Roster decisions loom as Twins head on seven-game road trip

Twenty-eight players will be in Twins uniforms when they open a series with the Rays on Friday. Only 26 will be present Monday when they play the Orioles.

"I don't think any team is looking forward to losing two guys off the roster," manager Rocco Baldelli said Thursday, just four days before MLB's expanded roster size, implemented because spring training was shortened by the lockout, lapses on May 2. "You find good ways to use all of your players, and we have to this point. But it'll force teams into some decisions."

Those decisions may have only gotten more difficult on Thursday. Gilberto Celestino, who played only two games for Class AAA St. Paul before joining the Twins as a backup outfielder, doubled, drove in a run with an infield single, and made an impressive sliding catch on the warning track in center field. Griffin Jax, added to the bullpen a week into the season, hit 95 mph with his fastball to pitch three shutout innings and earn his first save at any level.

Cody Stashak bailed out Bailey Ober when he left with groin tightness, recorded four outs and earned his first victory since Sept. 16, 2020. Kyle Garlick walked twice, each time extending a Twins' run-scoring inning. And though catcher Jose Godoy didn't play, neither did Gary Sanchez for the seventh straight game; the uncertainty over his status makes Godoy important depth.

"The decisions are always hard," Baldelli said. "When you have a lot of guys playing well, it's even harder."

The Twins have made no decisions about the impending reduction, he said, and won't before it's absolutely necessary. But Baldelli acknowledged that the Twins' six-man starting rotation, temporarily derailed by Sonny Gray's hamstring injury, may be imperiled by the looming cuts. Not to mention the luxury of carrying rookie Josh Winder as a long reliever.

"That's impossible to really know right now," Baldelli said. "We plan on carrying all of the six starters and Winder as well. But there are going to be so many moving pieces, and you're going to have to play to the schedule at times too, to make things work. There's a reasonable chance we will carry on with the six-man, but if we have to adjust, we'll adjust."

Another complication could be Ober's health, though the righthander said he doesn't believe the groin tightness he experienced in the fourth inning, causing him to be lifted after 73 pitches, will linger.

"I feel pretty good, just a little sore. Not too bad right now," Ober said after stranding seven Tigers baserunners and allowing just one run in his 3 2/3-inning performance.

The Twins will assess his condition in St. Petersburg this weekend. Ober's next turn to pitch would normally be Tuesday in Baltimore.

"I'm glad he's feeling OK, which is the first step," said Baldelli, who said the 40-degree weather caused him to take no chances when Ober told him he felt tightness. "Let's hope we don't miss any time. We'll see."