Monday, May 9, 2016

Catching up on the roster shuffle

I took a rather skeptical view in the Monday print column of the effectiveness of the Twins roster shuffle. To catch up on what's happened:

  • LHP Tommy Milone, waived, went unclaimed and was assigned to Rochester. 
  • RHP Casey Fien, waived, was claimed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and remains in the majors.
  • C John Ryan Murphy was optioned to Rochester.
  • SS Eduardo Escobar went on the disabled list.
  • LHP Ryan O'Rourke was designated for assignment and remains in limbo.
  • RHP J.R. Graham was designated for assignment and remains in limbo.
  • RHP Ervin Santana was activated from the disabled list.
  • OF Darin Mastroianni was added to the 40-man roster and to the 25-man roster.
  • C Juan Centeno was added to the 40-man roster and to the 25-man roster.
  • LHP Pat Dean was called up.
  • RHP Brandon Kintzler was added to the 40-man roster and to the 25-man roster.

That adds up to six of the 25 roster spots, or 24 percent of the roster turned over between the end of Wednesday's game and the beginning of Saturday's. But it only involves one lineup regular (the freshly injured Escobar) and one rotation slot (Santana).

I am, obviously surprised that Milone passed through waivers and Fien did not. I was pretty certain that somebody would think Milone can help their rotation. As I said in the linked column, I'm not pleased with the selection of Kintzler over a higher-profile bullpen arm. (In Thursday's post I mentioned Nick Burdi as a possibility, but he went on the disabled list at Chattanooga with what is being described as a bone bruise on his upper arm.) And while I probably shouldn't make another prediction after getting Milone and Fien wrong, I expect both Graham and O'Rourke to clear waivers and remain in the organization.

And as for the catcher swap-out,  I can only note sourly that the third White Sox run on Sunday was set up when Tyler Duffey struck out a White Sox hitter with a curve in the dirt and it got away from Centeno. That makes 21 wild pitches for the team already. Tim Laudner, on the FSN postgame, made the same point about wild pitches that I have -- they're often partly the catcher's fault, and he clearly was not impressed with Centeno's inability to corral that pitch.

1 comment:

  1. Twins not in synch. Not a brilliant observation.

    Fix one thing at a time. That is all they can do!

    ReplyDelete