Eddie Rosario fills in nicely in center field for Twins

Amid all the uncertainty surrounding the Twins' future and that of their young players, a few determinations have been made. Among them: Eddie Rosario, a center fielder throughout much of his minor league career, seems best suited for left field.

Which, at the moment, is a little odd — because that's not the position he's playing.

Meet Eddie Rosario, accidental center fielder.

"When the season starts, I think I'm going to play left field every day, and that's good," said Rosario, the second-year outfielder who indeed opened the season as the Twins left fielder and played there 41 times in his first 50 appearances. "Right now, I don't know where I am next year."

That's because a potential Rosario-Byron Buxton-Max Kepler outfield alignment, one that could remain solid for several seasons, has been derailed for the time being by Buxton's ongoing inability to establish himself as a major league hitter. Only 22 years old, Buxton remains the Twins' designated star of the future, but his .199 career batting average and .248 on-base percentage have delayed those plans.

Enter Rosario, manager Paul Molitor's preference at Buxton's position.

"He plays well out there. He's played a lot of left field for us, so he has to get comfortable with different angles and different [responsibilities]," Molitor said. "But he runs good routes, and he understands that positioning is important."

It's an adjustment, Rosario said, because while a left fielder is responsible for his third of the outfield, a center fielder has to react to every ball that comes out there, helping to back up both left and right fields.

"You need to be ready for everything," he said. "Fly ball to left field, or line drive to right, you need to go everywhere. You need to help everybody."

Covering the vast left-center gap at Target Field is the biggest challenge, Rosario said, especially since he feels he doesn't get a jump on balls hit in that direction as well as he does toward right. "It's more difficult, because I have more range to my left," he said. "But I'm working on getting better."

He's also worked on better communication with his fellow outfielders; he's noticed, for example, that Kepler is more careful about avoiding collisions than Robbie Grossman or Danny Santana have been in left, so he has to be more assertive when heading toward right.

Rosario still probably has a greater future in left, Molitor said, but he has no qualms about playing him in center for now.