Gone and back

Ryan LaMarre, who made the Minnesota roster out of spring training, bounced up and down, got some regular playing time in center with Byron Buxton's rehab assignment/demotion and was finally waived by the Twins, was claimed by the Chicago White Sox.

I found LaMarre an easy player to root for, but that hardly overcomes his limitations as a ballplayer. He looked like a good defensive outfielder (the metrics didn't really agree), displayed little power at the plate and made too many baserunning mistakes. In that last he was hardly unique on this team. Jake Cave has a higher ceiling.

LaMarre was a fringe guy on the Twins. He'll be a fringe guy with the White Sox.

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The Twins announced that Felix Jorge had been released and then re-signed to a minor league contract. 

The mechanics here are ... interesting, at least to me. Jorge was called up twice last season for spot starts and spent the offseason and much of season on the 40-man roster but sidelined by a triceps injury. The Twins DFA'd him at the start of the month to create a spot for Willians Astudillo.

So Jorge cleared waivers -- and then apparently, the Twins released him and re-signed him rather than outright him. The advantage for the Twins: If and when they decide to put him on the 40 again only to decide to take him off, he won't have the option of declaring free agency. He had that opportunity this time around.

This is probably all academic anyway, certainly in the short term. Jorge is a long way from being a factor for the big league club.

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Closer to being a factor for the big league club: Ervin Santana is apparently expected to be restored to the Twins roster and rotation after the All-Star break. Barring a trade or injury involving somebody else, this is presumably not good news for Aaron Slegers.

A bit further away: Michael Pineda, signed to a two-year deal by the Twins last winter while he recovers from Tommy John surgery is slated to go on a rehab assignment later this month. He might get a month to six weeks in the major league rotation this year. I don't think the Twins were counting on that when they signed him.

So much for that winning streak

Sometimes a baseball season feels like a whack-a-mole: Fix one problem and another shows up.

Fernando Romero steps into the rotation to replace the struggling Phil Hughes, and suddenly the fifth starter's spot appears more than functional -- and somebody else is pitching poorly.

Thursday's game made three straight poor starts for Jose Berrios since his spectacular outing in Puerto Rico. I'm sure Berrios isn't about to be dislodged from the rotation. I'm also sure the Twins need to figure out how to get him on the right track again.

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I commented Thursday morning on how well Max Kepler was hitting lefties. He homered Thursday night, the second of back-to-back homers (the other from Brian Dozier) that briefly tied the game.

Kepler last year had five extra-base hits all season against lefties (137 plate appearances). He's passed that total already in 2018 in 31 plate appearances.

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And my prediction that Ryan LaMarre would be demoted to make roster room for Byron Buxton's return was, for once, accurate. The blind pig found an acorn.

Notes, quotes and comment

An intriguing pitching matchup on tap for Sunday: Fernando Romero for the Twins, Shohei Ohtani for the Angels. Gonna be some fastballs thrown in that one.

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Byron Buxton is expected to come off the disabled list today, raising the question of who will leave the active roster to make room for him?

My guess is Ryan LaMarre. Two reasons:

• The Twins are thinner in the infield than in the outfield;
• Part of LaMarre's perceived value is as a right-handed hitter. But with Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario hitting much better this year against lefties than in the past, there isn't as much need for that right-handed bat.

That last point deserves some specific attention. The plate appearances are quite limited, of course, but Rosario has popped four extra-base hits against lefties so far and his slugging percentage against southpaws is .481. (Just 28 plate appearance, and he has no walks against lefties so far.) Kepler, who has 30 plate appearances with the platoon disadvantage, is actually hitting better against lefties so far (OPS vs. lefties .993, vs. righties .792).

Kepler isn't likely to sustain that, but the point is: right now, Paul Molitor doesn't need to platoon either.

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Somebody told me when the Mets DFA'd Matt Harvey that the Twins had been listed as a potential "take a flier on him" possibility. That didn't make much sense, because the Twins aren't really in need of a rotation project.

They already have Phil Hughes trying to remake himself as a major league pitcher after thoratic outlet surgery. They don't need two such guys.

And unlike Harvey, Hughes

• is willing to work out of the bullpen and
• hasn't an established reputation as a jackwagon.

It's all irrelevant now, because Harvey was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. A 7.00 ERA fits pretty well with the rest of their rotation.

I was surprised the Mets got catcher Devin Mesoroco for Harvey. Not that Mesoroco is anything great, but he has more chance to be useful than Harvey does. The Mets certainly needed another catcher.

Ryan LaMarre, starring in small sample size theater

Ryan LaMarre's
second major league
RBI was a gane-winner/

Ryan LaMarre, who had the game-winning hit in the 16th inning in the midnight hour in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is now 7-for-12 with five strikeouts. All seven hits are singles.

The man's BABIP -- batting average, balls in play -- is 1.000. His batting average is .583.

Obviously, he's not THAT good. If he was, he wouldn't be coming off the bench, much less be on the option yo-yo with Rochester. (LaMarre was optioned to Rochester during the snowed out weekend, restored to the active roster as the 26th man for the Puerto Rico series, and restored to the 25-man roster to take the place of Byron Buxton when Buxton went on the disabled list.)

Nothing in LaMarre's minor league track record says he's a quality hitter. He is said to have reworked his swing over the winter. and he hit .500 during spring training to find a spot on the opening day roster.

Still, a manager who believes in "the hot hand" would start increasing LaMarre's playing time. And with Buxton sidelined and Max Kepler apparently feeling something in his knee, there may be more at-bats in LaMarre's immediate future.

Demoting Ryan LaMarre

Ryan LaMarre, optioned to Triple A Rochester soon after Friday's game was postponed, has had an odd eight at-bats this season.

He has four singles, and he has four strikeouts. His BABIP -- Batting Average on Balls In Play -- is 1.000. File that under "samll sample size oddities" and forget it as insignificant.

The demotion itself may not be highly significant either. Nobody expects the Twins to play today, and Sunday may not be very hospitable for baseball either. They're off Monday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday they play Cleveland in Puerto Rico, and apparently both teams get to have 26-man rosters for that tw-game series. So it's quite likely that LaMarre will be reinstated for the Puerto Rico games, and won't actually miss any games for this demotion.

The Twins didn't make a corresponding move Friday with the outfielder's demotion. So why do it at all? One thought is that Addison Reed, who was said to have strep throat earlier in the week, was ailing again Friday, and LaMarre's roster spot is likely to go to a healthy reliever should Sunday's game be played.

A bench of role guys

There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of bench players. There are players -- typically veterans -- who have specific in-game roles.  And there are players -- typically younger -- who are waiting for a regular to get hurt or slump his way to the bench.

Leo Durocher, Hall of Fame manager, was notorious for dividing his teams into the guys who play and the guys who sit. Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver, also Hall of Fame managers, platooned everybody but their superstars; it was hard to tell who was their bench guys some years.

Rosters are shaped differently these days; benches are thinner when about half the roster is pitching. But the Twins bench under Ron Gardenhire tended strongly toward the Durocher model. Gardy didn't platoon much, and he liked a set lineup.

Paul Molitor has edged away from that, and it really shows in the bench the Twins expect to open with today. There are four players, and it's not difficult to identify their in-game roles:

• Mitch Garver is the backup catcher. He's a right handed hitter, which gives Molitor a platoon option with starter Jason Castro. 
• Ehire Adrianza, utility infielder, is a superior gloveman who started games last season at five different positions. He's a switch hitter.
• Robbie Grossman, switch-hitter, is an on-base percentage specialist. The more he plays in the outfield, the less his bat helps. 
• Ryan LaMarre, right handed hitter, is something of a mirror image to Grossman. Despite his gaudy spring training numbers, he's never been much of a hitter, but he's fast and a good defensive outfielder.

The Twins' nine regulars tend heavily to the left side. The bench is all right-handed or switch hitters. Molitor has some bat-first options and some glove-first options. There is nobody on this roster like Luis Rodriguez a few years ago, where one wondered what function he had. There is an obvious purpose to each of these four, and I applaud that.

Ryan LaMarre and the opening roster

The Twins played their final exhibition of 2018 on Tuesday, beating the Washington Nationals in D.C. Of more importance, they set -- presumably -- their roster for opening day on Thursday.

Phil Hughes went on the disabled list with his strained oblique. This allowed both Gabriel Moya and Rule 5 pick Tyler Kinley to make the roster. There seems to be some skepticism on Twins twitter about the validity of Hughes' injury, in no small part because he's sidelined for a period in which the Twins don't need a fifth starter. I'll deploy my skepticism for people who assume that an athlete is faking an injury.

Anyway, that was one of the final decisions. Another, as noted here Monday, wasn't much of a decision. Kennys Vargas was indeed put back of waivers as soon as the Twins reclaimed him. This time he cleared, and the Twins outrighted him to Triple A. This isn't good for Vargas, who would probably benefit from a new organization, but there are 30 big-league teams and none of them want to use a 25-man roster spot on him.

The final decision may not be fully decided. The Twins optioned out Zack Granite, which presumably means Ryan LaMarre will be on the 25-man roster as a reserve outfielder.

"Presumably" because

• the Twins haven't officially put him on the 40-man and 25-man rosters and
• they are presumably aware that the Los Angeles Dodgers designated Trayce Thompson for assignment on Tuesday, and there may well be other right-handed hitting outfielders available this week.

LaMarre, 29, had a great spring training; he hit .475/.500/.775 and looked good at all three outfield positions. There is nothing more he could have done in Florida to win a roster spot.

The problem for LaMarre is his track record. Not so much his .054 career major league batting average; that's only 40 plate appearances and is meaningless. Nobody's as good as his spring training stats, and nobody's as bad as his major league numbers.

It's what he's shown in the upper minors in a variety of organizations. LaMarre has more than 950 PA in Triple A and has compiled an OPS at that level of .723, which isn't that impressive.

LaMarre hits right-handed, and as I've been noting all spring, that fits the Twins' specific roster needs better than the lefty bat of Granite. But Granite is the better player; if the Twins should need somebody to play everyday for a couple weeks or more, Granite is a better choice. LaMarre makes the team for a specific role -- if he indeed makes the team. That has yet to fully play out.

Low-key competitions: Outfield

When the Twins signed Logan Morrison to be their primary designated hitter, Paul Molitor made a point of telling reporters that he had warned Robbie Grossman -- 2017's primary DH  --  that Grossman would have to make the roster as an outfielder.

The issue wth that is that Grossman is a terrible defensive outfielder.

There is a prototype for fourth outfielders:

• fast enough to play center field
• too weak at the plate to be a regular (but still good enough to get some at-bats), 
• left handed or a switch hitter for platoon purposes, since most pitchers are right-handed. 

In the Twins specific case, however, the third point is off kilter. Because two of the three regular outfielders, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler, are left-handed hitters with problems against lefties, the Twins would prefer their fourth outfielder be right-handed. And Rosario or Kepler are capable of sliding over to play center when Byron Buxton sits.

Grossman misses on the first point. Zack Granite fits the usual form perfectly but hits left-handed, so he's not much of a platoon partner to Rosario or Kepler.

There are a couple of right-handed hitting non-roster outfielders in camp.

Chris Heisey, 33, has compiled more than 1,750 major league plate appearances over the past eight seasons with three clubs (Reds, Dodgers, Nationals). He has not, however, been notably useful as a platoon player (his OPS, On-base Plus Slugging, is notably better against righties for his career), and he's probably not capable of playing center field well at this stage in his career. He hasn't hit much the past three years in limited playing time, and he hasn't hit much this spring.

Ryan LaMarre, 29, has -- his spring training batting average is above .500, which is obviously ridiculous and not to be maintained. He lacks Heisey's track record (just 40 major league at-bats) but is obviously fast enough to play center. Despite the gaudy Grapefruit League numbers, his minor league record isn't that impressive.

Grossman should still be reckoned the most likely fourth outfielder. But even if he opens the season on the roster, his position is not secure. His fielding issues are deep enough that he's got to hit to get in the lineup, and he didn't mash lefties as well in 2017 as he did in 2016. 

LaMarre has had an impressive camp so far. And it's also possible that the fourth outfielder is in somebody else's camp waiting to be waived or traded.