Twins make third round of spring training cuts

Following their game against the Phillies on Sunday, the Twins announced their third round of spring training cuts, sending six players over to minor league camp. Given Opening Day is less than two weeks away, none of the cuts are huge surprises.

Among the cuts were four position players:

• Nick Gordon — Gordon, 22, is probably the most well known of this group of cuts. The former first round pick and top prospect did well in big league camp this year, going 9-for-22 (.409) with a 1.071 OPS, though he never actually got to play at shortstop, much to his dismay. Despite being a top prospect, Gordon hasn’t played above Double-A yet, so his cut comes as no surprise.
• Nick Buss — Buss is the 31-year-old outfielder the Twins signed to a minor league contract this offseason to provide extra outfield depth. Last year in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League while with the Angels organization, Buss hit .348, making him the league’s batting champion. Should the Twins (god forbid) suffer a number of outfield injuries in 2018, we might see Buss in the majors. That would be exciting! Maybe.
• LaMonte Wade — You may remember Wade as the ultra-patient outfielder who suffered a concussion in a scary collision in the Arizona Fall League last year. Wade, 24, had a good spring in big league camp, going 7-for-23 (.304) with two doubles. Still, he’s never played above Double-A, so sendng him to minor league camp is no surprise.
• Jordan Pacheco — Going to be honest here, I don’t really know who this guy is. Some cursory investigation shows he’s a 32-year-old journeyman catcher who actually played 31 games for the Reds last year. I don’t have any photographic evidence, but I’m going to assume he doesn’t have an ass quite as sweet as Anthony Recker (then again, who does?).

The Twins also sent down two pitchers:

• Jake Reed — Reed, 25, is nearly ready for the majors, but apparently not quite yet (especially considering the bullpen is kind of full right now). Reed threw 6.0 innings in big league camp, giving up only one earned run on a solo dinger. We’ll most likely see Reed made make his major league debut sometime this summer.
• Myles Jaye — Here’s another guy I didn’t even know existed until right now. The 26-year-old righty apparently has been in the Tigers system the past couple years, even pitching 12.2 innings with the big league club in 2017. It didn’t go that well, as he gave up 17 earned runs on 18 hits in just that short amount of time. Jaye will likely provide depth for the starting rotation in Triple-A.

The Twins made their first round of spring training cuts a few weeks ago, and their second round of cuts earlier this week.

Opening Day this year is on Thursday, March 29th.