Twins moves and news: Casilla, Roenicke, Deduno, Haren

September 18, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Josh Roenicke (30) pitches the ball against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning at AT

Midnight EST on Friday, November 2 was the MLB deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to their own free agents. Teams that made qualifying offers to their free agents before the deadline will be given a compensation draft pick if the player signs with another team. At this point, there is no indication the Minnesota Twins made a qualifying offer to Scott Baker before the deadline, although they are rumored to have interest in re-signing him. (Note: A “qualifying offer” this offseason is a 1-year deal in the $13.3 million range.)

The Twins were far from inactive on this deadline day.

In fact, the Twins were involved in several waiver moves on Friday. The team claimed two players off of waivers from the Colorado Rockies: right-handed pitcher Josh Roenicke and infielder Tommy Field. Roenicke’s 2012 season wrapped up with a 3.25 ERA in 63 relief appearances over 88 2/3 innings. His talent was well-liked in Colorado:

Field is a young player who has only played in 18 games at the major league level in the last two years. He has primarily played at shortstop in his major league games, and a middle-infielder is a convenient pick-up for the Twins since they had a player of their own claimed on waivers today. Alexi Casilla ended his tenure as a Twin on Friday, as the Baltimore Orioles claimed the infielder off of waivers. Many fans, and presumably many in the organization, found him exasperating. He would show flashes of brilliance, which were followed by maddening moments that made one question whether he should be in the majors.  Casilla’s departure was not a surprise, as Darren Wolfson of 1500espn.com tweeted:

The most intriguing thing about the Orioles plucking Casilla from the Twins roster is who gets the last laugh.  It seems as though the Twins were practically begging for a team to take Casilla off their hands, but a Twins fan would be justified in skepticism over the Orioles being the one to do so.  (See J.J. Hardy.)

A few other items of note for the Twins as of Friday:

• RHP Samuel Deduno was assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester and was taken off the 40-man roster (source: @RhettBollinger)
• The Twins have begun multi-year deal talks with reliever Jared Burton – (source: @DarrenWolfson)
• The Dan Haren deal between the Cubs and the Angels goes sour.  Will the Twins renew their interest? (source:  www.mlbtraderumors.com)