Ervin Santana and the rotation

The expectation here on Tuesday was that Adalberto Mejia would lose his roster spot to make room for Ervin Santana, who is to make his 2018 debut for the Twins tonight in Toronto.

Instead, the Twins after Tuesday's game designated utility man Taylor Motter for assignment.

Motter has distinguished himself only by possessing the longest hair in team history, so his likely departure (either by waiver claim or free agency) is minor news. What is interesting is that the Twins now have six starting pitchers on their active roster.

Three possibilities:

• Paul Molitor will go with a six-man rotation.
• A veteran pitcher is about to be traded.
• Somebody is getting shifted to the bullpen.

The first and last can be paired with the second, a temporary measure during this final week before the non-waiver trading deadline that avoids moving Mejia back to the minors and restarting his 10-day option clock.

But No. 2, a trade, seems the most likely reason to keep Mejia in the bigs. And it seems to me that if Santana tonight displays some velocity (say 92 mph) and command of his slider, he would be more desirable trade bait than fellow free-agent-to-be Lance Lynn.

True, Santana has done nothing in the majors to this point. A team looking to deepen its rotation for the stretch run might still prefer that lack of a record to what Lynn has produced this season.