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Twins Add Edgar Ibarra to 40-Man Roster
Last month, when we discussed who the Twins needed to add to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, Ibarra's name wasn't one that made it into the conversation. In large part this had to do with walk rates (29 in just 60.2 innings), but it also had to do with the fact that nobody had really noticed him. He goes beyond what it means to be "effectively wild", owning a 95mph fastball that he can't throw with a whole lot of accuracy. He's another Sam Deduno, Trevor May, or Wild Thing.
Between Double and Triple-A this season, he stranded roughly 84% of base runners, which is well above average; to be fair he's also never been average in that department until this season. He doesn't give up a lot of home runs, and in 2013 only one of three balls in play was a fly to the outfield. One of every ten balls in play this year was an infield pop up. All of which is a long way of saying that we can explain why he was so good this season, while also saying that his success (1.93 ERA this season) probably isn't sustainable.
But it's tempting to like these guys, because you hope they just "figure something out." Ibarra does have nasty stuff, and that's something sorely missing in Minnesota.
Twins Activate Samuel Deduno from 60-Day Disabled List
Yesterday was the deadline for teams to reinstate players from the 60-day disabled list, and with Terry Ryan telling Darren Wolfson recently that he thought Deduno could be penciled into the 2014 starting rotation it was a foregone conclusion that Deduno would be keeping his job.
Adding Deduno and Ibarra to the 40-man roster leaves the Twins with four open roster spots.
Minor League Signings
The Twins had already signed Doug Bernier, James Beresford, Jermaine Mitchell, Lester Oliveros, and Virgil Vasquez to minor league deals last month. You can now add Wilkin Ramirez, Dan Rolfing, and Aaron Thompson to that list.
Bernier, Beresford, Mitchell, Oliveros, Ramirez, Rolfing, and Thompson all have invitations to spring training in their contracts. Only Vasquez does not, apparently, but I'm not going to attempt to make sense of this minutia. It could change.
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