Parmelee Has Gardenhire's Vote of Confidence in Right Field

According to this late night update from the Star Tribune (which was a short snippet about how Terry Ryan views the market for free agent pitchers), Ron Gardenhire sounds like he might be perfectly happy to hand over the reigns of right field to Chris Parmelee.

• Manager Ron Gardenhire is looking forward to seeing Chris Parmelee in the lineup more now that there's a spot for him in right field. "He's learned to get his pitch, and when he gets it, drive it," Gardenhire said. "He's fun to watch."

The trade off here is that, essentially, Gardenhire believes that Parmelee's offensive potential would be of more benefit to the team than finding a rangier defender to stick in the corner. Considering that there is so much focus on the starting rotation it's understandable that right field isn't considered the biggest priority, but also knowing the organization's penchant for hesitancy in giving young(er) guys a job it comes as just a little bit of a surprise.

If spring training started today, the starting outfield would be Josh Willingham, Ben Revere, and Parmelee from left to right, with Darin Mastroianni as the fourth outfielder. Ryan Doumit and Trevor Plouffe might get a game or two each in the corners, but if significant time goes to anyone else it would be a surprise if it wasn't Oswaldo Arcia. Joe Benson would need to be considered as a possibility, but he has some ground to gain and something to prove after last season.