Hello, Parker; goodbye (presumably) Curtiss

Official: #MNTwins sign Blake Parker to a one-year contract. pic.twitter.com/V006e6ExEG

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) January 14, 2019

Left out of that tweet was that to make room on the 40-man roster the Twins designated John Curtiss for assignment.

Both are right-handed relievers. Parker has a pretty good major league resume, mostly composed over the past two seasons. Curtiss does not. On the other hand, Parker turns 34 in June, and Curtiss turns 26 about a week after opening day.

This may be my fascination with bright shiny objects at play again, but I see enough red flags in Parker's record, and enough promise in Curtiss' stuff, that I'm not convinced this is an upgrade for the Twins. Just as with the DFA earlier of Aaron Slegers -- he was claimed by the Pirates -- I see other arms on the 40 that I would prefer to part with. I expect Curtiss to be claimed.

And as with Slegers, many of those arms are attached to bodies acquired by the current front office. Curtiss was part of the wave of college relievers drafted by the second Ryan administration. Few of those have panned out, and those relievers are being purged from the system in what has become a fairly steady flow.