The Minnesota Twins officially announced the signing of Nelson Cruz Wednesday and later Thursday Aaron Slegers DFA to make room on the 40-man roster.
The Minnesota Twins officially announced via conference call on Wednesday the signing of veteran DH Nelson Cruz. As we have covered and linked in several different ways, Cruz should help anchor the middle of the Twins lineup as it continues to look to be quite the powerful bunch.
As Brandon Warne of zone coverage.com live tweeted the conference call we learned quite a bit of fun information about Cruz and his journey to the Twins. The first and more amusing tidbit that Warne shared on Twitter was that air raid sirens were going off just as the conference was about to begin.
How appropriate: air raid sirens going off during the conference call announcing Nelson Cruz joining the #MNTwins
— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) January 2, 2019
Cruz has apparently been eyeing Minnesota as a landing spot for a little bit of time now. He stated in reference to a trip to Minnesota last season, “I was thinking ahead that this would be a good fit for me.” Who knows if that is absolutely true, but Target Field does seem to set up well for Cruz’s ability to hit home runs.
Cruz also mentioned the role that both Miguel Sano and Jonathan Schoop played in recruiting him to the Twins. Of course ,many of us as Twins fans hope that the Cruz-Sano relationship progresses to a point where Sano learns a lot about hitting and life as a baseball player from Cruz.
As we continue to get to know who Cruz is as a baseball player I continue to be more and more impressed with him. It should be an exciting summer and hopefully, the power heavy lineup pays off.
Aaron Slegers DFA’d
It took a while to find out who it would be, but finally on Thursday we found out that Aaron Slegers was the player the Twins chose to DFA in order to make room for Cruz on the 40-man roster. At the Cruz presser it was announced the delay was initially because the Twins couldn’t reach Slegers to inform him of the move.
Slegers has put in some very good seasons at Triple-A and was even the Twins minor league pitcher of the year in 2017. It has been the jump to the majors that just hasn’t quite worked out for the 26-year-old right hander. In 29 innings and 5 starts in the majors, Slegers holds a 5.90 ERA.
The depth of starting pitching that the Twins have in that Triple-A almost major league range makes Slegers someone worth taking a risk on losing on waivers. At the same time if he passes through waivers it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Twins bring him back on a minor league deal.