The Twins on Friday announced their non-roster invites — 14 players not on the 40-man roster who will be in the major league camp. Only one, former Tigers pitcher Mike Maroth, is from outside the organization. He hasn't been in the majors since 2007.
Frequently teams will sign a fringe veteran to a minor-league deal with a major league invite and every expectation of putting him on the 25-man roster — a way to avoid cutting a player from the 40-man roster before camp. There's none of that here; I don't expect Maroth to make the 25-man roster.
Nobody in this crowd is likely to contend for a roster spot, although a couple of them might get called up during the season.
The one with the best prospects of that: relief pitcher Anthony Slama, outfielder Rene Tosoni and relief pitcher Jose Lugo, who probably isn't as good as Slama but has the advantage of being left-handed. I can see him being a LOOGY candidate at some point.
The one I'd be most interested in seeing were I to go to Fort Myers is Ben Revere. He's not going to see Target Field in 2010 short of utter calamity, but I suspect Ron Gardenhire and company are very curious to see him play.
Three of the invitees are catchers, who will be there because there will be about two dozen pitchers in camp and somebody's got to do the squatting.
A solid take on the invitees can be found at sethspeaks.net.
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