The Minnesota Twins have been playing short handed.
With Joe Mauer missing his third straight game because of back spasms the Twins are playing the series with Cleveland with just two bench players.
That has severely limited the options for Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire.
Minnesota has been carrying 13 pitchers on the roster, since the team added Logan Darnell when Aaron Hicks was put on the seven-day disabled list with concussion symptoms.
That left the Twins with just three bench players, and Mauer’s injury has further depleted it.
With starters going deeper, #mntwins want to get back down to 12 pitchers ASAP. Might not happen until Hicks returns: Friday in DET?
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) May 7, 2014
The lack of bench support has been making things tough on the field.
1500 ESPN writer Derek Wetmore points to Tuesday night’s loss to Cleveland with Minnesota trailing 4-2 and runners at the corners with two outs and left-handed hitting right fielder Chris Herrmann coming to the plate against left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski.
Wetmore says normally that would be a spot Gardenhire would use Josmil Pinto to pinch hit. But it didn’t happen because Pinto would need a defensive replacement and the only other bench player was Pedro Florimon, who isn’t an outfielder.
So a few roster moves could be coming for the Twins.
One might be the return of Oswaldo Arcia. He is nearing the end of a rehab assignment to Class Triple A Rochester. In eight games at Rochester, Arcia is hitting .333.
Twins have a couple roster decisions coming up, “My phone is on fire,'' Gardy said.
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) May 7, 2014
According to the Star Tribune, the Twins may also be looking at placing Mauer on the disabled list, depending on the status of his back.
And Minnesota is also nearing another deadline to figure out what to do with reliever Matt Guerrier, who is in the minors attempting to come back from August surgery to his arm. Guerrier’s contract has an opt out clause of May 8 (Thursday).
Guerrier told the Star Tribune that he is hoping not to have to look elsewhere, but his agent said earlier this week that Guerrier was not willing to push back the opt out date.
