Willi Castro, Jovani Moran, Cole Sands likely to make Twins’ roster

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Barring transactions between now and Thursday, the Twins’ opening day roster appears all but settled.

In the biggest of the four cuts Minnesota announced ahead of Sunday’s 7-2 win over the Red Sox at JetBlue Park, the club chose right-hander Bailey Ober for Triple-A St. Paul, officially ending its hopes of a strong major league track record and a massive spring could force the Twins to make room for him on the list. They also moved left-hander Danny Coulombe, right-hander Aaron Sanchez and outfielder Kyle Garlick to the minor league camp.

While nothing is official, these four moves effectively end all battles for position, and any doubts about the twins’ intended line-up may have passed.

Sunday’s cuts reduced the stock list to 32 players. Five are unlikely to be healthy enough for opening day: Ronny Henriquez, Josh Winder, Jorge Polanco, Alex Kirilloff and Gilberto Celestino. Non-roster catcher Tony Wolters also remains at camp, but the Twins intend to only bring two catchers north (Christian Vázquez and Ryan Jeffers).

That puts the Twins in 26th place in Thursday’s season opener in Kansas City.

“We know we’re going to need a lot, a lot more players than the guys that make up the team right now on opening day,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “Founding the club is a pretty big deal and everyone should be happy about it . But we also know by looking around you have to call other names and faces and the boys have to win for you alongside the original 26 games.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from Sunday’s news:

1. Willi Castro appears in line to create the squad
With Garlick’s promotion to the minor leagues, Castro is the last sane man remaining as a player in the club’s 13th position.

The slower build-up of both Kirilloff (recovering from right wrist surgery) and Polanco (bruising his left knee last season) has not only been a challenge for Trevor Larnach, but also for Castro, who has yet to make the 40-man List stands, but the Gemini can give an opening created by his positional versatility (he played in every position except catcher and first base for the Tigers last season) and his switch hitter added additional flexibility to the roster.

Castro’s swing-and-miss tendencies further flared that camp when he arrived this spring with an .878 OPS on Sunday — but also 17 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances. He’s still 25 years old and has four seasons of MLB experience with the Tigers.

2. Jovani Moran and Cole Sands appear in line to create the roster
Moran was at the unfortunate end of several roster crunches last season, which he frequently spent going back and forth between the Twins and the Triple-A Saints, despite posting a 2.21 ERA in 31 big league games served, including 54 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings. He seems to have a more solid footing on a bullpen slot after conceding a hit in a goalless spring.

And with Minnesota’s penchant for keeping a long assist, Sands made sense both for his history as a starter and for his remaining minor league options, which allow the Twins to maintain flexibility with the roster spot — as they needed through long relief options to rotate in previous seasons.

If it were healthy, Winder and possibly Henriquez would have been ahead of Sands in the pecking order. But both fell behind this spring – Winder due to off-season shoulder pain and Henriquez with elbow pain early in camp.

3. The Gemini will use a five-man rotation
Although baseball operations president Derek Falvey briefly raised the possibility of a six-man rotation, the Twins will ultimately end up with a traditional five-man lineup of Pablo Lopez, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Tyler Mahle and Kenta break up maeda .

This left Ober the unfortunate outsider. The Twins will almost certainly need him as a starter at some point, so it makes sense to keep him on a regular pitching schedule (particularly given his injury history and near-complete lack of experience when it comes to getting out of the bullpen). The early days off in the Twins’ regular-season schedule would also have made deploying a six-man rotation difficult.

The difficult choice with Ober reflected the Twins’ starting depth this season, which also included top prospects Louie Varland (No. 10 in the system, according to the MLB pipeline) and Simeon Woods Richardson (No. 8) as viable seventh and eighth starters has behind .