Outfielders
Eddie Rosario, Jake Cave, Max Kepler, Marwin Gonzalez (4)
The outfield could take a couple of different forms depending on who is ready to go by the time the roster is submitted on Friday. In a direct sense, the availability of Kepler will go a long way in determining not just who is in the outfield, but what role they will take on.
Just like Arraez, Kepler’s role will be determined to how he responds in the next couple of days. Since he hasn’t had an at-bat since Sept. 14, the Twins need to see how he holds up when ramping up his activity. Speaking Monday, manager Rocco Baldelli said Kepler was progressing, but they would also know more in the coming days.
For this projection, we’ll assume the Twins at least try to keep Kepler on the roster because if he were to aggravate something in this series, the Twins would probably shut him down anyway. By having Kepler in the outfield, the Twins would likely keep Jake Cave while also having Gonzalez as a potential backup outfielder (assuming Arraez is healthy in the infield).
Everything continues to be up in the air, but with the positive news coming yesterday, we’ll assume that Kepler makes the cut.