Twins News & Notes: Bench, Waivers, Mastroianni, Colabello

Hey, let's talk about Game of Thrones. What's that? You're still playing catch up and have only seen through episode six of the second season? Ugh. Fine. We'll talk about the Twins instead.

• It looks like those of us who wanted the Twins to target Josh Johnson have dodged a bullet: Johnson is out for the season and will undergo Tommy John surgery. Can you imagine yet another Twins pitcher having to go under the knife? There's been a rash of these across the league lately, but I don't think that would temper fan frustration.
• Michael Cuddyer's contract expires this season, as does Josh Willingham's. At the time, Willingham's three-year, $21 million dollar signing looked lightyears better than Cuddyer's three-year, $31.5 million dollar contract. Right now, although Willingham clearly won the contest in Year 1, it actually looks like the Rockies were the team that got the best value between the two. Would you have any interest in bringing back Cuddyer next season?
• Moving the focus back to the existing and actual Minnesota Twins, the team isn't done trying to improve. They didn't want to lose Darin Mastroianni completely, but that's the way it worked out, and with the extra 40-man roster spot, everyone - from the front office to the manager - expects to get better. Will it work out? You're never going to find anymore more than role players on waivers at this time of the year, but that could be enough for a bench upgrade.
• Chris Colabello is hitting .346/.386/.577 in 83 plate appearances this season. He leads the league in doubles (nine) and RBI (26). Unreal.
• And have you seen Chris Colabello homering, in Tampa, on his mom's birthday, as she and Colabello's father watched from the seats? As they were being interviewed on television?