The Twins nab yet another Catcher

Today the Minnesota Twins have announced that they have selected John Hicks off waivers from the Seattle Mariners.   This fills up their 40-man roster, and unless someone is traded or designated for assignment before the 5th of December, they will not be able to participate in the Rule 5 draft.  Hicks will likely start at Rochester and provide depth behind Kurt Suzuki and JR Murphy.  In other words, effectively the Twins replaced claimed Josmil Pinto with Hicks as their third Catcher in the organization.

In various Mariners' 2015 prospect lists, Hicks was ranked 18th by John Sickels (Minor League Ball) and 16th by Kiley McDaniel (FanGraphs.)   Who is John Hicks?  He is a rich man's Stuart Turner.  A defense-first Catcher but his defense is elite.  He has thrown out around half  (47%) of runners trying to steel and has been touted about his game calling and blocking techniques.  The former 4th Round selection of the 2011 Draft can hit ok.

His best hitting performance was last season as a 24 year old in the Arizona Fall League where he hit .304/.396/.522. In the first half of 2014 in the AA Southern League  (the same league as Twins' affiliate Chattannoga is playing,) he hit .296/.362/.418  in 211 PAs, which suggests that there is some potential with the bat.  For comparison's purpose, in the same leagues Stuart Turner as a 23 year old (a year younger) hit   .223/.322/.306 in the Southern League and  .171/.306/.220 this fall in the AFL.    In 2015 he had a miserable season in the PCL hitting .245/.282/.362 in 320 PAs and in his cup of coffee in the majors collecting 2 hits in 34 PAs.  On the other hand,  his success in the Southern and Arizona Fall Leagues indicates that Hicks has potential with the bat.

If he were still a prospect under my criteria (he does not qualify because he played in the majors) I would had ranked him higher than Turner (who was 28th in my 2015 list) because they are of similar age and Hicks is better on both sides of the ball.

I did mention that he managed to get only 2 hits in the majors in 34 PAs this September.  I did not mention that, even more importantly, he threw out 5 out of 10 runners in that span, like this:

After Twins' top prospects take a step back, heads roll in AAA

Today the Minnesota Twins' affiliates announced their new coaching staff.   One of the surprising and uncharacteristic moves (after a 77-67 season) was that the AAA Rochester Red Wings' Pitching, Hitting and Strength & Conditioning Coaches were fired and replaced.   This comes after a season in which young top talent such as Alex Meyer, Oswaldo Arcia and Josmil Pinto took a definite step back in AAA without getting appropriate help.  One could add Taylor Rogers and Eddie Rosario to the list who both dramatically under-performed in comparison with their results in the AFL and MLB respectably.    In detail Pitching Coach Marty Mason  was replaced by Stu Cliburn, Hitting Coach Tim Doherty was replaced by Chad Allen, and Strength & Conditioning Coach Tyler Donahue was replaced by Dax Fiore.

Congratulations to the Twins for holding their Coaches accountable for talent development.  These changes, all within the organization, resulted in a series of additional changes.   Here is a detailed list of the full season leagues coaching staff for 2016 and 2015 (Rookie Leagues coaching staff has not been announced yet) :

Rochester Red Wings (AAA - International League)

Previous:

Manager - Mike Quade 

Pitching Coach - Marty Mason 

Hitting Coach - Tim Doherty

Trainer - Larry Bennese
Strength - Tyler Donahue

New:

Manager - Mike Quade

Pitching Coach - Stu Cliburn

Hitting Coach - Chad Allen

Trainer - Larry Bennese
Strength - Dax Fiore

Chatanooga Lookouts (AA - Southern League)

Previous:

Manager - Doug Mientkiewicz

Pitching Coach - Stu Cliburn

Hitting Coach - Chad Allen

New:

Manager -  Doug Mientkiewicz

Pitching Coach - Ivan Arteaga

Hitting Coach - Tommy Watkins 

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Fort Myers Miracle (A+, Florida State League)

Previous:

Manager - Jeff Smith

Pitching Coach - Ivan Arteaga

Hitting Coach - Jim Dwyer

New:

Manager - Jeff Smith

Pitching Coach - Henry Bonilla 

Hitting Coach - Jim Dwyer

Cedar Rapids Kernels (A, Midwest League)

Previous:

Manager - Jake Mauer

Pitching Coach - Henry Bonilla 

Hitting Coach - Tommy Watkins 

New:

Manager - Jake Mauer

Pitching Coach - J.P. Martinez

Hitting Coach -  Brian Dinkelman

The Twins Sign a Centerfielder

After the Twins traded Aaron Hicks to the New York Yankees for JR Murphy, there was an assumption that Byron Buxton was de facto handed the Centerfield job to start the season.  For the ones who have seen Buxton's close personal battles with breaking balls, this was not a welcome sign.   Additionally, Eddie Rosario, has played Centerfield for most of his career, and there was some talk that Danny Santana, who has no business playing the OF, might be tested as a potential backup, or even starter, in case Byron Buxton is still swatting at curveballs in the dirt as if the were the State Bird of Minnesota.

Today, thankfully, the Twins took one step in amending those crazy thoughts, by signing Joe Benson to minor league deal.  Yes, that Joe Benson, the Twins' second round draft pick in 2006, who put up a .259/.343/.538 slash line with 27 HRs and 19 SBs in 2010 between New Britain and Fort Myers and exclamated it with great body defying defense in the Centerfield.  In 2011 he was hitting .285/.388/.495  in June in New Britain with 16 HRs and 13 SBs, when he had a left knee surgery (meniscus) and was not the same, even though he was awarded with a September callup to the Twins.  In 2012 he broke his hamate (wrist) in May, which he surgically repaired and had an additional surgery in August, to clean up debris from his previous surgery.   After that he went downhill with the bat.   I saw him in 2013 play for Rochester and he was not the same guy.  You can read that here, along with a very characteristic picture of him.  That season he fought additional soreness to that left wrist and was sidelined for a month and a half with a pulled groin.

Benson was signed with Miami before the 2014 season where he put a respectable .264/.364/.410, 10 HRs and 15 SB in 124 games, and more importantly finished his season healthy.   In 2015 he signed with the Braves were he was released after 41 games in AAA Gwinnett where he hit .246/.346/.331.  After 5 games in the Independent  Leagues, he was picked up by the Mets who had him be Binghamton's (AA) starting Centerfielder.  He hit .250/.355/.380 in 54 games and made plays like this:


Benson is a no-risk/high reward signing and a potential great story to watch while he will be fighting for a job with the Twins in Spring Training of 2016.   He needs to relax and have fun out there again, like he did in 2010 and 2011, instead of pressing himself to perform at his high level of expectations and get disappointed.  That catch up there made a couple of months ago, makes me think that he can do it and finally the Twins' fans will see what made him twice a top 100 baseball prospect.