More Twins Cuts

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LaVelle E. Neal posted this morning that the Twins have made a couple more roster decisions.

·         Jose Morales won the backup catcher job, edging Drew Butera. This was my assumption all along, but Butera clearly made a strong impression on the coaching staff and pitching staff with his defense, arm and leadership skills. Morales is OK behind the plate, but as a switch-hitter, he gives a left-handed option. Also, and I do believe this is important with the Twins, Morales has been around longer and unlike Butera, he does have AAA experience.

·         Jose Mijares was finally sent down to minor league camp. No real surprise here. It will be interesting to see how he does at Rochester. When he played there two years ago, it didn’t go so well. He’s still got potential. This should not be viewed as a failure or anything more than it is. He came up last year and did well in a very small sample size. As I’ve said all offseason, Rob Delaney is the better pitcher. But Mijares still has great potential and upside, and being left-handed doesn’t hurt him either. 

·         Another obvious cut was Alejandro Machado who got a well-deserved, long look this spring.

·         This doesn’t mean that Brian Duensing has won an Opening Day job though as LaVelle says that the final bullpen spots will be decided in the coming days. It will likely come down to whether they feel they need a second lefty (Duensing) or want the knuckleballer (Dickey).

·         The backup infielder decision will go down to the last days as well.  

 

OTHER NOTES

I also received information this morning on some of the Twins minor leaguers who have been released from the organization. So, you’ll want to jot these updates down in your Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook – 2009! Although this is obviously not good news for them, I like to mention it just because they were a part of the Twins organization and deserve notice, even if just one last time.

 

·         Andrew Schmiesing – The former St. Olaf star in baseball and football got caught in the OF numbers game.

·         Chris Anderson – left-handed reliever came back to the Twins after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

·         Nathan Fritz – was an undrafted free agent signing last summer.

·         Mauro Schiavoni – had become a pitcher after catching for a couple of years in Europe.

·         Nick Lobonov – The Moscow native showed signs in the GCL.

·         Luis Matos – he asked for his release and the Twins likely were happy to grant it to him.

·         Greg Yersich – probably the biggest surprise, for me. The catcher had a very strong arm but just didn’t show enough bat. Also, there are a lot of catchers in camp and unfortunately some have to go.  

 

Any thoughts? Feel free to Comment here.