Maybe the team’s brass feels there needs to be some lingering sense of drama in the Twins spring training camp, given how few positions are really up in the air. I don’t know how else to explain why they haven’t just handed the starting shortstop job to Jason Bartlett.
What exactly is the competition? Slick-fielding free agent acquisition Juan Castro –who is thirty-two years old and a career .226 hitter (with a .269 on base percentage)– has five errors already this spring. Nick Punto, who has hit .237 in just 194 Major League at bats and whose real value (presuming he ever gets healthy) is probably as a utility player, has been a no show so far, and is proving to be as reliable as Tommy “The Trainer’s Table” Herr. I’m not quite sure how a guy who never plays seems to have acquired a reputation as such a hard-nosed player.
I don’t know diddly about Augie Ojeda, really, but I do like his name. That said, he’s thirty, and an even worse hitter than Castro or Punto (.219 hitter in 178 ML games).
I realize the Twins have always emphasized defense, and have some concerns about Bartlett in that regard, but, seriously, come on, the guy is twenty-five, knows how to get on base, and has hit pretty much everywhere he’s ever played. Not to mention he tore up the Arizona Fall League, and the scouting reports indicate that his defense isn’t the serious concern it’s being made out to be. He’ll be fine, and the Twins are paying Castro a million dollars a year as insurance and to make the occasional appearance as a late-inning defensive replacement.
Bartlett’s got nothing more to prove at Rochester, where he hit .331 with a .415 OBP last season. The job should be his, and I have to believe it is.
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