Twins notes: 40-man roster, manager poll, Jesse on the radio

Twins sell Kris Johnson to Japanese Central League

I almost missed this news in in the last 12 hours, but in addition to the Twins declining the option on Jared Burton they've also sold lefty Kris Johnson to a Japanese league. Johnson was, ultimately, half of the return for Justin Morneau, along with Alex Presley.

Johnson made three spot starts for the Twins this year: one in May and two more in July on either side of the All-Star break. He finished with a 4.73 ERA in 13.1 innings, including 12 strikeouts but nine walks and a dangerous 17 hits. It was a small sample size, and it's off-set somewhat by his 3.48 ERA in 132 innings for the Red Wings, but we've seen the Twins roll with 30-year old minor league journeymen the last few years and Johnson is no different in that he offered no upside.

With Burton and Johnson about to be offed from the 40-man roster, if we count Mike Pelfrey the Twins will have 36 players on the 40-man roster.

Jesse gets his radio on

Pretty much every week I talk Twins with Jim Sannes at KATE 1450 out of Albert Lea. In case you didn't catch me this week, you can check out the podcast here. It's roughly 12 minutes.

Manager Poll

Now that we know the finalists are Paul Molitor, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Torey Lovullo, who do you like?