Some minor moves

The Twins on Monday elevated left-handed relief prospect Edgar Ibarra to the 40-man roster rather than allow him to become a minor-league free agent. They also, over the weekend, reinstated Sam Deduno to the 40 (he had been on the 60-day disabled list).

Ibarra is 24, from Venezuela, and is said to have a mid-90s fastball and a decent change but shows a poor control record. He will presumably compete with Brian Duensing and Caleb Thielbar for a LOOGY role in the Minnesota bullpen, although there is speculation that the arbitration-eligible Duensing may be cut loose rather than give him a raise.

The Twins now have 36 or 37 players on the 40, depending on how you view Mike Pelfrey, who officially becomes a free agent at some point but was still listed on the Twins website Monday evening.

Also on Monday, the Twins formally announced a handful of minor league signings, including Wilkin Ramirez, Doug Bernier and Lester Oliveros, all of whom have seen some major league time in the past few seasons. Others: Dan Rohlfing, Aaron Thompson, Jermaine Mitchell and James Beresford. Those seven all got invites to major league camp.

As I said in an earlier post, I'm not sure what the point is to having both Bernier and Beresford when the Triple A middle infield figures to be manned by Double A graduates Danny Santana and Eddie Rosario.

Three other minor league vets were signed without the invites: Vigil Vasquez, Jairo Rodriguez and Reynaldo Rodriguez.