Notes, quotes and comment

Nick Burdi caught
eyes with his
velocity this spring.

Nick Burdi, much-anticipated relief prospect for the Twins who made it deeper into major league camp than anticipated, will open the year on the disabled list with tightness in his forearm.

This may or may not be the precursor to a more significant injury. But I can't help but remember that early in camp he was reported to be working on a split-finger fastball, and I was dubious of that idea in part because of the injury risk.

I don't know if he continued to pursue the pitch; if I recall correctly, Terry Ryan said at the time that it was up to Burdi. Even if he was still working on it, connecting the pitch to this forearm issue is at best imprecise. Pitchers get hurt.

---

While watching the Twins beat the Red Sox in Thursday's Fort Myers finale, I tweeted this:

Understand why Twins kept Arcia, but I prefer Mastroianni more as a bench piece. Does more things will than Arcia.

— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) March 31, 2016

Other than misspelling "well" as "will", I stand by that thought. Oswaldo Arcia has the advantage in power. Darin Mastroianni does everything else better. I don't know where Arcia's going to get his at-bats, and if he's not getting at-bats, he's no help.

Last year Shane Robinson, who is kinda sorta the same player as Mastroianni, played in 83 games with almost 200 plate appearances for the Twins. Now, that was a team with a 40-year-old right fielder who needed plenty of days off, and this year's roster doesn't have that kind of issue. But it does have an outfielder who has minimal experience in the outer garden (Miguel Sano), and another who was once hit in the head by a fly ball in a major league game (Arcia).

Robinson, incidentally, was released by Cleveland this week, where he was a non-roster invitee, and on Thursday signed with the Angels.

---

In other ex-Twin NRI news:

• Brian Duensing, non-roster invitee with the Kansas City Royals, was released this week.
• Anthony Swarzak, non-roster invitee with the New York Yankees, was reassigned to minor league camp.
• Blaine Boyer, non-roster invitee with the Milwaukee Brewers, made the major league roster.

Good-bye, 'Sugar Shane'

We've signed outfielder Shane Robinson and catcher Adam Moore to minor-league deals with Spring Training invites. pic.twitter.com/NzxO1WCCzC

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) November 19, 2015

Shane Robinson made it through the entire season with the Twins and set career highs in at-bats, hits and runs, but it's hardly surprising that the veteran reserve outfielder went elsewhere. He barely played in September/October before being removed from the 40-man roster and declaring free agency.

The Twins were interested in bringing him back on a minor league deal, which is all he got from Cleveland, but there's more opportunity for him to make the 25-man roster this year in Cleveland. The Tribe at this point are shy of outfielders and are said to be looking for one in trade.

Robinson is no solution to a lineup issue. He's a  bench piece with a variety of skills that make him worth using in specific roles. He's the opposite of Oswaldo Arcia, who has power vs. right-handed pitchers and nothing else to recommend him. As a fourth outfielder, Robinson makes more sense than Arcia, but so does, let us say, Danny Santana. I hold little hope that either Arcia or Santana will be productive major league regulars, but I hold no hope for Robinson in that regard either. The other guys have higher ceilings; they're just unlikely to reach those ceilings.

Meanwhile, back with the Twins ...

On the same day that the New York Mets completed their sweep of the Chicago Cubs and the Toronto Blue Jays staved off elimination, the Twins made their first roster moves of the offseason: They outrighted catcher Eric Fryer, outfielder Shane Robinson and left-handed pitcher Aaron Thompson.

This takes all three off the 40-man roster. All three are likely to test free agency, and I doubt any of them will find a team willing to offer a major league contract. I rather expect the Twins to offer them minor league deals, Fryer in particular. Robinson might be the least likely for them to retain; he's a fourth (or fifth) outfielder on a team with a lot of young outfield talent.

The Twins ended the season with a full 40. They have, according to Mike Bearadino, five pending free agents (I believe they are Blaine Boyer, Neil Cotts, Brian Duensing, Torii Hunter and Mike Pelfrey), and they come off the roster after the World Series. They also have Ryan Pressly and Logan Darnell on the 60-day disabled list, and they will either be restored to the 40 next month or go through waivers; I would expect the Twins to keep both. So I make the effective 40 to be at 36.

Expect some more deletions in the next few days. Berardino listed six prospects who will be Rule 5 eligible this winter, and there isn't enough room to add them all now. One thing is certain: The Twins have the opportunity, again, to overhaul their bullpen corps this winter, especially the left-handers.

The roster shuffle: Hicks, Thompson, O'Roarke, Pressly, Robinson

The Twins moved some bodies around the past few days while I was writing about other stuff. Assuming everything is settled in, they've cut the staff back to 12 pitchers and re-inserted a genuine centerfielder into the lineup. Let's review:

Reserve outfielder Shane Robinson was absent a few days on family emergency leave, his second such absence of the season. I don't think I've described his situation before, but this Derek Wetmore piece from last month does a pretty good job of explaining why Robinson comes and goes.

Robinson's brief departure opened the door for Aaron Hicks to return from his rehab assignment. Hicks not only made a spectacular catch Monday night, he homered in consecutive games (both from the right side). Power is something that's been missing from his game the past year-plus.

Robinson's return coincided with Ryan Pressly's trip to the disabled list. The right-handed reliever felt something give in the back of his shoulder Saturday. He has had a quietly good stat line (2.93 ERA with the bullpen's second-highest strikeout rate) despite occasional control hiccups.

The upshot: The Twins have replaced Pressly, the bullpen's No. 3 righty, with Hicks.

The other shuffled was LOOGY for LOOGY: Aaron Thompson down, Ryan O'Roarke up.

Ryan O'Roarke has
a career ERA of
4.15 in the minor
leaguers.

I vaguely remember seeing O'Roarke in Beloit in 2012, and I mentioned him in passing in the blog, but I can't recall any specifics. He was one of seven lefties on the Snappers roster when I saw them (that was their final season affiliated with the Twins), and he didn't hold any special interest for me. The idea that he'd be in the big league bullpen before fellow southpaw Corey Williams, a recent third-round pick, would have been ludicrous. But here he is, and Williams is in the process of recovering from Tommy John surgery.

There's not a lot in O'Roarke's minor-league numbers to excite you. He's been used in an emphatic one-out role for the past year and a half in Double A and Triple A. This season, for example: 22 appearances but just 15 innings, with an ERA of 5.40. He's had excellent strikeout rates in that role, but he pretty clearly has some trouble with right-handed hitters.

Which is what did in Thompson, that and, arguably, overuse in the first two months. He leaves leading the American League in appearances but with an ERA of 5.01, this despite still having an impressive slash line against left-handed hitters (.189/.262/.264). The underlying point to Thompson's struggles: Even a left-handed specialist winds up facing more right-handed hitters than left-handed ones, and they have to have something to combat them with.

That will be the challenge for O'Roarke. It does seem noteworthy, however, that he got the call instead of Caleb Theilbar, who spent much of the previous two seasons sharing LOOGY duties with Brian Duensing.

Ranking the Twins outfield priorities

Byron Buxton was 0-for-4 in his debut Sunday with a
pair of strikeouts and a failed sac bunt attempt.

Other than his highly anticipated and greatly heralded presence, Byron Buxton didn't have a great impact on Sunday's game in Arlington, Texas. Yes, he scored the winning run, but scoring from first on a two-out gapper would be routine for most baserunners. He ran down a potential gapper in the field, but I suspect Aaron Hicks would have made that play also, if not as easily.

Hicks, of course, wasn't available Sunday; the Twins put him on the disabled list as the move to get Buxton on the active roster. With Torii Hunter serving Game Two of his suspension, Paul Molitor deployed an outfield of Shane Robinson in left, Buxton in center and Eddie Rosario in right, and that is a pretty close to optimal defensive alignment.

The Twins have a bunch of outfielders now -- on the active roster, on the disabled list, and in the minors but still seen as significant pieces. Let's sort through the priorities.

1) Buxton. Yes, he has all of one game in the majors. He's still the single most important piece of this team's puzzle, the cornerstone player for the anticipated success ahead. He's here; he's playing.

2) Hunter. He's 39, but the team didn't commit $12 million to him to sit on the bench. I'd prefer to see him DHing than playing right.

3) Rosario. Debuted May 6 and has played in all but a handful of games since. Has so far lived up to his minor league billing, with arguably more power (three homers in his first 100 at-bats) than should be expected. Between his youth/developmental needs, his bat and his defensive skills, he should be in the outfield on a near-daily basis. Despite being in the running in training camp for the center field job, he has been strictly in the corners since his call-up, which is proper.

4) Oswaldo Arcia. Spluttering with a .167/.189/.229 slash line in Triple A, he appears to have been eclipsed by Rosario in the corner outfield plans. He's a better hitter than that .418 Rochester OPS suggests, but so what? His fielding woes negate the hitting, and between Hunter and Kennys Vargas, there's not much room available at DH. He's still only 24, but he's out of options after this season. A trade seems inevitable, and right now his value is probably as low as it's ever been.

5) Hicks. Buxton pushes him out of the center field job. His bat pushes him out of a regular corner outfield role. That makes him a fourth outfielder, which is not what he was drafted in the first round to be. Is the organization willing to accept that, or will they dump him? He's also out of options after this season.

6) Shane Robinson. Too flawed to be an outfield regular, but he does enough things well to use him. A prototype reserve outfielder.

7) Jordan Schafer. Rosario has already garnered 40 more plate appearances than the Opening Day center fielder. Schafer wasn't anywhere near the player this year that he was in August-September last year, and I don't see a role for him after he comes off the disabled list. Hicks and Robinson rank ahead of him as reserve outfielders, and nobody needs four center fielders on the roster.

8) Eduardo Escobar. I'll list him here because Baseball Reference has him as the regular left fielder so far. If he's still so listed after the All-Star break, Molitor is doing it wrong. Even if the Twins decide to turn to Jorge Polanco or Danny Santana at short, Escobar shouldn't get outfield time ahead of the first five on this list. He's an infielder. Use him as such.

Jordan Schafer and the Opening Day lineup

Jordan Schafer hit
.143 against left-handers
last season.

The day after I dissected the difference between platooning and playing matchups, Paul Molitor revealed his planned lineup for today's season opener against David Price, one of the best lefties in the game. That lineup included three players with a history of struggling against lefties: Oswaldo Arcia, Jordan Schafer and Kennys Vargas. And Schafer, of course, is supposed to be in a center field platoon.

Arcia and Vargas, I get. They're young guys, they're supposed to be regulars, and the first game of the season isn't a time for a manager to say: This guy needs a day off anyway, let's get so-and-so in the lineup.

Schafer is another matter. His career OPS against southpaws is almost 200 points lower than against right-handers. (Which is not to say that he's been all that good against righties either over the years.) So why is he in the lineup against Price while purported platoon mate Shane Robinson sits?

Molitor suggests that Opening Day is a day to play your regulars. Which I would accept -- see the second paragraph -- but for the fact that Molitor has avoided anointing Schafer as the regular center fielder.

So what other, unstated, rationale might the manager have for playing Schafer against Price?

The change-up

Price is one of the many pitchers who came up through the Tampa Bay system, which (as we've learned since Neil Allen became Minnesota's pitching coach) emphasizes the change -p. Last year, according to Baseball Info Systems, Price threw his change on 20 percent of his pitches.

While I don't know how his change-up use breaks down by platoons, it's a good bet that Price uses the change more against right-handed hitters than against lefties. This is something of a pitching staple: fastball-breaking ball against same side hitters, fastball-change against opposite side hitters. You're looking for a pitch that moves away from the hitter.

So the idea might be to take the change away from Price.

Is Price backwards?

Not really. For his career, Price enters 2015 with a career OPS allowed against righties of .676, against lefties of .561.

However, last year lefties were slightly better than righties against Price: .644 OPS for right handers, .657 for lefties. That's obviously in a smaller sample than the career figures, but it's more recent.

Defense

Schafer is presumably perceived as a better defensive player than Robinson, who mostly played right field in the exhibitions. Molitor may figure that neither is all that likely to hit Price, so go with the better glove.

Schafer really is the regular, for now

It's usually best to follow the John Mitchell Rule with managers. (Mitchell was Richard Nixon's first attorney general who famously told opponents of school integration "Watch what we do, not what we say.")

Molitor says he's platooning Robinson and Schafer. We'll see. He may wind up playing Schafer more than that for a time, until Schafer convinces him that the team would do better with someone else.

"Playing matchups" versus platooning

The demotion earlier this week of Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario signaled that the Twins will open 2015 with a center field platoon of two mediocre veterans, Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson. Schafer hits left, Robinson right. It's an obvious platoon.

But we are being constantly "assured" by the broadcasters that it won't be a hard platoon. They're going to play matchups.

Well, that's what platooning IS: Matchups on a rudimentary level. Earl Weaver at his mad-dougout-scientist peak in the late '70s and early '80s ran very complex platoons, all of them starting with lefty-righty and then branching out into breaking ball-fast ball and other variables, but he had as many as nine outfielders. Paul Molitor has four true outfielders, two of whom aren't going to play center field unless Moli wishes to embarrass a pitcher. He hasn't a roster built to accommodate complex lineup shuffling.

The broadcasters are saying this because that's what they're being told, and I presume they're being told that because players generally hate being platooned and so why rub it in? Of course, at this point in their careers, Schafer and Robinson ought to embrace the role. It's better to platoon in the majors than play every day in the minors -- or to find a job in the real world.

The roster moves to come

The Twins optioned out left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar on Wednesday, which appears to settle the 12-man pitching staff.

Today we can expect the official addition of outfielder Shane Robinson to the 40-man roster. This has been an apparent move for a few days, and I assume the Twins have put it off to his opt-out date for two reasons:

• to cover themselves in case of injury (an injured Robinson not on the 40 wouldn't go on the major league disabled list);
• just in case some other team making roster cuts exposes a right-handed hitting outfielder the Twins like more than "Sugar Shane."

Beyond that, what? Two other non-roster invitees remain in camp, catcher Eric Fryer and infielder Doug Bernier; I don't see either making the Opening Day roster. Two of the trio of (alphabetically) Chris Herrmann, Eduardo Nunez and Josmil Pinto figure to be on the active roster. Pinto's health status after his concussion plays a role in that decision, as does the comfort level Paul Molitor has in Eduardo Escobar as an outfield reserve.

I see more possibilities for the future with Herrmann and Pinto than with Nunez, but given the Twins' habitual preference for mediocre veterans, I suspect Nunez will stick.

One other very slight possibility to mention. USA Today this week ran their version of the "David Ortiz sees himself in Kennys Vargas" story, and in the process mentioned something I hadn't seen from the beat writers. (Maybe I missed it.) Supposedly Vargas reported at 290 pounds, and the Twins want him at 275 max. He was, according to the story, told he had to get down to 275 or be sent out.

That would be a "tough love" move, but one I wouldn't criticize. It would actually put the long run first, which has been a rarity of late. Vargas needs to develop the self-discipline to stay in shape if he's to have a career, even if it's simply as a DH type. (There was an odd-sounding quote from Molitor recently about Vargas not being in sufficient condition to play nine innings of first base, which is, frankly, an appalling concept for a 24-year-old professional athlete.)

But I expect Vargas to be on the roster and in the lineup. A regular DH and a 12-man pitching staff leaves a four-man bench that would presumably begin with Escobar and include whichever center fielder isn't in the lineup (Robinson or Schafer) and two of the Herrmann-Nunez-Pinto trio. If Vargas gets optioned out, all three make the roster, and presumably Pinto would get the bulk of the DH time, although Molitor might use the DH slot to manufacture playing time for Escobar.

'Clarity,' indeed

Tommy Milone
gets the fifth
slot in the rotation.

I suppose I could have waited a couple hours to post.

The Twins this morning optioned out Aaron Hicks, Eddie Rosario and Trevor May and reassigned Mark Hamburger. They also announced that Tommy Milone will be the fifth starter.

This sets up a center field platoon of Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson, which I saw coming a few days ago. I'm fine with this. After the last two springs, nothing Hicks did in Florida was going to sway my view of him, and while I have high hopes for Rosario, I don't think center field in April 2015 is the right job at the right time for him. Schafer and Robinson aren't much of a much, but that just makes it easier to decide that it's Byron Buxton's time in June or July.

Ron Gardenhire would have made a different decision. Gardy never ran a true left-right platoon for more than a month or so. He'd have picked one center fielder to open the season, probably Hicks, and changed to somebody else in late May when Hicks didn't hit, and we've seen this movie before.

Hamburger's departure was also foreseeable. He opened eyes early in camp but faded late; he didn't make either of my bullpen projections this week. He's got a real good chance of coming up at some point this season, though.

I'm glad Milone is in the rotation, even more pleased that Mike Pelfrey isn't, and a bit discouraged that May is not. As I said earlier this morning, May probably needed some veteran injuries to get a rotation spot. The front office stacked too many contracts in front of him. Milone is a good starter with a better track record than Pelfrey or Ricky Nolasco. We didn't see him pitch that way last year.

So what decisions still await? The backup catcher has yet to be determined. One or two or even three bullpen jobs are still in question. We know Glen Perkins, Casey Fien and Brian Duensing are safe, and it would be a shocker if J.R. Graham didn't come north. That leaves three jobs for Tim Stauffer, Caleb Thielbar, Pelfrey, Blaine Boyer and maybe somebody not currently in the Twins organization.

Center field revisited

Aaron Hicks' stat line
is less impressive than
it was a week ago.

When I wrote here last week about the center field competition, Aaron Hicks was sporting a .330 spring training average. He had maybe one hit since then and dropped to .207 -- which, really only illustrates the silliness of relying on spring training stats to evaluate players. The sample sizes are small, the competition is uneven, the numbers are essentially meaningless.

Even if he were still hitting three-something, so what? He did that in spring trainings 2013 and and 2014, and it didn't prove indicative of anything. Hicks has 150 regular season games, 538 regular season plate appearances, in which he's hit .201. Letting a couple dozen spring training at-bats outweigh that would be silly.

Meanwhile, Eddie Rosario's spring training stats display a red-flag glitch: 40 plate appearances, no walks. He still has a batting average (.256 per Baseball Reference) higher than his on-base percentage (.250). His minor league stat line hardly reveals a Kevin Youkilis-type base-on-balls machine, but it's not that bizarre.

My take on this is that he's trying too hard to impress. There used to be a cliche about Dominican players and their hacking tendencies: You can't walk off the island. The idea was that these players were encouraged to swing at everything because they had to hit the ball to get the scouts' attention. Rosario is from Puerto Rico, not the Dominican, but the concept holds.

Hicks and Rosario are the two young guys in camp who can be seen as full-time center fielders. Veteran fringe players Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson are more likely to be platoon mates, and that increasingly looks like the direction the Twins will take. Terry Ryan doesn't sound very enthused by that prospect, while Paul Molitor this week expressed openness to platoons and invoked the success Earl Weaver had with platoons back when Molitor was a young player.

One difference, of course, is that Weaver platooned aggressively. His Orioles collected players like John Lowenstein and Benny Ayala specifically to use in such roles. A Schafer-Robinson platoon would be more a passive platoon, chosen out of a lack of better options not for a strategic advantage. Robinson's career splits actually suggest he's a bit "backwards," meaning better against right-handed pitchers, although I don't think 200 or so plate appearances over five seasons each way proves a whole lot. He's probably not the right-handed outfielder you'd pursue if you wanted to build a center field platoon.

Still, Schafer-Robinson is more palatable to me this spring than either Hicks or, I'm sorry to say, Rosario. (If Rosario does come north, I will not complain, but I won'be have high expectations; if it's Hicks, I will complain.) Schafer-Robinson are acceptable until Bryon Buxton arrives, and I hope that's sooner rather than later.

The center field competition

Shane Robinson was
a popular player among
Cardinals fans.

First there were three genuine candidates for the Twins center field job. Now there are four. The winnowing process, it would appear, is going in the wrong direction.

There remains more than two weeks of spring training, but the indications are that Paul Molitor wants to use the last week of camp to "practice manage" game situations, not evaluate talent. Remember, he's never run a game on any level. So the expectation is that that Twins will look to essentially set their Opening Day roster in 10 days or so.

Let's look at the candidates in alphabetical order:

Aaron Hicks is, for the third spring in a row, putting up good spring training numbers (slash line .330/.400/.500). Call him Mr. March.

Twenty at-bat sample sizes are meaningless to begin with, and particularly so in spring training, and even more so with Hicks. This kind of thing has fooled the decision makers each of the past two springs. I've said this before: I don't know what Hicks can do this spring to convince people that he's better than he's been. He certainly didn't help himself with his wool gathering early on.

He's 25, so growth is possible if  unlikely. Molitor says in this story that Hicks is too young to be a bench guy, that he should play everyday. My take is that Hicks is never going to be more than a fourth outfielder/platoon candidate.

Roster status: 40-man roster, has an option left.

Shane Robinson, 30, split the past four seasons between St. Louis and its minor league affiliates. He's a right-handed hitter, no power, with some speed -- classic fourth- or fifth-outfielder tools. I may be wrong, but he seems to have mainly played corner outfield this spring.

Roster status: Non-roster invitee, but he has, as many non-roster veterans do, an opt-out clause -- if he's not on the 40 by a specific date (in his case, apparently, April 2) he can declare free agency and walk away.

Eddie Rosario, 23, is the guy who wedged his way into the conversation. He has an odd set of splits, .276/.267/.586; he has an on-base percentage lower than his batting average because he has literally never walked but has picked up a sac fly. Patrick Reusse's kind of hitter line, I guess.

Rosario is the only one of the four without major league experience; in fact, he's not played above Double A, and he didn't do much at that level. He is also, presumably, the weakest defensively of the four.

Jordan Schafer is
a .229 lifetime hitter
in  more than 1,300
plate appearances.

Rosario is definitely what Molitor says Hicks is: A young guy with a high ceiling who needs to play every day at some level. He only makes the big league roster as the regular center fielder.

Roster status: 40 man roster, has all three options left.

Jordan Schafer, 28, is the one guy most certain to make the roster, either as the backup behind Hicks or Rosario or in a platoon with Hicks or Robinson. Left-handed hitter who fared better in his 41 games with the Twins late last season than he did in any previous stretch in the majors. Another guy with reserve outfielder tools.

Roster status: On the 40, presumably out of options, has a $1.55 million contract for 2015.

These are the realistic choices for the Molitor and general manager Terry Ryan:

• Hicks as the regular, Schafer as the backup, Rosario to the minors, Robinson gets to make his choice.
• Rosario as the regular, Schafer as the backup, Hicks to Triple A, Robinson gets to make his choice.
• Schafer platoons with Robinson, Hicks and Rosario to the minors.
• Schafer platoons with Hicks, Rosario to the minors, Robinson gets to make his choice.

My impulse is to vote for the second option, Rosario as the regular. It's consistent with my wish for the organization to push the talent and find reasons to play them. But ... I am also a firm believer that the outfield defense is a bigger problem than the Twins acknowledge, and Rosario as a center fielder doesn't figure to be a defensive asset.

I want him up, but the positions that fit him best aren't available. My guess is that the Twins will opt to follow the same logic that they are following with Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano and send him down.

In which case, I'd say go with option 3, a Schafer-Robinson platoon. There can be no illusion there: These are two low-ceiling players whose purpose is to fill the position until somebody better is ready. Having them in center will give the front office incentive to decide that somebody better -- be it Buxton or Rosario -- is ready.

What's most likely, I fear, is option 1, Hicks as the regular. The definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

The Twins by position: Center field

Jordan Schafer hit .285 for the Twins
in the last two months of 2014.

If we ignore Danny Santana, who enters spring training a presumed shortstop, the Twins will open camp with three center fielders with multiple seasons of major league experience: Aaron Hicks, Shane Robinson and Jordan Schafer.

Hicks is 25 and a .201 career hitter in 538 plate appearances spread over two years.

Robinson, a non-roster invitee signed after the Cardinals let him go, is 30 and a .231 career hitter (five seasons, less that 500 plate appearances)

Schafer is 28 and a .229 hitter (five years and nearly 1,400 plate appearances).

You can draw up various platoon possibilities out of these three. Schafer is left-handed, Robinson right-handed, Hicks a switch hitter. You might still envision Hicks as a regular, although that notion is increasingly dubious. No matter how you deploy this group, you get inadequacy. These are, at best, bench guys,

The best center field talent in camp (and this is true even if we count Santana as a center fielder) are two prospects coming off disappointing 2014s and ticketed for Double A: Byron Buxton, who had repeated injuries, and Eddie Rosario, who served a 50-game drug suspension.

Despite his 2014 stall, I still believe that if the Twins simply handed the center field job to Buxton this spring and let him play all year, his floor is something like .260 with 10 homers, 30 steals and Gold Glove caliber defense (assuming, of course, that he stayed intact). Rosario would probably put up a better batting average but with fewer steals and lesser defense.

You know to a dead certainty that the three "major leaguers" aren't going to come near those numbers. Not a dead certainty, but close to it, is that the Twins front office won't let Buxton sniff the majors until the second half of the year at the earliest, and Rosario isn't going to be fast tracked either.

The Twins have reasons to slow play Buxton and Rosario. They would do better to look for reasons to play the kids, not to look for reasons to keep them in the minors. Let the kids play.

Looking for meaning in a minor signing

OK, it's a minor transaction -- specifically, a minor league transaction. But it still says something about a particular problem in the upper levels of the Twins farm system.

The Twins on Thursday signed outfielder Shane Robinson to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training.

Robinson has been with the St. Louis Cardinals since he was drafted in 2006 and has been a reserve outfielder for the big-league club for most of the past three years. He's a little (5-foot-9) guy who can run well enough to be used in center field, and he has a career MLB average of .231.

The Cardinals cut him loose rather than risk going to arbitration with him. The Twins got him to sign in a hurry, probably because there's a fairly obvious chance to be on the major league team. While the corner outfield starters are set (Torii Hunter and Oswaldo Arcia), center field is open.

Aaron Hicks? Jordan Schafer? Robinson? As matters stand, at least one, probably two, of these guys are going to be on the 25-man roster. Somebody has to play center field, at least until Byron Buxton establishes that he can stay in one piece for a month.

The Twins had the opportunity to do unto Schafer as the Cardinals did to Robinson, but they lack any sort of depth in center field-competent outfielders. So Schafer, a .229 lifetime hitter, figures to pull in well over $1 million next year, while Robinson will do well to get half that.

At the very least the Twins have now the option of platooning in center. Schafer hits left; Robinson hits right. Robinson has actually shown a backwards platoon split in his limited major league playing time, but if Paul Molitor has any inclination to platoon, this might be a reasonable pair to do it with.

Hicks, a switch hitter who is stronger from the right side, also offers a platoon option, but I doubt the Twins would do that with Hicks, who is considerably younger than Schafer and Robinson and is still seen as having a higher ceiling.