One down, 161 to go

That was an historically good opening day start for Jose Berrios on Thursday:

The last player in franchise history to have double-digit strikeouts without allowing a run on Opening Day?

Walter Johnson In 1917 🤷‍♂️ #TeamWass https://t.co/BCKZmmn0iO

— Wasserman (@Wasserman) March 28, 2019

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Justin Morneau handled the commentary for the FSN broadcast, and before the game started said, appropos of the 11-man pitching staff and deeper-than-usual bench, that Rocco Baldelli had plenty of in-game moves available.

He made exactly one. The nine men in the batting order were in for the entire game, and he used just one relief pitcher.

That is pretty much what I expect, at least with the position players. Just because Jake Cave, Ehire Adrianza and Tyler Austin are on the bench right now doesn't mean they have genuine in-game roles. This roster is built for nine guys to play and everybody else sit and watch. Which nine plays, that will change on a daily basis. 

As for the pitching staff, giving Taylor Rogers a four-out save opportunity is an interesting data point. We don't really know how Baldelli is going to handle the bullpen. I'm confident that Ron Gardenhire, had he used Rogers to finish the eighth, would have used given somebody else the ninth. But as Dick Bremer said on the telecast, the ninth was a really good set of matchups for Rogers.

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After watching Jake Bauers slip on Byron Buxton's double and watching Marwin Gonzalez's game-winning hit get past Leonys Martin, I offered this observation on Twitter:

As a Twins fan, I'm loving this new look Cleveland outfield.

— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) March 28, 2019

Cleveland's outfielders went 1-for-10 against Berrios and Rogers. But Saturday is another game, and Jake Odorizzi is no Berrios.

Opening day and off days.

The Twins got down to their initial 25-man active roster Wednesday by deeming Jorge Polanco's balky shoulder ready to go and putting three relievers -- Addison Reed, Gabriel Moya and Matt Magill -- on the injured list.

So Tyler Austin stays around, although I have no idea what he's going to do. He has no purpose as long as C.J. Cron, Nelson Cruz and Marwin Gonzalez are all sound enough to play.

But soon enough the Twins will get to the point where they feel the need for 12 or 13 pitchers, And then either Austin will go or Cron will. And the Twins have a lot more invested in Cron than in Austin.

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I doubt the early start to the regular season is accomplishing what the players wanted, at least in these northern climes.

The players wanted more offdays during the season, and got that in the current labor deal. That required

• cutting games out of the schedule, which means reducing revenue; or
• making the schedule longer at the end of the season, which means a World Series played after Halloween, which nobody wants; or
• adding games at the start of the season, which means playing games in March

The third option was reckoned the least bad.

But too many of the added offdays are slated in April (and March) because of interleague play and unbalanced schedules. A high percentage of series for any team involves the given rival's only visit to town. The offdays are there to accomodate those days that get weathered out.

An offday in April is less useful in a rest and recuperation sense than an offday in August. But there are bound to be more cancellations in April.

End of spring training

The Twins on Tuesday played their final Grapefruit League game. They open the 2019 season Thursday at home against Cleveland.

I decided weeks ago that I was not going to encourage March openers with my presence and cash. I'll work my usual Thursday shift rather than go to Target Field. It appears, however, that the weather is going to cooperate with the absurdly early date.

And I am optimistic about this year's outlook for the Twins. There are two teams in the Central who figure to contend. Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City are all somewhere in the rebuilding/talent gathering mode, while Cleveland and Minnesota are, or should be, in talent-shaping mode.

But the Indians are not the team they were in 2018, much less what they were in '17 or '16. Their outfield ... OK, I'm not necessarily being strictly objective here, but I suspect the Twins have a better major league outfield in Triple A and Double A than the Indians have in the majors. It's certainly not less talented.

And the Cleveland bullpen is nowhere near as deep as we've seen in the past few years, with Chad Allen gone to Anheim and Andrew Miller to St. Louis.

But that is still a very imposing starting rotation in Cleveland, and Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are awesome, and the Cleveland front office generally knows what its doing. They think more of Tyler Naquin, Leonys Martin and Greg Allen than I do.

We'll see how it plays out, starting on Thursday.

Contemplating the bullpen

Two pronouncments Monday out of Fort Myers by manager Rocco Baldelli about the Minnesota bullpen:

• He is indeed not naming a closer, or designating specific roles for his relief crew. (This matches the thesis of the Monday print column.) 
• Non-roster invitee Ryne Harper will be on the opening day roster.

Harper, as you can see by clicking the above link, has a rather extensive minor-league resume, heavier on Double A innings than Triple A. While he has had a (very) brief major league callup, he never appeared in a game, so when he takes the mound it will be his major league debut. Expect lots of curve balls from him.

Contemporary bullpens are always a work in progress. This will be no exception. The Twins are to open the season with an 11-man pitching staff. The number will rise from there.

Three of last year's bullpen appear likely to be on the injured list by Thursday's opener (righties Matt Magill and Addison Reed and lefy Gabriel Moya), and it sounds as if the Twins expect Magill and Moya to be ready relatively soon. Presumably at least one of them will be ready when the Twins need to shift Martin Perez to the rotation.

Perez, the fifth starter, is going to begin the season in the bullpen because of a cluster of April off days. So this 11-man staff breaks down for now as:

Starters: Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi, Michael Pineda and Kyle Gibson (that's the announced order).

Late-inning relievers: Trevor Hildenberger, Trevor May, Blake Parker, Taylor Rogers

Not-so-late: Perez, Harper, Aldaberto Mejia

One thing to watch in these first couple of weeks is how Baldelli uses Perez. One major goal is going to be keeping the lefty stretched out so that when he's inserted into the starting rotation he's ready to give them at least five to six innings. I suspect that's part of why Gibson's going last, so that Perez can "piggy back" with either Odorizzi (who seldom pitches deep into games) or Pineda (who will probably be handled with some care early on in his second year back from Tommy John surgery).

Goodbye, Reed

The Twins had no room for outfielder Michael Reed on their major league roster, so they moved him on to the San Francisco Giants during the weekend for another outfielder, John Andreoli, and cash.

Reed is the more interesting of the two outfielders, a speed guy who figures to get a genuine opportunity to play with the Giants even the manager doesn't know much about him yet. When the Twins picked him up on a waiver claim early in the offseason, I surmised that his appeal was as Buxton insurance. With Byron Buxton having a strong spring training, and with the later addition of Marwin Gonzalez, the Twins could let that insurance policy lapse.

Andreoli is Triple-A depth. I think the Twins have shed two better outfielders than him this spring (Reed and Zach Granite). Beside the three regulars (Rosario, Buxton and Kepler) and super-utility man Gonzalez, the Twins also have Jake Cave and LaMonte Wade ahead of him. The chances of Andreoli playing for the Twins are slim.

This does open up a spot on the 40-man roster, which is good news for a non-roster invitee -- probably Ryne Harper, a reliever whose curve ball has caught eyes this spring.

Some notable cuts

The Twins trimmed their major league camp roster a bit more Friday, and they narrowed their opening bullpen options significantly.

First they optioned out youngster Fernando Romero, once a prized starting prospect and now a prized relief prospect. I had put him in the "Is there room" category a while back. The answer, even as some injury issues arise among the bullpen candidates, is apparently "no." He'll be up at some point. But he hasn't been kicking the door down, and it makes sense to give him some minor league time as a reliever.

Then they released a pair of veteran non-roster invitees, infielder Adam Rosales and lefty reliever Tim Collins, both of whom presumably had opt-out clauses.

Rosales hit well in camp, with four homers. But the 35-year-old's chances of making the roster were more about other people than about himself. There weren't enough injuries to make him useful.

Collins is the more surprising release. His stuff has drawn positive reviews, even though his Grapefruit League ERA (4.91) isn't impressive, and in-house lefty Gabriel Moya hasn't pitched in more than a week with reported shoulder issues. I thought Collins had a chance.

But even if Moya can't go on March 28, the bullpen still figures to have Taylor Rogers and Aldaberto Mejia as lefties. Plus there is chatter that, with a bevy of offdays in the first few week, the Twins will open with 11 pitchers rather than their usual 12 or 13, with No. 5 starter Martin Perez shifting temporarily to the pen. He would be a third southpaw. Presumably the Twins hope/expect Moya to be ready by the time Perez returns to starting duties.

Collins had less opportunity than it appeared a few days ago.

Farewell, Ichiro. And thanks

Ichiro Suuki bows at the end of his postgame press
conference at which he announced his retirement.

I was up and at-em early enough Thursday morning to watch Ichiro Suzuki's final professional at-bat and to watch his teammates greet him outside the dugout as he left the field. Some had tears. So did I.

These season-opening games in Japan, about a week before the rest of the major league schedule gets underway, always feel a little gimmicky to me. And Ichiro's very presence on the Seattle roster after a 2018 in which he barely played, had some of the same artifical flavor.

And still, I'm pleased it worked out that way. Pleased that this great player got to go out in his homeland, in the uniform of the American team for which he won an MVP and became a star on this side of the Pacific. Pleased that Japan got to see him one more time.

A younger Ichiro might have beaten out the soft grounder he hit in his final at-bat, but he's 45 now. He ceased being a full-time player some time ago -- his last season with 500 plate appearances was 2013 -- but he accepted a reserve role with grace and dignity. Indeed, he did pretty much everything with grace and dignity.

I will miss seeing him play. I am grateful to have seen him play.