Giving up on Doyle

It's back to the
White Sox for
Terry Doyle.

The Twins on Wednesday returned Rule V draftee Terry Doyle to the White Sox.

Considering how much Doyle struggled to get hitters out this spring, it wasn't surprising that the Twins decided they couldn't justify keeping him on the 25-man roster. Considering that the Twins and White Sox are in the same division, it's not surprising that they couldn't come to terms on a trade.

What is striking is that the Twins pulled the plug on Doyle about two weeks before the season begins. Usually they drag it out closer to the end of camp.

My guess is that Matt Maloney -- who threw two more shutout innings Wednesday, working through the heart of the Tigers order (no Miguel Cabrera, but otherwise the Tigers regular lineup) -- made lopping Doyle relatively easy.

Rule V has never been a particularly rich vein of talent to mine -- for every Johan Santana there are dozens of guys who are returned to their original teams -- and it's even thinner now than it was a few years ago, because teams have an added year in which they don't need to protect prospects from the draft. A Baseball America columnist this winter, reviewing the talent selected last December, suggested that the Rule V draft could just as well be abolished.

The Twins liked what they saw from Doyle in the Arizona Fall League. They didn't see that same pitcher in Fort Myers. So be it.

The Twins now have a vacant spot on their 40-man roster. They will have at least one more before the season begins, and quite possibly more (Joel Zumaya and Jeff Gray being particularly likely to lose their roster spots). There are certainly players on whom the Twins can use those spots.

The 2012 bullpen and future rotations

Scott Baker has a
career high of
200 innings (2009).

John Bonnes made a good point Sunday: The Twins are approaching a massive turnover in their starting rotation.

Francisco Liriano, Jason Marquis and Carl Pavano are all eligible for free agency after the season. Scott Baker has a team option for 2013 at $9.25 million; I don't think that's a cinch to be picked up. Only Nick Blackburn, who I regard as the least of the bunch, is under team control after 2012.

Bonnes couples this potential for a huge rotation change with the organization's relative lack of nearly-major-league ready starters as a reason for their aggressive acquisition of low-price upper minor league arms. Certainly the Twins have this offseason picked up -- through waivers, Rule V and minor league free agency -- a lot of unestablished pitchers.

Some of them are strictly bullpen candidates. But a couple of them seem more likely to be effective starters than effective relievers. The problem, as I see it, is that Matt Maloney is out of options, and Terry Doyle is a Rule V guy; the Twins would have to risk losing either to farm out either. The same is true of Anthony Swarzak, who also appears to be better suited to the rotation than to relief work.

The Twins certainly will have one of those three on the roster as a long reliever/swingman; barring injury, that figures to be Swarzak, who handled that role quite well in 2011. They could, perhaps, fit two of them in their bullpen, although Ron Gardenhire prefers using his relievers in frequent short bursts as opposed to multi-inning stints. Three long men is simply excessive. That ain't happening.

Matt Maloney is a
left-handed pitcher
with outstanding
walk/strikeout ratios
in more than 500
innings in Triple A.

It's worth noting in this context that Maloney was picked up on waivers from a National League team last fall, meaning that everybody in the NL passed on him rather than use a spot on their 40-man roster. Now a waiver claim on him would require finding a spot on the 25-man roster, which is a bit tighter, so perhaps the Twins could get him through waivers and outright him to Rochester.

The Twins are likely to start trimming some of the pitchers in camp this week. The most likely candidates to be sent down to road to minor league camp are the ones on the 40-man roster who are more future than present (Liam Hendriks, Tyler Robertson). They would be sent out sooner rather than later in no small part because if they get hurt while in major-league camp they would have to go on the major league disabled list, and that's more expensive in a variety of ways. That same risk doesn't apply to the non-roster invitees.

But while Maloney and Doyle are on the 40, I don't expect any moves regarding them until closer to the regular season.

Winter meetings, Day Four

Terry Doyle has been a workhorse in the minors,
something the Twins probably found attractive.

While waiting on Michael Cuddyer some more -- and while no doubt standing agog at the silly money Anaheim spent on Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson -- the Twins made more fringe additions on Thursday. They now have filled their 40-man roster, and I would expect them to do something in the next few days to open at least one slot.

Rule V: The Twins took RHP Terry Doyle from the White Sox with the second pick. Doyle turned 26 last month, has good size, throws strikes, gets ground balls, doesn't have particularly good strikeout rates. He split last season between High A and Double A; between the regular season and the Arizona Fall League, he worked about 200 innings in 2011.

One of the ways I know I'm a baseball geek is that I get more excited about the Rule V draft than it deserves. These guys were left off the 40-man rosters, and there are generally good reasons for that. The Johan Santana and Jokim Soria picks are memorable because they're so rare. Still, here's more info on Doyle than you really need.

Here's John Sickles' take on Doyle coming into 2011:

Terry Doyle was a 37th round draft choice back in 2008 out of Boston College. He had a terrific season in the 2006 Cape Cod League and was projected as a possible second or third round pick at one point, but by '08 he had fallen apart, undone by mechanical problems that cost him six MPH on his fastball and left him lucky to be drafted at all. The White Sox drafted him anyway, rebuilt his mechanics and seem to have made him a decent prospect again. Doyle has average velocity but throws strikes and picks up grounders (1.56 GO/AO last year). He was old for the levels last year and we need to see more, but sometimes you can pick someone off the junk pile and find a gem.

Sickels on Doyle after Thursday's draft:

He had an excellent season in '11 ...He followed that up with a 1.98 ERA and a 22/5 K/BB in 27 innings in the Arizona Fall League. Age 26, Doyle has a mediocre fastball in the 87-90 range, but he mixes in his breaking ball and changeup very effectively and throws strikes. He could end up being a useful fifth starter, and Minnesota seems like a good fit for his skills.

Here's Baseball America on Doyle after the draft:

Doyle is a righthander with guile who lacks a plus pitch but knows how to set up hitters. He helped his chances of being picked with an excellent Arizona Fall League performance. He certainly understands the geometry of pitching, consistently getting outs with his command and a cut fastball. Doyle's 88-92 fastball did pick up as the season progressed and he touched 93-94 mph in Arizona. Doyle confuses hitters who don’t know him, as he often pitches backward, using breaking pitches to set up his fastball. He throws four pitches for strikes, including a biting slider and a high-70s changeup.

You probably know the rules: Rule V picks must remain on the 25-man active roster all season or be returned to the club from whom they were drafted. Last spring the Twins traded for the rights to Scott Diamond rather than return him to the Braves.

Finalizing the Slowey trade: The player to be named got named after the Rule V draft. He's RHP Daniel Turpen, a sidearming reliever who is joining his fourth organization. He had more walks than strikeouts in Double A last season, and certainly that isn't going to fly with the Twins. I fully expect this will be the only time he gets mentioned in this blog.