Goodbye, Florimon

Pedro Florimon
was the shortstop
on Opening Day
and out of the majors
before July.

It was a bit of a shock Thursday when the Twins announced that Pedro Florimon had been claimed on waivers by the Washington Nationals.

Two reasons I was surprised: First, because I had forgotten that Florimon was still on the 40-man roster; second, because it's hard to see what use the Nats have for him. (The Washington Post suggests he'll be minor-league depth; that isn't very useful in September when the minor league season is done.)

Certainly Florimon didn't fit in the Twins plans, near-term or long haul. That was made obvious when he was bypassed for a September callup.

Even with Eduardo Escobar sidelined by his strained shoulder (no structural damage, the Twins said on Wednesday), the Twins still have three "shortstops" on the active roster in Danny Santana, Eduardo Nunez and Doug Bernier. And Jorge Polanco, while not on the active roster, probably ranked ahead of Florimon on the depth chart as well.

I put the word shortstop in quotation marks because all five, including Escobar, see consider time at other positions, which suggests that their glovework leaves something to be desired. True shortstops don't bounce around the infield. Ozzie Smith and Luis Aparicio didn't shuffle to second or third so that somebody else could slide in to play short.

Florimon is a true shortstop. He hasn't played a major league game in the field at any other position. But his glove isn't good enough to carry his anemic bat. The Twins have rightly moved on.

Polanco post 3.0

Jorge Polanco turns a double play pivot Sunday
against the Texas Rangers.

The Twins did indeed bring Trevor Plouffe and Eduardo Nunez back off the disabled list Monday and option out Pedro Florimon and Jorge Polanco.

Polanco returns to Fort Myers (high A) with two extra base hits and two walks in seven plate appearances. He started Sunday at shortstop and had a double and a walk and was involved in turning three double plays. He also messed up a rundown.

Florimon returns to Rochester (Triple A) with a major league batting average on the season of .092. He was 0-for-11 during this callup (with a walk).

I beefed here Saturday (and to a lesser extent Friday) about Florimon being in the lineup over Polanco. Now that Polanco's emergency tenure in the bigs is over, I have to concede that Ron Gardenhire didn't bury him on the bench. The 20-year-old got some playing time in each of the four games he was active for.

My real beef isn't so much that Gardy eased Polanco into the majors, but that Florimon was involved at all in filling the injury gap. I doubt I would have grumbled at all had it been Doug Bernier or James Beresford getting those starts. I fully realize that Polanco was only on the 25-man roster because, with Nunez, Plouffe and Danny Santana all on the DL, the Twins were just a sprained ankle away from Eric Fryer playing third base.

Neither Bernier nor Beresford is on the 40-man roster however, and Florimon and Polanco are. That's why they got the callups when the Twins infielders started filling the disabled list.

And as long as Florimon and Polanco are the only minor league infielders on the 40-man roster, Florimon is going to be the first choice for a return to the majors when infield reinforcements are needed.

That's a problem I'd like to see rectified.

If Polanco is here, he should play

Jorge Polanco drills a two-run triple in the
ninth inning Friday for his first major league hit.

Jorge Polanco is in the majors because Trevor Plouffe, Eduardo Nunez and Danny Santana are injured.

He's not in the lineup because ... ?

Apparently because Pedro Florimon and his .093 batting average have some sort of squatters rights.

This is a temporary situation. Plouffe and Nunez remain on the DL, but both will likely be reinstated when the Twins return home on Monday. (Santana was placed on the disabled list Friday with a bone bruise in his knee; Yohan Pino, who never left the club after being officially optioned out Thursday to make room for Polanco, has been reinstated.)

When Plouffe and Nunez return, I assume it will be at the expense of Polanco and Florimon.

Which is fine. Neither Polanco nor Florimon really belongs in the majors. Polanco should be in A ball, and Florimon ... I don't know what level he belongs at, but it ain't the bigs.

I heard Ron Gardenhire on the radio pregame say he didn't intend to start Polanco this weekend, that it wouldn't be fair to the kid. I take Gardy's meaning as: He'll get carved up by major league pitching, and he didn't look good in the field during spring training.

Polanco is, without question, raw. But I cannot see how he could be more inept at the plate than Florimon is, and he has supposedly stabilized in the field after several months of playing shortstop at Fort Myers.

Polanco has come off the bench for three plate appearances in two games since his callup, and he's gotten a triple and a walk, scored a run and driven in two. We may wait a very long time for Florimon to do any of those things.

Neither Polanco nor Florimon are the present. But Polanco might be part of the future, and Florimon should not be. If Polanco is on the big league roster, he should play.

The return of Pedro Florimon

Trevor Plouffe has gone on the disabled list with what
the Twins announced was rib cage inflammation.

The Twins had a fairly discouraging weekend in Detroit. A good win on Friday, yes. But Saturday ... not only did Sam Deduno have another horrid outing, but the infielders started dropping.

Brian Dozier has a sore back. Eduardo Nunez tweaked a hamstring. Trevor Plouffe has something akin to an oblique strain.

Putting Plouffe on the DL should have been an easy call  even without the other problems. Injuries to that area are not really day-to-day issues, nor are they treatable with anything other than rest. Yet the Twins track record suggests that, absent the other injuries, they would have waited to make a move.

And given the "quality" of the move they did make, one can make a case for reluctance. Pedro Florimon is back.

He didn't hit at Rochester (.230 batting average), and that's to be expected. He was also atrocious in the field (11 errors in 32 games at shortstop), which is not to be expected. His glove is supposed to be the rationale for playing him. If he can't hit and can't field, what's the point?

Florimon got the callup because:

• He and Jorge Polanco are the only infielders left on the 40-man roster;
• Polanco hasn't been above high A ball; and
• the Twins made a hurried move, perhaps without thinking it through.

Florimon really does nothing to bolster the infield depth issue. Counting Dozier as injured, the Twins have three healthy players for second, third and short -- Danny Santana, Eduardo Escobar and Florimon -- and they're all shortstops. Neither Santana nor Florimon has played much second base the past two years, and Santana is supposed to be the center fielder anyway.

James Beresford or Delbinson Romero would have been better callups. Neither is on the 40-man roster, but the Twins know Mike Pelfrey isn't returning anytime soon; he can be shifted to the 60-day disabled list, which would open a spot on the 40.

And, really, it makes more sense to designate Florimon himself for assignment than to bring him back to the majors.

Shaking up the roster

Pedro Florimon learned
Thursday that .108 hitters
don't stay in the majors.
Maybe he learned that.

The Twins followed up Thursday's loss by demoting Pedro Florimon and Chris Herrmann to Rochester.

No call-ups were immediately named. The presumption is that Aaron Hicks, pending a successful concussion evaluation, will be reactivated -- a move that would give the Twins a better centerfielder than Eduardo Escobar. And it also seems likely that Oswaldo Arcia will be brought back from his rehab assignment.

Arcia should cut into the playing time of Jason Kubel, Chris Colabello (at least once Joe Mauer returns from his back issues) and Josmil Pinto, all of whom have slumped of late. That "should" is not only predictive of what Ron Gardenhire will do, it is a value statement. Arcia is a bigger part of the Twins future than any of those three, with the possible exception of Pinto. Arcia ought to play more than the others.

I do expect Pinto's playing time to diminish, not only because of Arcia but because Herrmann, the No. 3 catcher, is gone. Gardenhire's reluctance to use a catcher as designated hitter is frequently deplored but, in my view, understandable. Catcher is not like other positions. It's a specialized position, and it is intimately involved in every pitch.

Then there's Florimon, who was apparently surprised by the idea that the Twins might find a .108-hitting shortstop a detriment. Of his demotion, I can only say: About time.

I don't know what Gardenhire will do at short now. I hope he goes with Escobar, but as long as Danny Santana's on the roster, he'll probably be the regular. If the Twins really view Santana as their long-range shortstop, there's no sense in letting him sit on the major league bench. I don't share the optimism about Santana, and if I'm right, he'll play himself off the roster soon enough.

On Thursday, the Twins had three shortstops on the roster. Today they have three, with the other being Eduardo Nunez. That's still too many.

Contemplating Eduardo Escobar

Eduardo Escobar (5) is greeted by Chris Colabello
after his game-winning homer Monday in Cleveland.

A bit more than a week ago, I posted this piece suggesting that Eduardo Escobar was about to supplant Pedro Florimon as the Twins shortstop.

And sure enough, Escobar started three games in a row at short, sat for the second game of a doubleheader, started the next day. Escobar went 6-for-17 in the process with three doubles and a couple of walks.

And then, for some reason, Florimon was back at short. He's started the last three games, going 1-for-10 in the process, which is pretty bad but barely lowers his batting average for the season (.109).

Escobar pinch hit for Florimon in the seventh Monday night and grounded out, but he came up again in the 10th and homered for the only run of the game.

I am willing to concede that Florimon is the superior defensive shortstop, although I don't think it's like we're comparing Ozzie Smith to Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Escobar can play shortstop. For what it's worth (not much), the defensive metrics at Baseball Reference actually give Escobar the edge this year.

But Florimon at the plate is hopeless. He entered Monday with 676 major league plate appearances and a slash line of .208/.269/.307, and it got a little worse that night.

I've seen enough of him. Give Escobar the job and let him run with it as far as he can.  No, he's not really going to hit like Derek Jeter used to, but he's not a Florimon-like automatic out either.

And I think that's what's going to happen, sooner or later. Right now the Twins have too many shortstops (Escobar, Florimon, Danny Santana) on the active roster. But I think that by the end of the week, Oswaldo Arcia will be deemed fit to return, and Santana will return to Rochester. And I think somewhere around the same time, Florimon will get shipped out too. (Probably with Eduardo Nunez coming up, although I think James Beresford would be a better choice.)

The Florimon-Escobar situation shouldn't turn into a reprise of Pat Meares-Denny Hocking two decades ago, when Meares got the first crack at the shortstop job and held it for years without doing anything worthwhile with it, while Hocking got pigeonholed as a utility guy.

Escobar, I fear, is getting pigeon holed as a utility guy. Maybe that is his ceiling, but it's painfully obvious by now that Florimon is miscast as a regular.

A change at shortstop?

Eduardo Escobar:
Is he about to claim
the shortstop job?

The Twins lineup for Sunday's game was posted before the postponement was announced, and I noticed that Eduardo Escobar was at shortstop for the second straight game.

Escobar for one game — especially a day game after a night game, as Saturday's start was — would be nothing out of the ordinary. Two games in a row suggests something else in play.

Ron Gardenhire has made his discontent with Pedro Florimon's anemic offense known the past few weeks, but most of the speculation about who would take over the position seems to have centered on Eduardo Nunez, picked up on waivers from the Yankees.

The problem with that notion: Nunez hasn't played a lot of shortstop at Triple A Rochester since the Twins picked him up. Danny Santana is there, and the Twins imagine a future with him securing the shortstop position for several years at least. I'm not as optimistic, but the point is: Developing Santana is a priority.

Plus, Nunez has pretty well established in New York that he's not a quality defensive shortstop, and the Minnesota pitching staff needs all the help it can get from its infield, especially considering the limited range of the outfielders.

Escobar is a more logical alternative if the Twins are about to pull the plug on Florimon as the regular. For one thing, while nobody should expect Escobar to be an offensive force, he has done some hitting in the minors — including a .307/.380/.500 slash line last year in Rochester (just 188 plate appearances).

Unlike Nunez, he is regarded as a capable defensive shortstop (he won the Gold Glove in the Venezulean Winter League during the offseason). I don't know how he compares to Florimon, but presumably the Twins think more highly of Florimon's defense. But no shortstop fields well enough to get away with hitting .115 for April.

I can foresee the Twins bringing Nunez up to take Escobar's utility role, with Escobar taking the regular shortstop job from Florimon. I can't see Nunez getting the shortstop job straight up.

---

Today is the fourth Monday of the month, so it's time for my scheduled stint on KMSU's Southern Minnesota Midday show with Jim "Gully" Gullickson, talking baseball and the Twins at 1 p.m. For those of you within range, KMSU is 89.7 FM (91.3 out of Austin); for those out of range, we'll put a link to a recording on the Free Press website later in the afternoon.

Spring training trip, Day 4: The position battles

Aaron Hicks prepares to hit during
a minor league game Sunday morning.

The Twins cut eight more players Sunday morning, most prominently shortstop prospect Danny Santana. Santana muffed another throw Saturday in the game against the Mets; his inconsistency on the routine play is probably THE issue for him.

Later Sunday morning, incumbent shortstop Pedro Florimon played most of a game between the Triple A and Double A squads. I showed up at that field just in time to see Florimon rip a triple down the right field line off B.J. Hermsen. I also saw Florimon strike out the next time up against Hermsen. I didn't see him called upon to make a play in the field.

Word later Sunday had Florimon scheduled to play in tonight's major league exhibition.

Florimon was one reason Ron Gardenhire was up in the tower watching the action. Another was Aaron Hicks, who was hitting (but not playing in the field) for the Double A team.

I saw Hicks homer off Yohan Pino -- left-handed, Hicks' weaker side -- at which point major league hitting coach Tom Brunansky stuck his head in the dugout and called him out of the game. A few minutes later, both Hicks and Florimon were riding a golf cart to the main stadium.

With non-roster guys Darin Mastroianni and Jermaine Mitchell sent down  in the morning cuts, the center field job is down to Hicks and Alex Presley. Presley started Sunday's game against the Miami Marlins. He singled in his first at-bat and laer reached on an error. After the error, he tried to steal second. And, for the second time this spring, Presley beat the throw but overslid the base. He's 0-for-3 as a base stealer this spring.

Hicks later replaced Presley in the game and doubled (right-handed, and with help from the Miami left fielder) in his only at-bat.

If I had to guess right now, I'd say Hicks is the likely center fielder to open the season.

---

Just to update my obsession with the notion of Jason Bartlett making the roster: He entered the game late at second base. He came up after Hicks' double in the bottom of the eighth. The lefty pitching for Miami fell behind 2-0.

Ahead in the count. With the platoon advantage. Against a minor leaguer with 18 MLB innings to his credit. This was a prime shot for Bartlett to break his Grapefruit League 0-fer, right? Uh, no. He swung at the 0-2 and hit a weak foul to the first base side. He did, ultimately, draw a walk; he is now 0-for-23 with two walks, which works out to an on-base percentage of .080.

Things figure to come to a head pretty quickly. Bartlett is said to have a March 25 opt-out; if he's not on the roster by then, he can declare free agency. The Twins should call that bluff; this is getting ridiculous.

Spring training trip, Day 2: The shortstops

Jason Bartlett hasn't
played in the majors
since April 2012.

It was a couple hours before game time on Thursday, and the Twins infielders were leaving the little "Tom Kelly Field," passing between the barricades on their way back inside.

A voice called out: "Welcome back, Jason!"

Jason Bartlett -- the Twins regular shortstop in 2006-7 who was then dealt away in the ill-fated Delmon Young trade -- stopped, eyed the fans lining the railings, and walked over to a boy, to whom he handed his bat.

Since leaving the Twins, Bartlett has been an All-Star, played in a World Series, and been out of the game completely. Now he's trying, at age 34, to make that call of "welcome back" a reality.

The odds are against him. He started Friday's game at Hammond Stadium at shortstop. One hard smash handcuffed him, although he did block the ball and got the out. At the plate, he flew out twice to left field, making him 0-for-19 in "official" Grapefruit League play.

Bartlett spent Thursday afternoon playing around the outfield and leading off every inning in a minor league game. This effort was of sufficient interest to Ron Gardenhire that he skipped the early innings of the major league game to see Bartlett.

Gardenhire cast Bartlett's performance in a positive light -- he hit three balls hard --  and the consensus of the press seems to be that the manager really wants to have Bartlett on his roster as a utility guy.

Gardy is a powerful ally to have in a roster fight, but even he doesn't see Bartlett as a legit shortstop contender. And at some point, Bartlett has to hit.

Elsewhere in shortstop land:

Pedro Florimon, the incumbent recovering from an appendectomy, played a few innings Friday in a minor league game. Seth Stohs was watching:

Pedro Florimon flew out to LF in 1st AB in Ft. Myers game.
— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) March 14, 2014

Florimon fielded a ground ball but threw low to 1B for an error.
— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) March 14, 2014

Florimon strikes out looking for his second at bat..
— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) March 14, 2014

One-hopper to pitcher in Florimon's third at bat in 3 innings.
— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) March 14, 2014

OK, not the best of outings for Florimon.

In Tampa, prospect Danny Santana hit a double in the major league team's split squad win over the Yankees. He also misplayed a throw ...

Ellsbury doubles on 0-2 fastball from Gibson. Arcia throw beat him to bag, but Santana fails to glove. #MNTwins
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 14, 2014

It's 1-1. Ellsbury given double (although Santana should have caught bouncing throw from Arcia). Double by Roberts. Both on 0-2 pitches
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) March 14, 2014

And, again, that's the kind of thing that grates on a manager. Makeable plays that aren't made keep shortstops in the minors.

Spring training trip, Day 1: Danny Santana

Danny Santana has hit
for good averages the
past two seasons in
High A and Double A.

Incumbent shortstop Pedro Florimon might see some playing time before I return to Minnesota early next week, but for now he's sidelined. This has created playing time for other shortstops, including a shortstop of the past (Jason Bartlett) and the supposed shortstop of the future (Danny Santana).

Santana played all nine innings Thursday against the Red Sox (the only player on either side who did), and we saw the good and the bad.

Good: He doubled and walked. (The walk really startled me; Santana's minor league record says walking him takes some doing.) He also beat out what should have been an inning-ending double play. The Twins didn't take advantage of that, but it showcased his speed.

Bad: He was prominent in a string of flawed infield plays, some of which were ruled errors and some of which were not.

The Twins were charged with three errors Thursday -- one each for Santana, Trevor Plouffe and Joe Mauer -- and all four runs they allowed were officially unearned.

Santana booted a grounder in the fifth inning that led to a pair of runs. In the third inning, he dropped a throw from catcher Kurt Suzuki on a stolen base; the umpire made the out call, then saw the ball on the ground and properly changed the call. Not an error. Then Santana just missed making a leaping catch of a Shane Victorino liner that drove home the base stealer. I won't say he should have caught the ball, but leather touched leather.

Patrick Reusse is calling for Santana to get the shortstop job, comparing his defensive inconsistencies to those of Zoilo Versalles, the Twins shortstop for most of the 1960s and the league MVP in 1965. Watching Santana play short on Thursday, I can understand Ron Gardenhire's reluctance to go in that direction. Managers hate it when shortstops fail to make makeable plays.

But there's a part of me that remembers being pleased when the Twins bit the bullet after the 1998 season, let Pat Meares go and committed to Cristian Guzman at shortstop. Guzman wasn't really ready for the majors, and he struggled for a while, particularly at the plate. But he was also clearly athletically superior to Meares.

Florimon vs Santana echoes Meares vs. Guzman. Santana will make more mistakes than Florimon. But he will also hit better (no real challenge). And he has more room for growth. Florimon isn't going to get any better than he was last year.

I now believe there's a better case to be made for Santana as the shortstop than I thought earlier this winter. But I suspect skipping him up from Double A is a call that would need Terry Ryan's involvement, especially if Gardenhire is wary of an inconsistent gloveman at the position, and that involvement isn't coming this month.

The first injuries

A sign of spring (training) in Fort Myers.

The Twins, or at least the pitchers and catchers, held their first official workouts of the spring Monday in Fort Myers, Fla. As usual, Day One brought news of previously undisclosed ill health.

Most prominent: Regular shortstop Pedro Florimon had his appendix removed Monday in a minimally invasive manner. He'll be out a couple of weeks. Considering that position players don't officially start for another week, this isn't likely to be an issue.

Meanwhile, Ron Gardenhire declared that Florimon is his shortstop. Had the manager made that statement a few weeks ago, he would have saved this blogger the mental exertion required to generate this analysis of the possibilities for the position.

Edgar Ibarra, a 24-year-old lefty reliever from Venezuela who was added to the 40-man roster early in the offseason in a move to keep him from becoming a minor league free agent, was diagnosed a few weeks ago with Hepatitis B. He didn't throw his scheduled bullpen and will be limited for a while. Ibarra had a strong 2013 split between Double A and Triple A, a season markedly better than anything he'd had before, but he wasn't particularly likely to crack the Opening Day roster even if healthy. Which he isn't.

Eye on 2014: Shortstop

Incumbent Pedro Florimon was good in the field
and not at the plate.

Incumbent shortstop Pedro Florimon said during TwinsFest that he had been told going into the 2013 season that he was the Twins shortstop. He also said he had not been given that assurance this winter.

And he shouldn't be a sure thing. Florimon was one of the better defensive shortstops in the majors last season -- by Baseball Info Systems' runs saved and plus minus metrics, he was probably the best in the non-Andrelton Simmons division -- but his offensive numbers were awful (.221/.281/.330).

Rermember: The Twins were near the bottom of the AL in runs scored. They can't easily afford to give up a lineup spot.

But who else might the Twins turn to to man the position? Florimon is clearly Option A still, but there are two other possibilities on the 40-man roster, and one not on anybody's roster.

Option B: Eduardo Escobar. Like Florimon, Escobar is a switch hitter with a good-field no-hit reputation. .He is two years younger than the incumbent, and he did have an impressive batting line in Rochester after the Twins sent him down at the All-Star break (.307/.380/.500).

If that slash line were valid, Escobar might well be a better choice than Florimon. The problem is, those two months aren't backed up with any other indication that he can hit.

Option C: Danny Santana. He's hit for good averages in High A (2012) and Double A (2013); Baseball America listed him as the Twins' No. 7 prospect and as the best defensive infielder in the system.

I'm less optimistic about him. I see chronic problems in controlling the strike zone. Last year, at New Britain, he walked 24 times and struck out 94 times. He's had that kind of ugly ratio at each level. I have trouble imagining how he's going to keep hitting .280 and higher with that poor ratio.

As for the defense, he commits a lot of errors. While the Twins claim the boots are because of his superior range, it's pretty clear he's muffing routine plays as well.

Maybe he really is a future regular. Even if he is, I doubt this is the year for that. I see Triple A for him.

Option D: Free agent Stephen Drew. The regular for the Red Sox last season, Drew remains on the market in large part because (a) he will cost the signing team a draft pick; (b) his agent is Scott Boras, who is, to be charitable, a patient negotiator insistent on top dollar; and (c) teams may well be wary of Drew's injury history.

Drew is 30. He played 124 games (plus the postseason) last year; he was limited to 86 and 79 games the previous two seasons. The Red Sox, with Xavier Bogearts ready, appear more interested in collecting an extra pick than in retaining Drew.

It would be extremely out of character for the Twins to sign Drew. Terry Ryan is always loathe to surrender a draft pick. (In the Twins' case, signing Drew would cost their second-round pick, not their first rounder, but it would still be a premium pick.)

There is, I'm sure, a combination of price and contract length at which Ryan and Co. would be willing to give up that pick. I don't know that Boras is going to agree to something so team-friendly that Ryan would agree to it, but Drew doesn't seem to have a lot of options right now.

Part of this equation may well be how highly the Twins really regard Santana. If they truly view him as the shortstop of the future, splurging on Drew just gets in the way. If they have the same reservations about Santana that I have, Drew makes a lot more sense.

I'm pretty sure the Twins don't regard Florimon or Escobar as long-term solutions at short.

Former Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett will be in camp as a nonroster invitee, but I can't see him as a serious possibility. Bartlett is 34. He hasn't played well since 2010 at the latest and hasn't played at all since the first month or so of 2012. The Twins don't really have anything invested in him, and they won't get anything out of him.

Pic of the Week

Pedro Florimon flexes in the Twins dugout after hitting
a home run Tuesday in Detroit.

Let's be kind and assume Pedro Florimon was indulging in a bit of self-mockery here. Yes, the Minnesota shortstop does now have eight home runs on the season. He has an outside shot at being the eighth player on the roster to reach double-digits in home runs.

He was also hitting a weak .220/.279/.338 coming into Saturday's game.

Contemplatng Pedro Florimon

Pedro Florimon makes a diving catch of a looper
for the first out of the ninth inning Friday.

Pedro Florimon certainly had a good game Friday: Three more-or-less spectacular plays in the field, two runs scored (with a hit and a walk) on offense.

His play yielded this Trevor Plouffe line about Florimon's defense: "I never realized how bad I was at shortstop until I watched someone like him."

Florimon's season has basically lived up to his good-field, no-hit reputation (although he's committed a few too many errors). In reality, his hitting stats have been wrecked by an extreme platoon split: Against righties, the switch hitter is .274/.342./.402, which is plenty good enough for a shortstop. But against lefties, he's a dismal .123/.161/.153, which is pitcher-like.

It's not a lot of at-bats, and it's rather inexplicable for a natural right-handed hitter to be that much better from the left side. It would seem likely that Florimon is better right-handed than that — and, by the same token, quite possible that he's not really that good left-handed.

But it occurs to me that, of the nine players in the Twins batting order Friday night, Florimon is one of the few who has a chance to be in the same position on the next good Twins team. There's Mauer at catcher, maybe Florimon at short. Everybody else will probably either be gone or playing another position when the big wave of minor league talent takes hold.

Pic of the Week

Pedro Florimon and Wilkin Ramirez after a
Twins win in Boston.

"If you keep doing that, it will freeze on your face."

Judging the defense

When Ryan Doumit
is in the outfield,
it's not for his
defensive skills.

In the final innings of Monday night's overly-long extra inning game in Boston, the Twins outfield had Ryan Doumit in left, Wilkin Ramirez in center and Chris Parmelee in right. This is not the Jamaican relay team when it comes to speed, and there were observers who wondered if Stephen Drew's game-winning double could have been caught by a genuine left fielder.

Ron Gardenhire, hewing to the philosophy that one doesn't blame the player when the manager puts him in a position outside his skill set, avoided criticizing Doumit: I had my backup catcher out there.

It occurred to me that Parmelee -- whose best position is probably first base -- might be the most accomplished outfielder of that trio. So this morning I dug into the plus/minus and runs saved defensive metrics devised and compiled by Baseball Info Systems.

Please note: BIS itself says the metrics are best applied over years, not weeks. This is early May. So the numbers don't necessarily define individual skills.

A few highlights:

Parmelee is a bit below average in right, but not so much that he can be said to be hurting the team defensively. As of Wednesday morning he was listed at -4 in plus/minus but zero in runs saved. He's been better than I expected, but I wasn't expecting Dwight Evans from him either.

The best defensive player on the team has been Brian Dozier, +6 in plus/minus and 4 in runs saved at second base. Next best: shortstop Pedro Florimon, +4 and 2. The worst: Ramirez is a combined -6, -4 in just 48 innings around the outfield.

Doumit has just three innings in left field, all on Monday; he grades out at -2, -1 in left. So, yeah, it appears that the BIS grading system figures Drew's ball was catchable.

Pedro Florimon vs. Eduardo Escobar

Pedro Florimon leaps over a sliding Ian Kinsler on the first
of two potential third-inning double plays that weren't
converted Thursday. The Rangers didn't score.

Pedro Florimon entered spring training as the Twins de facto shortstop incumbent, and held on to the job.

He's gone a few games without a hit and hasn't reached base since the Angels series, but still has an on-base percentage of .385. It's just 40 plate appearances, but he's done some good work in those appearances. Most notably, six walks as opposed to just four strikeouts. This is, to be sure, out of line with his minor league record, which generally sports closer to three strikeouts for each walk. Has his pitch recognition really improved that dramatically that rapidly?

When Florimon's not at short, Eduardo Escobar generally is. Escobar's numbers -- just 26 plate appearances -- are ridiculous: .480/.500/.720. Obviously he's not that good a hitter; nobody is. Given sufficient playing time, his batting average and slugging percentage will probably be about half his current numbers. 

The truth is, the Twins aren't counting on either playing a big role on offense. That's why they generally hit ninth, and why Florimon is pinch-hit for with regularity. Their job is to get outs in the field and make life easier for a pitching staff that isn't capable of getting a lot of strikeouts.

And in that task, Florimon clearly could be more efficient. My sense watching Thursday night's game was that the up-the-middle combo of Florimon and Brian Dozier left a few outs on the table; in particular, it was surprising that they couldn't turn two on creaky Lance Berkman in the third inning.

In contrast, the Rangers converted a more difficult double play on Josh Willingham in the eighth inning to choke off the Twins best chance at a big inning. Elvis Andrus had to go into the hole to get Willingham's grounder, but the Rangers still turned two.

I don't know who's better defensively, Florimon or Escobar. I am increasingly doubtful that Florimon's glovework can justify keeping him in the lineup.

Notes, quotes and comments

Joe Mauer now has 21 hits this season, 15 of them with
two strikes on him.

Joe Mauer. What more to say? Consecutive four-for-five days for the Twins catcher, and a batting average on the young season of .386.

What a hitter.

---

Outfielders everywhere, and scarcely a center fielder in sight: Darin Mastroianni went from the starting lineup to the bench to the disabled list Tuesday. Oswaldo Arcia went from Monday's starting lineup back to Triple A back to the Twins.

Mastroianni played all nine innings Monday, so his disabled list stint will last at least two weeks. It's pretty rare that the Twins don't get to postdate a DL stint, so it must have been pretty obvious Tuesday that Mastroianni couldn't/shouldn't play. (This does follow two weeks-plus of very limited availablity, so it hardly indicates a more aggressive roster-management response to injuries.)

Now comes an interesting challenge for Ron Gardenhire. Mastroianni has a specific role on this team — speed, defense, right-handed reserve outfielder. Arcia has a different tool set. So does Wilkin Ramirez, the other bench outfielder.

There's little to be gained from parking Arcia on the bench, and there's no obvious spot in the lineup for him. 

Center field? Well, maybe, but I'd still be wary.

The Cuddyer Principle holds that you can put a (right-handed) major league player anywhere in the infield or outfield and it won't necessarily be immediately obvious that he doesn't belong there. We saw a bit of that Tuesday, when Eduardo Escobar was pressed into service as a left fielder and immediately made a nice play handling a ball off the wall in foul territory, holding the batter to a single.

So yeah, Gardy might try playing Arcia there a bit, but it's hardly optimal.

Meanwhile, Aaron Hicks seems to be having better at-bats, with three walks the past two days. Dick Bremer grumped that Hicks needs a three-for-four day, but at least the rookie isn't getting himself out.

---

Tangled in the outfield issues is the leadoff spot. Hicks had held that slot all season until Monday, when Mastroianni hit leadoff. After he was scratched Tuesday, Brian Dozier was moved to leadoff, and he promptly went two-for-four with a walk.

Dozier entered the game with worse numbers this young season than last — Tuesday raised his slash line to .189/.279/.243 — so he's hardly made a case that he belongs at the top of the order. Still, somebody has to hit leadoff, and one can hardly blame Gardenhire for looking for alternatives to Hicks for the job.

Meanwhile, Pedro Florimon sports an unlikely .484 on-base percentage. Nobody's THAT good, of course, and especially not Florimon. It's only 23 official at-bats. I'm not calling for him to move up to the leadoff slot.

Interesting, though, that people are taking Hicks' bad numbers so seriously and shrugging off Florimon's good ones. One significant difference, of course, is that Hicks has looked so overmatched from the moment the club came north. It hasn't been bad luck for him.

---

Another good long-relief job Tuesday from Anthony Swarzak, who probably came a Trevor Plouffe error short of a four-inning save. Certainly we've never seen Gardenhire give so many long outings to his relievers as he has in the first 13 games or so.

Starting to wonder when Bert Blyleven will start obsessing about Mike Pelfrey's dawdling pace the way he used to about Scott Baker's. Baker was a speed demon compared to Pelfrey.

At the keystone

Brian Dozier was a shortstop last year, a second baseman
this time around.

Around the time my Monday print column connecting the competence of the Twins infield defense to that of their pitching staff was being readied for publication, Phil Mackey was making much the same points in this piece on the merits of Eduardo Escobar as an infield regular.

Of particular note in Mackey's reporting is Ron Gardenhire saying that while Escobar can handle shortstop and third base, he thinks second base is Escobar's best position.

OK, let's sort through this. Jamey Carroll is going to be on the roster, preferably as a frequently-used utility man. He turned 39 last month, and his offense last season was better when he got more time off. If Carroll winds up the regular at any infield position, it means Plan A failed.

Pedro Florimon entered camp as the favorite for shortstop. He can pick it, but he can't hit it. The same can be said of Escobar. Good field, no hit.

Then there's Brian Dozier. He flopped as a rookie at short last year and has been used strictly at second base this spring. Tom Kelly last week lauded his improvement. Dozier played all nine innings in Monday's exhibition against the St. Louis Cardinals and was involved in turning five double plays, which is not a bad sign at all.

Escobar may well be the superior defensive second baseman, but it's going to be difficult to justify having Florimon and him both in the lineup on a regular basis. Of the three non-Carroll candidates, Dozier is the only one with a respectable minor-league resume as a hitter.

Of course, that track record didn't translate to the majors last year.  If Dozier is to emerge from Florida with the job over Escobar and Carroll, he's got to hit as well as field. My guess is that he's going to get the chance.

A few thoughts after one week of games

Aaron Hicks has
won praise so far
this spring.

It's too soon to make definitive evaluations, but it's not too soon to have early impressions. Here are a handful:

* All three of the center field candidates have performed well in the first week of exhibition games, but it seems Aaron Hicks has taken a quick lead in the competition.

Which makes sense. Hicks and Darin Mastroianni are the two who profile as top-of-the-order hitters; Hicks and Joe Benson are the two with "high ceilings." Hicks is the one who has both.

As long as he continues to play good defense and provide sound at-bats, he should wind up with the job.

* Pedro Florimon, the putative front-runner for the shortstop job, hit a flyball over the center fielder's head Friday for a double. This had the radio boys talking about how the Twins say Florimon came to camp stronger this year and thus more of a power threat.

I'm not buying the power threat part. Florimon may well wind up with the shortstop job, but he's not going to be an offensive plus, and he isn't going to help much by hitting warning track fly balls.

Twins fans of a certain age will remember Houston Jimenez, the shortstop of the unlikely 1984 contenders. He held the job for most of the season because he was a competent defensive shortstop, but he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat, as the cliche goes — .201/.238/.245 in more than 300 plate appearances in 1984. He was the master of the 340-foot fly ball.  I suspect Florimon may prove a switch-hitting version of Jimenez. If so, he'd better be a better defensive player than Jimenez.

* The likely starting rotation hasn't covered itself in glory so far — Scott Diamond hasn't taken the mound yet, and Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey and Vance Worley have all been knocked around some. The best outings have come from guys competing for the fifth job, like Liam Hendriks and Kyle Gibson.

The veterans aren't sweating it yet. If I'm wary of Correia — and I am — it's because of his established track record, not because he's been hit in his February outings. If I'm cautious about Pelfrey — and I am — it's because he's less than a year removed from Tommy John surgery, not because he's been hit in his February outings.

Nobody's winning, or losing, a job on the basis of the first week of exhibition games. Not even Hicks.