Depth Chart

The 'Official' Minnesota Twins Depth Chart (on the Twins' website) was updated today, and shows a little interesting information.

Now this chart clearly shows more than 25 players on the team, and has at least three people at each position, except catcher and DH. Now the chart just draws players that are on the Twins' 40-man roster, and can be changed at any time.

The listed starting pitchers are: Scott Baker, Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano, Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn.

Bullpen members are Joe Nathan (closer), Juan Rincon, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Dennys Reyes, Carmen Cali, Julio DePaula, and Glen Perkins.

There are few surprises among the fielders. Delmon Young, Jason Kubel and Craig Monroe are the three in left field, Carlos Gomez, Jason Pridie and Denard Span are listed in CF and Michael Cuddyer, Young and Monroe are listed in RF.

Mike Lamb, Brian Buscher and Nick Punto are listed at 3B; Adam Everett, Punto and Brendan Harris are listed at SS; Harris, Alexi Casilla and Punto are at 2B and Justin Morneau, Lamb and Cuddyer are listed at 1B.

Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond are, of course, the catchers. Kubel and Monroe are listed at DH.

This list has 14 pitchers (12 are expected to come north), and 15 different position players (13 are expected to come north).

Among the surprises: DePaula, who played in 16 games for the Twins last year, and had an 8.55 ERA, losing one game. For Rochester last year, he was 12-5, with a 2.90 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. Exclusively a reliever for the Red Wings, he certainly could be an option for the Twins, especially if one or more of their talented relief staff shows they are not ready after recovering from surgery.

Span in CF. Certainly Pridie and Gomez are likely to start with the Twins, but having three separate players (not listed with the other outfielders) in CF is redundant. I expect the Twins to bring both Gomez and Pridie north, but barring injury, not Span yet.

Some people - including Monroe himself in an article earlier this winter - have suggested that he would be a candidate for CF; Young is another option there. This clearly shows some thinking by the Twins that they are limiting their CF patrollers to the youngsters (Gomez, Pridie and Span), and not including Young or Monroe, except in an emergency.

Buscher at 3B is not much of a surprise, although I expect him to spend another year at Rochester, or to be called up mid-season. He is listed second on the chart at 3B.

Casilla is listed at 2B, but he also will likely not make the team out of ST. It's interesting that he's listed second at 2B; it may indicate he's being considered as another utility infielder for the ML club, but he's not listed at SS - Harris is.

It's also interesting that DePaula and Perkins are listed as the last two among the relievers. Could Perkins be headed back to AAA? I would hope he's coming north.

The whole process of narrowing down those candidates to 25 players starts next week when catchers and pitchers report for duty at Fort Myers.