Twins designate Danny Santana for assignment

It looks like that final thread holding Danny Santana to the 40-man roster finally snapped.

The Twins activated infielder Ehire Adrianza from the 10-day DL today, effectively making Santana’s spot on the 25-man roster obsolete. Adrianza is known for having 80-grade defense at shortstop and although he has never played outfield in the majors, the Twins had him play a couple games out there for the Red Wings just to really scare the piss out of Santana.

Now, Adrianza was actually already on the 40-man roster, and because the Twins optioned Kyle Gibson this morning, there was room for him on the 25-man roster as well. The Twins didn’t need to DFA Danny Santana because of that.

The reason the Twins did DFA Danny is because he’s just not that good they also purchased the contract of (aka added to the 40-man roster) veteran pitcher Drew Rucinski. You may remember Rucinski from such hits as “Had a 6.48 ERA in Spring Training This Year” and “Made A Spot Start for The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2015 And Sucked”. I guess he’ll be joining the club as the effective Kyle Gibson replacement for the time being, although probably not as a starter. Gibson’s rotation spot doesn’t come up again until next weekend anyway, so the Twins don’t need to make a decision on that immediately.

So, yeah, Danny Santana is now officially on waivers. There’s a good chance another team will claim him—he has some value for his versatility—but if not, he’ll probably just end up back down in Triple-A forever.