UPDATED: Twins roster moves; Kepler, Garlick, Jeffers, Rooker, Lin, Riddle

The Twins will be seeing some changes ahead of today’s series kickoff with the Royals. Most notable will be the return of outfielders Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick from the Covid list.

In corresponding moves, outfielder Brent Rooker and catcher Ryan Jeffers will be optioned to the minor leagues.

As Aaron Gleeman noted above, this leaves Mitch Garver as the starting catcher, full stop. The only other catcher currently with the team will be Willians Astudillo, who has primarily filled a utility role, and with Miguel Sano out, had been the team’s primary first baseman. One assumes that role now falls to Alex Kirilloff for a couple days, as he is the next logical candidate, and the Twins suddenly have plenty of outfielders. Sano should be back soon, so that will create another interesting scenario for the Twins to consider.

While Garver was off to a cold start at the plate following a lost 2020, his bat has shown some life the last few games. Jeffers, who was a breakout rookie last season, was hitting .147/.216/.176 in 11 games, and deserves to play everyday, as he will be able to at Saint Paul.

The Twins also have a couple infielders who were called up as reinforcements over the last week-or-so that are going to be in a bit of a roster limbo. J.T. Riddle and Tzu-Wei Lin were both called up to help replace players on the Covid list. Both have been designated for assignment. While the Twins likely didn’t want to burn that much middle-infield depth this early, both are largely replaceable players, and either could easily pass through waivers.

A DFA does remove the player from the 40-man roster, meaning the Twins now have a couple spots they can fill. If I were to speculate, I’d put my money on those spots being filled by bullpen arms, as the Twins need to find a solution in that role as well.

UPDATE: Apparently Astudillo and Garver are not the only catchers on the big league roster afterall, as Ben Rortvedt was recalled and will make his MLB debut tonight.