We had a real roster crunch in terms of guys who were without options so we had to wave the following to get down to 28: Brad Mabe, Jeremy King, Nate Cole, Steve Holt and Tony Olivo. Mabe and Olivo have been with the big club before and Mabe was most the most agonizing call in this regard. Holt was once a top prospect but isn't anymore, King came in a minor trade last season and is a useful lefty but we have several of those including one more we just got (see below) and Cole is a low-average slugging 1B we grow on trees.
And one more guy out of options was traded:
Tim James has always been a tease with his 75 stuff but his 35 control has played up a lot more whenever he's been up with the big club. He was too good to waive though and in shopping him I found Kay, a lefty who's rated 70/50/65 and has earned 2.5 WAR each of the last two seasons. Minnesota really worked him as he led the league in appearances the last two years (89 and 87) and threw 108 and 115 innings in relief, unheard-of numbers these days. Hopefully he's not worn down.
So this leaves the following Opening Day Roster:
C-D.Morales, Alejandre
1B-Viatoro
2B-Davila
SS-Chinchilla
3B-Barela
IF-Wood, I.Morales
LF-Bonczek
CF-McGovern
RF-Morales
DH-Duran, R.Ramirez
OF-Yamaguchi (really PH/DH, Duran can play the OF)
SP-Rose, Bransington, Winger, Morris, Bernal
LR-Bertram
MR-Hetzel, Roberts, Leonard, Ravin, Kay
SU-Navarro, Mejia
CL-Talbott
Preseason picks:
BNN is calling for a repeat of last season with the Yankees beating us out, but they do seem to be on board with our defensive improvements, projecting a team 3.99 ERA (including a 20-win season for Dave Rose!). Our offense still looks like the best in baseball although not so far above the pack, which makes some sense considering we traded out the bats of Saro and Bocardo for D.Morales and McGovern.