The Twins won’t set their roster officially until later this week, but they made a series of cuts on Tuesday. At this point, the Opening Day roster appears more or less set.
While the Twins entered camp needing to fill one bullpen spot and one bench spot — which they addressed by trading for outfielder Manuel Margot — in the later days of camp, the number of open bullpen spots had ballooned due to injuries.
Closer Jhoan Duran (oblique), lefty Caleb Thielbar (hamstring) and right-hander Justin Topa (knee) will all begin the season on the injured list, opening the door for the Twins to keep left-hander Kody Funderburk, long-man Cole Sands and hard-throwing righty Jorge Alcala.
Josh Staumont, whom the Twins signed to a one-year deal this offseason, is dealing with a knee issue after slipping in the bullpen on Monday. He reportedly did not come out of that feeling great, and it’s possible he is another candidate to begin the season on the injured list. It was unclear if he would have made the team out of camp anyways as he builds his way back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, which he underwent last year.
That would appear to leave the final spot to Daniel Duarte, who will head to Kansas City with the club — though they have yet to make his roster status official.
The Twins have been impressed by Duarte, who threw in 31 games in relief for the Cincinnati Reds last season. This spring, the 27-year-old, who issued 20 walks in 31 2/3 innings last season, did not allow a base on balls this spring after making some mechanical changes.
Duarte, a waiver claim, is the only non-roster invite left in camp, meaning if he is to make the team, the Twins will need to clear a spot on the 40-man for him.
With the cuts (pitchers Matt Bowman and Jeff Brigham, catchers Brian O’Keefe and Chris Williams, infielders Michael Helman and Anthony Prato and utilityman Niko Goodrum were reassigned to minor league camp), the Twins now have 32 active players for 26 spots.
Five — Duran, Thielbar, Topa, Anthony DeSclafani and Zack Weiss — will begin the season on the injured list.
Twins line up rotation
Pablo López will take the ball on Thursday when the Twins open their season against Kansas City. Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober will follow him in the rotation, as they have this spring. Ryan will start Saturday’s game and Ober the series finale in Kansas City.
While the Twins have not publicly announced their plans for the Milwaukee series, it would appear as if Louie Varland would be on track for one of those games and Chris Paddack the other, leaving López in line for the home opener next Thursday.
The Twins will leave Paddack in Fort Myers, Fla., to get in his final work of the spring before the starter meets them in Kansas City.
Briefly
The Twins finished off their Grapefruit League slate with a 9-6 win over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. Varland gave up six runs in five innings pitched. The Twins officially wrapped up their spring training slate 9-19, the worst record in the Grapefruit League.
