With pitchers and catchers reporting to Fory Myers on Valentine's Day, the Minnesota Twins are officially back in action.
Spring Training is getting underway throughout the league, and with it comes the annual tradition of scouring each team's NRI list to see which names jump out. Thw Twins gave fans plenty to chew on this year, with the non-roster invite list being headlined by top prospcet Brooks Lee.
Lee is expected to get called up at some point this season, and seeing him back at Spring Training is yet another positive sign. He's still not on the 40-man roster, but the Twins are full up there and would need to make a corresponding move to make room.
That's something the team will likely sort out over the next month as it's more a question of who Lee will replace on the 40-man roster rather than whether he'll make it.
Every Minnesota Twins non-roster Spring Training invite
On Tuesday the Twins announced that 19 players were coming to Spring Training on non-roster invites, but Lee isn't the only notable name that might jump out at fans.
Jordan Balazovic and Daniel Duarte are both on the invite list. They were both DFA'd last week to make room on the 40-man roster but they each passed through waivers without being claimed. As such, they return to the Twins but won't count against the 40-man roster total.
Here's the full list:
- Jordan Balazovic, P
- Matt Bowman, P
- Jeff Brigham, P
- Randy Dobnak, P
- Daniel Duarte, P
- David Festa, P
- Ronny Henriquez, P
- Ryan Jensen, P
- Jovani Moran, P
- Alex Isola, C
- Brian O'Keefe, C
- Chris Williams, C
- Pat Winkel, C
- Michael Helman, INF
- Brooks Lee, INF
- Anthony Prato, INF
- Aaron Sobato, INF
- DeShawn Keirsey, OF
- Niko Goodman, UT
A few other names might be familiar to Twins fans as well. Ryan Jensen was DFA'd to make room for Duarte but cleared waivers to return to Minnesota's farm system. Niko Goodman was one of the first signings the team made this winter, as he's among the handful of lottery tickets the team grabbed before making bigger deals.
Jovani Moran was non-tendered by the Twins back in November but he's remaining with the team as he rehabs from an injury.
Two key names to keep an eye on are DeShawn Keirsey and David Festa. Keirsey was left unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft and there was a feat among some fans that he'd be selected by another team. That didn't happen, and now we'll get a nice good look at him in Spring Training. Festa is among this year's crop of players hoping to keep the youth movement going, and he could end up being another Louie Varland-type who gets called up in the middle of the year and potentially sticks around.