Notes, quotes and comment

Players across major league baseball wore the cap of
Stoneman Douglas High School for spring training openers
on Friday. This is Byron Buxton of the Twins.

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The Twins lost J.T. Chargois on waivers to the Los Angeles Dodgers. So the hard-throwing but oft-injured reliever almost made it through waivers. And good luck to him.

He has a high ceiling. But he's also essentially missed three of the past five seasons, so there is obvious risk to him.

One thing is certain: The Twins have exposed a number of hard-throwing relief prospects to waivers and Rule 5 since last season, and a number of them have been snatched up: Randy Rosario, Nick Burdi, now Chargois. That didn't used to happen.

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The Twins on Friday signed Erick Aybar, once an All-Star caliber shortstop, to a minor league deal. Aybar's bounced around the past couple seasons -- Atlanta, Detroit, San Diego -- and hasn't hit at a league average level since 2014.

The Twins have Jorge Polanco at short with Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianaza behind him, so I don't really see the purpose of adding Aybar, even with Miguel Sano's uncertain status. Even if Sano is out, there is no way Aybar should play third ahead of Escobar.

Aybar's 34 now, which startles me. I remember seeing him play in Cedar Rapids for the Kernels (back when CR was an Angels affiliate) and being impressed. That game involved Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks (who had just been drafted 1-1 by the Brewers) and Tony Gwynn Jr. for Beloit (then a Brewers affilate), plus Aybar and Alberto Callaspo in the middle infield for Cedar Rapids. A pretty stout assemblage of talent for low A ball.

That was 2003. Seems fresher in my memory than that.