MINNEAPOLIS – The Twins’ bullpen looks stronger than it did a week ago, but it remains a work in progress.
The club finalized deals with left-hander Taylor Rogers and catcher/first baseman Victor Caratini on Friday, but that is not expected to be all. Multiple club officials said at the team’s annual media luncheon that there is still room within the payroll to add to the Major League roster, and the top priority in any such work is the right side of the bullpen.
Minnesota traded away five of its top relievers at the Trade Deadline last year, and the remaining group struggled to the finish. In addition to Rogers, the Twins have traded for righty Eric Orze, and they expect that some of their starting-pitching prospects will work in relief. But there is still a need for at least one righty, ideally one who would be tabbed to pitch in the late innings.
“I think that feels like the most obvious opportunity for us to find ways to raise the floor and improve the club,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said, “so we’ll keep working on that and figure it out. There’s also obviously trade opportunities that could come about, so I think the trade market is starting to open up more as some of the dominoes are falling across the rest of the league, so whether that is free agency or trade, we’ll just have to see as we keep working through these next couple weeks.”
Zoll reminded the assembled crowd that the Twins made three Major League signings last winter after the weekend of the media luncheon and TwinsFest.
“We’re really optimistic that we’re going to have some good chances to be opportunistic here over these next few weeks before we head down to Fort Myers to keep finding ways to supplement the club, complement it, strengthen the bullpen, and find any other creative ways to put the best team on the field for this year,” he said.
It’s not entirely clear how much leeway the Twins have to add to their payroll, but Zoll and primary owner Tom Pohlad both strongly indicated that there is at least some.
“We’re going to continue,” Pohlad said. “The clock doesn’t stop until Opening Day, right? For better or worse, Derek [Falvey, Twins president of baseball and business operations] and Jeremy have a history of adding pieces late. I’m sure you are going to continue to see that. We know that we have to continue to improve the bullpen, and we’re going to continue to be opportunistic about creative pieces that can improve this team across the field.”
Jeffers to be primary catcher
Despite the addition of Caratini on a two-year deal, manager Derek Shelton said Friday that Ryan Jeffers remains his primary catcher. Jeffers is expected to catch 100 games or more.
“Jeffers is going to be the C1,” Shelton said. “We’ve talked to Victor about it. The thing we thought about there is, we get a guy we think as a frontline [in Caratini] as someone who is going to play behind Ryan, but he can also play first, he can also DH. … The fact we were able to add him to our group was extremely exciting.”
Shelton said he talked to Jeffers immediately after he’d been informed of the Caratini agreement in order to make sure that Jeffers understood the plan.
Jenkins, Culpepper headed to big league camp
The Twins announced their internal non-roster invitees to Spring Training on Friday – players in the organization, but not on the 40-man roster, who will be in Major League camp. And the list includes some prominent names, most notably Top 100 prospects Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper, as well as top 2025 performers Kala’i Rosario and Kyler Fedko.
Also on the list: Trent Baker, Noah Cardenas, Cory Lewis, Christian MacLeod, Ricardo Olivar, Aaron Sabato, Tanner Schobel and Patrick Winkel.
Twins tidbits
• Pablo López said his health has not been a concern and that he has had a “normal” offseason following a late-season right forearm injury.
• The Twins intend to announce two more standalone concerts at Target Field for this summer, as well as potentially some postgame concerts.
• Several players were forced to cancel their appearances at TwinsFest this weekend due to severe weather that impacted travel throughout much of the country.
