Today was baseball’s 40-man roster deadline, so the Minnesota Twins and every other team across baseball had to set their 40-man roster and protect players from the Rule 5 Draft next month.
The Twins had several different players worth adding to the roster, but they had only four spots available. In the end, the team ended up going with three unsurprising additions and one surprising one:
The #MNTwins announced that they have added left-handed pitcher Brent Headrick; right-handed pitchers Matt Canterino and Casey Legumina; and infielder Edouard Julien and to their major league 40-man roster.
— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) November 15, 2022
The Minnesota Twins added four young prospects to the team’s 40-man roster.
Each of the prospects found spots on the team’s Midseason Top 50 prospect list, with Edouard Julien at No. 20, Matt Canterino at No. 9, Brent Headrick at No. 22, and Casey Legumina at No. 41, and the reason for keeping each one is clear.
Julien is an offensive stud who has turned into a legit prospect. In his two years in the minor league system, he’s slashed .283/.434/.480 with 39 homers, 139 RBI, and 53 steals across 225 games. He’ll shoot up the prospect board on the updated winter list due to his very strong two seasons and his incredible Fall League performance. He was a lock to be added to the roster.
Matt Canterino is out for 2023 with Tommy John surgery, but his stuff makes him one of the best prospects in the system. If he can bounce back strong, he’d be a stellar option out of the bullpen immediately in 2024, but he was a lock to be protected based on ability.
Brent Headrick was very good at High-A, but he is 24 years old and struggled in his first stretch at Double-A. He puts up excellent strikeout numbers though, and with Kenta Maeda, Chris Paddack, Tyler Mahle, and Sonny Gray all bound for free agency after this season, he’s worth keeping around.
Casey Legumina was the team’s eighth round pick in 2019 and is kind of a confusing addition here. He had a great 2021, but he’s now 25, and after a really tough 2022, he doesn’t seem like a needed addition to the roster and would most likely have been passed over in the Rule 5 draft.
With the inclusion of those four, the team left several key prospects unprotected. Yunior Severino, Chris Williams, Cody Laweryson, Austin Schulfer, Evan Sisk, Will Holland, Kody Funderburk, and Sean Mooney also landed in the Top 50 prospects and would have needed the protection as well, but one more name stands out: Misael Urbina.
Urbina may be the big issue that was left off of the roster. The 20 year-old has long been ranked among the best of the Twins prospects, ranked No. 8 by MLB.com and No. 19 by us. If any of the Minnesota Twins prospects were to get picked in the Rule 5 Draft, he’s most likely to be it.
The next issue the team has to face though is they now have a full 40-Man roster and several needs to fill. The team will need to either non-tender multiple players, make a trade, or just cut some people loose, so the next week (ahead of the non-tender deadline) will be an interesting one.