Who is the newest Twins' player Pedro Florimon Jr?

On the first day of the Winter Meetings the Twins announced that the claimed Pedro Florimon Jr. from Baltimore Orioles, filling up the 39th spot in their 40-man roster. This means that they can select one player in the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft and might need to trade or waive players currently on the 40-men roster to sign free agents or accommodate players incoming via trades. This move should not come as a surprise, since I indicated that the Twins were likely to look for an infielder or a pitcher with the rule 5 draft. Acquiring an infielder today, almost makes it a lock that will be after a pitcher this Thursday.



Pedro Florimon Jr, was born in the Dominican on December 10, 1986 (will turn 25 this week) and has been signed as an amateur free agent at 17 years old by the Orioles. He played for 2 seasons in the Dominican Summer League, before making the jump into the US minors in 2006 with the Bluefield Orioles (A, Appalachian League.) Since 2009 he has been playing at the Eastern League Bowie Baysox (AA, with a couple of trips in the SALLY and Carolina Leagues) so the Twins had plenty of opportunity to see him play against the New Britain Rock Cats. His 6-year career minor league line is .247/.322/.354 with 27 HR, 240 RBI, 292R, 89 SB in 2428 plate appearances. Last season in AA, he hit .267/.344/.396 with 8 HR and 15 SB. Defensively, he has exceptional range and instincts, but he (more than occasionally) botches easy plays. In 602 games at SS, he has 174 errors but also turned 363 double plays. He has a strong arm and has some occasional gap power with the bat.

All in all, he is very similar to a younger Alexi Casilla and would need some work with his concentration on the field. I think that the Twins signed him as organizational depth at this point, since there are no pure short stops in the higher levels of the organization. If he improves his error rate, he could possibly win a bench position with the Twins.