The Minnesota Twins have made a spate of moves ahead of their series with the White Sox
There’s a lot to get through here. There’s a lot of moving parts and it’s a still fluid situation. We’ll try to make it as clear as possible.
In summary:
- Starter Ervin Santana returning from the DL (On 40 man)
- Catcher John Ryan Murphy optioned to AAA Rochester (still on 40 man)
- Outfielder Darin Mastroianni selected from AAA (wasn’t on 40 man)
- Catcher Juan Centeno selected from AAA (wasn’t on 40 man)
- Ryan O’Rourke designated for assignment (this removes him from 40 man right away and gives the team 10 days to trade, release, outright or return him to the 40 man roster and option him)
- J.R Graham designated for assignment (same as Ryan O’Rourke)
- Tommy Milone is on waivers but remains on 25/40 man rosters at least until waivers are resolved (saturday it is believed)
- Casey Fien is in the same situation as Milone. If they pass through waivers, the team will attempt to assign them to the minor leagues. Both players can refuse the assignment.
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Net result: 3 players return or have been added to the active roster and 3 leave it. 2 have been added to the 40 man roster and 2 have been removed from it. 40 man roster is full at 40 players. On the active roster, the Twins currently have a 4 man bench (including 2 outfielders) and a 7 man bullpen.
Graham and O’Rourke have options remaining but the Twins DFA’d them because they needed to immediately open two spots on their 40 man roster in order to make room for Mastroianni and Centeno.
Normally players are DFA’d before being placed on waivers so that a 40 man spot can be cleared immediately but Fien and Milone were not DFA’d. Evidently, the Twins wanted to have them available at least for the next game while seeing what interest there may be on the waiver wire.
None of the players removed from the rosters or placed on waivers will necessarily leave the organization. All could conceivably stay.
Clear as mud?
Next: Rundowns of the players being moved