Prior to their four-game series against the Oakland Athletics, the Twins made another roster move, designating reliever Matt Magill for assignment.
Magill is the third pitcher in the last five days to be designated for assignment, as Adalberto Mejia and Mike Morin were also outrighted off the roster.
That puts Minnesota’s 40-man roster at 36 players, which opens the door to many possibilities.
To clarify, a team’s 25-man roster and its 40-man roster are two separate things. A team’s 25-man roster is its active big league roster that takes the field every game.
Whereas the 40-man roster is a group of players who are eligible to be added to the 25-man roster. Those players could be on the injured list, paternity leave, on assignment in the minors or a collection of minor league players – mostly in Triple A – who could be called up and added to the 25-man roster.
Now before we get too excited about incoming trades, Minnesota does have three players on the injured list in Byron Buxton, Willians Astudillo and LaMonte Wade. So those three players do not currently count towards its 25-man roster.
With all due respect to Wade, he’s not an everyday player and unless there’s another injury in the outfield, he’ll likely be sent down after being activated. However, Buxton is an everyday player and Astudillo has played the majority of 2019 season with the Twins, but he might be destined for the minors after the emergence of Luis Arraez.
If the Twins were to activate just Buxton to their 25-man roster, that means they’d have to just create one spot on its active roster, which probably means Jake Cave being sent down or even Jonathan Schoop – who’s day-to-day with an abdominal strain – being placed on the injured list.
So to bring this back full circle, there’s still four vacancies on the 40-man roster. Suggesting the Twins are on the cusp of doing one of three things.
- Adding players from their minor league system to its 40-man roster.
- Acquire players via trade or waivers to fill it out.
- A combination of both.
It’s no secret the Twins’ front office recognizes the position they’re in to be buyers at the trade deadline.
And even thought the deadline is less than two weeks away (July 31) there hasn’t been a ton of moves around the league. Which suggests it’s a sellers market and teams that are looking to buy (like the Twins) are currently reluctant to give up what teams are asking for in return.
Minnesota has been reportedly linked to such pitchers as Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Marcus Stroman and Ken Giles. Meanwhile, other prominent writers have suggested the Twins should go all-in on Noah Syndergaard or Trevor Bauer.
Obviously the Twins need pitching help primarily in the bullpen, but another arm in the rotation would be a bonus too.
We don’t know when – or if – the Twins will make a trade but Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have created multiple roster spots to put themselves in position to add.
And now, all fans can do is wait.
Related: Should the Twins offer top prospects for Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard?
