Blackburn, De Vries among 19 released from Twins minor-league rosters

We reported yesterday about the players the Twins signed to minor league contracts. Here's the list the Twins sent us Monday afternoon:

Outfielder Wilkin Ramirez, catcher Dan Rohlfing, lefthander Aaron Thompson, outfielder Jermaine Mitchell, righthander Lester Oliveros, infielder Doug Bernier and second baseman James Beresford to Class AAA contracts with invites to spring training.

Righthander Virgil Vazquez signed a Triple-A contract but will not be invited to spring training.

Catcher Jairo Rodriguez and outfielder Reynaldo Rodriguez were signed to minor league contracts.

Thanks to Baseball America, here's the list of minor league players the Twins did not sign and now can sign with any organization:

RHP: Nick Blackburn (AAA), Kyle Davies (AA), Cole DeVries (AAA), Deolis Guerra (AAA), Miguel Munoz (Hi A), Dan Sattler (AA), Manuel Soliman (Hi A), Tom Stuifbergen (AA), Dan Turpen (AA)
LHP: Nelvin Fuentes (Hi A), Pedro Hernandez (AAA)
1B: Jeff Clement (AAA)
2B: Eric Farris (AAA)
SS: Ray Olmedo (AAA)
OF: Brian Dinkelman (AAA), Jhonathan Goncalves (Hi A), Angel Morales (AA), Jordan Parraz (AA), Antoan Richardson (AAA)

It's the end of the road, with the Twins, for several.

De Vries: Local product couldn't get over the hump, battled injuries and probably fell into a numbers situation with the Twins having so many back-end rotation guys.

Guerra: This closes the book on the Johan Santana trade with the Mets. Guerra hit 95 miles an hour on the radar gun as an 18-year old but the Twins rarely saw that after they got him. Battled injuries and missed all of last season because of a circulation problem in his shoulder.

Hernandez: Had a few stints with the Twins after coming over in the Francisco Liriano trade but failed to prove he belongs in the majors.

Dinkelman: Well-liked. Hard worker. Couldn't crack the next level.