Minnesota Twins: 2021 Spring Training Preview and Guide
The 2021 Minnesota Twins Spring Training Roster
After a lot more roster turnover after 2020 than 2019, the Minnesota Twins will carry a very different team into Spring Training this year. With multiple new free agents (both minor league and major league), here is your 2021 Spring Training Roster:
- Catchers (9): Ryan Jeffers, Mitch Garver, Willians Astudillo, Ben Rortvedt, Tomas Telis (NRI), Caleb Hamilton (NRI), David Banuelos (NRI), Alex Isola (NRI), Kyle Schmidt (NRI).
The Twins brought nine catchers with them to Spring Training, and many of these guys will be here to catch bullpens and impress the organization for the future. Jeffers and Garver are both locks for the roster, with Astudillo and Rortvedt likely to get chances in 2021.
Telis is familiar with the organization, so he’s got an outside shot at sticking around, Hamilton and Banuelos are minor leaguers who are just trying to show they have something, while Isola and Schmidt are prospects who have a ways to go and are bullpen guys as minor league depth squad players.
Players to Watch: Will be interesting to see what happens with Telis, Astudillo, and Rortvedt, as all three have been around the organization for a while but not all three will find playing time behind Jeffers and Garver.
- First Basemen (4): Miguel Sano, Zander Wiel (NRI), Chris Williams (NRI), Aaron Sabato (NRI).
The Twins are extremely low on first base depth within the organization, and it shows here. Sano is the team’s starter, but Wiel is an older prospect (who has an interesting skill set), Williams just reached AA, and Sabato is the team’s first round pick this year.
Players to Watch: Wiel, Williams, and Sabato will not make the opening roster, and all three are only on the minor league depth squad, but getting the first glimpses of first-round pick Sabato is extremely exciting.
- Other Infield (11): Josh Donaldson, Jorge Polanco, Andrelton Simmons, Luis Arraez, Nick Gordon, Travis Blankenhorn, Royce Lewis (NRI), Tzu-Wei Lin (NRI), J.T. Riddle (NRI), Drew Maggi (NRI), Jose Miranda (NRI).
Donaldson, Polanco, Simmons, and Arraez are the only locks to make the Opening Day roster, while Gordon and Blankenhorn battle it out to be the other backup infielder. Minor League Signees Lin and Riddle are here to compete for their spot.
Royce Lewis is up for some more exposure as a non-roster invitee and likely won’t fully be up until next year as he prepares to take over for Simmons in 2022. Maggi and Miranda are both depth squad guys, but Miranda at least has a little potential as someone who routinely holds a lower spot on the Top 30 prospects list.
Players to Watch: It’ll be interesting to see how the Simmons-Polanco-Arraez trio works out, but the Gordon-Blankenhorn battle for playing time will be more interesting to me. Both look ready to fill in for Ehire Adrianza, but I don’t know if either will be chosen.
- Outfielders (11): Nelson Cruz, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Jake Cave, Brent Rooker, Alex Kirilloff, Gilberto Celestino, Kyle Garlick, Keon Broxton (NRI), Rob Refsnyder (NRI), Trevor Larnach (NRI).
Interestingly enough, the Twins don’t have any outfielders on their minor league depth squad. All 10 outfielders are either on the 40-man roster or are non-roster invitees, but that doesn’t mean they all have a real shot of making it. We also included Nelson Cruz here because he needed a spot.
Buxton, Kepler, Cave, and Rooker are all locks to make it, and Kirilloff should make it if the Twins are more interested in winning than service time. Celestino and Larnach are almost ready, but not quite, meaning both will live it up in Triple-AAA.
As for Garlick, Broxton, and Refsnyder, if they accept Triple-AAA, that’s where they’ll land, but under no circumstances should any of the trio occupy a spot on the major league roster for the 2021 season.
Players to Watch: Alex Kirilloff is the future of the Minnesota Twins outfield and has the opportunity to show his stuff for the second straight spring. If he has a spring like he did last year (.429 BA, 2 HR, 4 RBI), there’s no way he can be kept down again.
- Starting Pitchers (5): Jose Berrios, Kenta Maeda, Michael Pineda, J.A. Happ, Matt Shoemaker, Jordan Balazovic, Bailey Ober, Dakota Chalmers, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax (NRI), Matt Canterino (NRI), Josh Winder (NRI).
With Matt Shoemaker locked in as the fifth starter, the rotation of Maeda, Berrios, Pineda, Happ, and Shoemaker will start out the year as the Big 5. With that being said, Balazovic and Duran are waiting in the wings, and will be ready to step in soon.
Ober, Chalmers, and Jax are all just about ready as well, but the three aren’t as good as Duran and Balazovic. Canterino and Winder are two relatively highly rated prospects who aren’t ready, and instead are serving as minor league depth guys. I don’t expect them to factor into the rotation until late in the year, but we should see at least four by the end of the year.
Players to Watch: Jordan Balazovic and Jhoan Duran are both Top 5 prospects in the Twins system and should get lots of time to show off this Spring. I don’t expect either of them to be key players in 2021, but it’s always fun to get a glimpse of the future.
- Relief Pitchers: Jorge Alcala, Shaun Anderson, Edwar Colina, Alex Colome, Randy Dobnak, Devin Smeltzer, Tyler Duffey, Hansel Robles, Taylor Rogers, Cody Stashak, Caleb Thielbar, Lewis Thorpe, Andrew Albers (NRI), Glen Sparman (NRI), Charlie Barnes (NRI), Danny Coulombe (NRI), Brandon Waddell (NRI), Luke Farrell (NRI), Derek Law (NRI), Juan Minaya (NRI), Ian Gibaut (NRI), Andrew Vasquez (NRI), Tom Hackimer (NRI), Robinson Leyer (NRI), Chandler Shepered (NRI).
Alcala, Anderson, Colome, Dobnak, Duffey, Robles, Rogers, Stashak, Thielbar all are close to locks to making the Opening Day Roster, while Thorpe, Smeltzer, Colina, will make several appearances in 2020. Albers, Barnes, Coulombe, Waddell, Gibaut, Farrell, Law, Minaya, Vasquez, Hackimer, Leyer, Sheperd will have to fight for their spots.
Players to Watch: Albers, Law, Minaya, Coulombe, Gibaut, all appear to have the best chance to make the roster and succeed, but I wouldn’t expect anything out of the lot. The Minnesota Twins will figure out who makes the cut.
Three Big Storylines to Follow for the Minnesota Twins
Storyline No. 1: The Left Field Competition
The Minnesota Twins let Eddie Rosario walk and join Cleveland in the offseason, with the expectation that the team would have players in line to take his place and replace his offseason output. There are a couple options for them.
Alex Kirilloff is the fan choice, and the best option for the Twins to start. There’s just one issue: service time. If the Twins wanted to keep him around an extra year, they could opt instead to have him stay in the minors for a few weeks.
Jake Cave and Brent Rooker are the other two options to play the majority of the time, so it might come down to how each performs in Spring Training. Kirilloff is the clear favorite, but don’t be surprised if Cave or Rooker is the choice.
Storyline No. 2: The Reliever Roulette
Colome, Duffey, Rogers, Thielbar, and Alcala are primed to eat up a good chunk of the later innings of a game. This still leaves a lot of other innings to be taken care of, and Spring Training is the time for that to take place.
There are several brand new relievers the Twins have added this offseason, and the team has to figure out which of those guys can have a Matt Wisler-type role in the team’s bullpen. Each of those guys are going to get their shot over the next month. Let’s see who comes out on top.
Storyline No. 3: The Young Guns are Back
Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnach, Jhoan Duran, Jordan Balazovic are four of the Twins’ Top 5 prospects, and all five haven’t been seen outside of the alternative camp since 2019. That will change in the next few days and when the games start taking place.
All four should get lots of time to show off in the sun. While none of them should make the Opening Day roster, they each should be exciting to see and should bring hope for their full time debuts sometime before 2022 comes to an end.
How prepared are the Minnesota Twins for a Grapefruit League Season?
The Minnesota Twins typically sit around .500 in the Grapefruit league every year, opting to prepare their young talent over competing every year. That will likely happen again this year, as the back end of the team is still very uncertain.
This team looks like it could have one of the deepest rosters in baseball, and it’ll be on full display this Spring Training. The team won’t compete for a Grapefruit league title, but we’ll see a lot of action, something that we’ve been missing all winter.
It’s time for baseball to get underway Twins fans, so buckle up. Get ready for fun antics and a whole lot of good baseball. Most of us may not be able to be kicking our feet up in sunny Florida, but I know that I’m ready for baseball to be back.
dark. Next. Minnesota Twins: Finding a GPA for all of the Twins’ Offseason Moves