meant that the sun was getting progressively lower. Alex Gordon, the Kansas City left fielder who is by consensus the best at the position in the game, dealt with the sun in large part by taking flyballs side saddle -- he would, in effect, turn his back on the sun and catch the ball to the side, rather than straight on. By game's end, Gordon's center field partner, Lorenzo Cain, was shielding his eyes with his glove on each pitch.

Arcia made a nice catch in left-center Monday, a play that had his back to the sun. He clanked a ball near the left-field line, a play that had him running toward the sun.

The sun was an issue Monday. But major league outfielders should be able to cope with the sun. It's part of the job. Gordon and Cain found a way to do so. Arcia was less adept at it. That had nothing to do with the overhang, and everything to do with his outfielding skills, or lack of them.

Twins by position: Left field

Oswaldo Arcia has struck out in more than
30 percent of his major league plate appearances.

Oswaldo Arcia took a step forward in 2014, but that step still left him a bit shy of being an established, reliable major league regular.

His slash line of .231/.300/.452, while good enough for an OPS+ of 108 (or 8 percent above league average), was marred by an ugly walk-strikeout ratio of 31 BB, 127 K. Coupled with what has become his customary shoddy defense, it's difficult to see that he was any real help last year,

The Twins are shifting him to left field this year so Torii Hunter can play right, and I have seen suggestions from the Twins front office that he should be better in left than in right, apparently in part because they believe he was (my term, not theirs) spooked by the overhang.)

But the Target Field overhang doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. It certainly shouldn't be an issue in road games, Arcialooked pretty poor in left when he played there in 2013. (He was playing left field when a foul ball hit him in the head.)

In truth, I don't know of any reason for Arcia to be as poor defensively as he is, but I don't know why Delmon Young is as bad as he is either.

There are three obvious, and significant, areas for Arcia to improve:

• Defense. See above.
• Strike zone judgment. This piece by MLB,com's Jesse Sanchez suggests that, as with Kennys Vargas in Puerto Rico, this has been a point of emphasis for Arcia in winter ball (in his case, in his native Venezuela).
• Hitting left-handers. Arcia's OPS last year against righties was .848; against southpaws, a dismal .574. 

Arcia turns 24 in May, so there's room for growth. Right now, he's looking like a Latin version of Jason Kubel: A lefty best fit for DH duties and a candidate for a platoon. Kubel was a useful player for a few years, but the Twins didn't do a particularly good job of highlighting his strengths and masking his flaws. Maybe Arcia can at least negate some of his flaws. This year may go a long way toward determining that.

Arcia's achy back

I am generally loathe to get excited over wintertime injuries, but Oswaldo Arcia has been out for a while now in the Venezuelan winter league with back issues. He reportedly told his team last week that he was ready to return to action, but didn't report for duty during the weekend.

The outfielder had some back issues in September as well.

There's a lot of unknowns here: Is this the same injury, or a different issue? Upper back or lower back?

I have a certain amount of personal experience with back problems, and I am confident of this: If Arcia's having problems in his lower back, he also has -- or will have -- problems with his hamstrings.

At this point, I would think it wise for the Twins to get Arcia back to the States and find out what's going on with his core. That would be prudent, not an overreaction -- not after nearly two weeks and a promised return that didn't happen.

A night at Target Field

Jordan Schafer turned the wrong way
on this first-inning double over his head
Monday night. 

Monday night's game provided a strong reminder of one of my favorite precepts about baseball: The easiest way to improve the pitching is to improve the outfield defense.

Anthony Swarzak, making a spot start, wasn't really as bad as his line -- 11 hits in 4.1 innings -- indicates. My scoresheet was dotted with notations of outfield plays unmade and resulting runs .

Jordan Schafer, playing centerfield, got turned around on a ball hit by Victor Martinez in the first inning. If Schafer makes the play the Tigers get nothing; in reality, V-Mart's double scored one run and set up his own on J.D. Martinez' subsequent hit.

The latter Martinez opened the three-run fourth inning with a double that Oswaldo Arcia misjudged in right field. That could, should, have been caught.

I didn't mark any poor plays by left fielder Chris Parmelee, but Dan Gladden suggested on the postgame show that there was a play (or more) that the first-base transplant should have made. Presumably Gladden was talking about Bryan Holaday's RBI double in the fourth and/or Victor Martinez' double in the fifth.

I will give Parmelee credit for a good throw to the plate to cut down V-Mart to end that fifth inning. Martinez isn't fast by any means, but Parmelee had to make an accurate throw to get him on Holaday's fly ball, and he made the play.

Other notes from what I expect will be my final in-person game of 2014:

* Danny Santana started at shortstop, as he did in my previous trip to Target Field 10 days earlier. On Sept. 5 he missed on what I thought was a double play opportunity; on Sept. 15 he had a similar chance (second inning off the bat of Ian Kinsler) and started the twin killing. He also had a well-turned pivot on a flashy DP started by Brian Dozier's diving play and flip with glove hand; that flip was a little behind Santana, but he handled the exchange fluidly.

I've been, and remain, skeptical of Santana's ability to handle shortstop, but those were nicely done plays.

* Swarzak, as implied by the previous paragraph, was helped by his infielders, perhaps as much as he was hurt by his outfielders. Give him credit for this: He threw strikes -- 14 first-pitch strikes to his 23 hitters faced, 47 strikes in 70 pitches, just one walk and that intentional.

* A.J. Achter, on the other hand, got through his 2.1 innings without being charged with a run, but threw almost as many balls (17) as strikes (19). He walked home one of Swarzak's inherited runners, a run set up by the intentional walk to J.D. Martinez.. Achter and Ryan Pressly kept the Tigers off the board in the sixth-through-eighth innings, but it wasn't pretty, at least on Achter's part.

* Miguel Cabrera is a beast. The man's leg is clearly killing him, but he had three hits for seven total bases and three runs scored. The way he stared out at the outfield after his first-inning double off the limestone overhang suggested that he couldn't believe that didn't get out of the park.