The Minnesota Twins have an upcoming logjam with their roster
By Nate Palmer
The Minnesota Twins made some major additions to their pitching staff this offseason. That is going to leave the Twins with some important decisions soon.
The Minnesota Twins have spent the offseason improving the depth of their roster all around. That leaves the team with an upcoming awesome, yet perplexing problem to solve. The problem centers around how exactly to assemble their pitching staff once two prominent pitchers come off of the disabled list.
Even though the Twins did receive some potentially bad news with a set back in Ervin Santana‘s recovery process. Both he and Trevor May should be ready to fill a role with the Twins come the months of May and June. The issue the Twins will likely run into is that barring injury they will likely need to make a decision on a player or players. In several cases, it may mean they lose that player to another team.
Come the middle of April, the Twins will need to add back into their rotation a fifth starter. At this point, it seems that Gabriel Moya will be the reliever that finds himself going to Triple-A Rochester. Moya’s only hope of staying in the big leagues is that Trevor Hildenberger‘s spring troubles continue into the regular season and he would need a minor league stint.
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That fifth starter spot somewhat represents Santana, whether it is him or a pitcher like Adalberto Mejia who will likely be optioned back to Rochester when Santana is ready. When May is ready a different type of roster crunch will be faced by the Twins. The type of roster crunch this team hasn’t seen for quite some time because of all the bullpen additions the Twins made in the offseason.
Fernando Rodney, Zach Duke, and Addison Reed are all locked into a roster spot. Taylor Rogers and Hildenberger are the mainstays from the 2017 bullpen and it would take quite a downturn in their performance to see them optioned. That leaves Ryan Pressly and Tyler Kinley (assuming Moya has already been sent back to Triple-A) that the Twins will need to make a decision on to bring May back into the major league pitching staff. The problem is that Pressly is out of options and would need to clear waivers for the Twins to keep him. Kinley is a Rule-5 selection and would need to either be offered back to the Miami Marlins or a trade would need to be worked out to keep him. And that is if May comes back as a reliever.
There is a good chance that May is best suited to start again. Especially with a history of back issues and other injuries, the routine a starter goes through could help to limit any future injuries. That would mean that Kyle Gibson could be in jeopardy if a starting spot did need to be made available for May.
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At the end of the day, this is a good problem. The Twins seem to have a quality of depth for once where they need to face these types of tough questions. Of course, a trade or injuries can totally change this outlook. But good health and an absence of an available trade may mean the Twins have a tough roster decision ahead of them.