Although it goes against the organization’s general philosophy, it sure seems like Alexi Casilla, the kid the Twins nabbed from the Angels in exchange for J.C. Romero, deserves a spot on the roster when the team breaks camp at the end of the month.
As much as Terry Ryan and company might want Casilla to play every day at Rochester, the 22-year-old shortstop/second baseman is exactly the kind of player the Twins could use right now, and would seem to have a clear advantage over Luis Rodriguez, except for the fact that Rodriquez has played some third base and Nick Punto is hobbled at the moment and hasn’t had a good spring. Casilla, though, is a switch hitter and a speedster of the sort the Twins haven’t had in a while (he’s six-for-six in stolen base attempts this spring, and had fifty SBs –in sixty attempts– between Fort Myers and New Britain last year). He can spell either Jason Bartlett or Luis Castillo (and Castillo is a notoriously creaky character who’s almost certain to come up lame at some point in the season). The wild card in all this, of course, is Jeff Cirillo, who will likely split time at DH and can play anywhere in the infield in a pinch.
It looks like the Twins will do the predictable thing and send Casilla to Triple A, but I’ll also wager that he won’t be there for long.
The battle for slots in the starting rotation has been interesting all along, but with the struggles of Carlos Silva and the strong performances from Boof Bonser, Matt Garza, and Glen Perkins (at least until he scuffled a bit in his last outing), it looks like more of a horse race all the time. Ramon Ortiz has nailed down a spot following Santana, but the other three positions are still apparently up for grabs. I’m supposing the Twins will go ahead and give Sidney Ponson a chance to pitch himself out of the rotation, and Silva, despite his awful spring, will probably get a shot as well, but I don’t see how you could decide between Bonser and Garza for the fifth spot. Hell, a decent argument could be made that either of them should be the third starter.
What say you?
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