How Solano agreement could impact Twins' roster

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Infielder Donovan Solano's one-year deal was made official on Thursday, giving the Twins another option in the infield -- particularly at first base -- against left-handed pitching, and that's a fit they sought long before the veteran began to participate in camp on Thursday.

“I think it’s just fair to say we’ll take literally as many good players as we can get,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And me and the staff will take on that responsibility of handling those guys and making it all work.”

The first element is that, considering all that happened to the Twins’ roster in 2021 and ‘22, there can’t possibly be too much depth among the Major League group. Injuries take their toll any year -- and this roster has plenty of injury history, though president of baseball operations Derek Falvey noted that Solano's signing was not in response to any particular injury concerns.

Before reports of Solano’s signing, it appeared that the bench could already be full, with backup catcher Ryan Jeffers, backup infielder Kyle Farmer, backup outfielders Michael A. Taylor and Trevor Larnach, and all-around man Nick Gordon seemingly set for the five extra slots. Perhaps the Twins will eventually need to make a tough roster decision -- with Larnach potentially the odd man out -- if everyone makes it through a healthy spring. But that’s no guarantee, even as everyone's health currently tracks well in camp.

"What we tell all our players is, there’s a lot of time between now and Opening Day," Falvey said. "If we have really challenging decisions at the end of camp, it’s a good thing."

Solano’s multipositional flexibility allowed him to play first base, second base and third base in 80 appearances for the Reds last season, and he also made sporadic appearances at shortstop earlier in his career with the Marlins and Giants. He is slated to join a similarly versatile group in which Farmer can play all four infield positions and corner outfield, Taylor can play all three outfield positions and Gordon can play everywhere but catcher.

Statcast pegs Solano as an above-average first baseman (four outs above average in 2022) and merely passable elsewhere, but he has provided stable offensive production, hitting .284/.339/.385 for the Reds last season.

“We call him Donnie Barrels, because he always barrels up baseballs,” said Farmer, who was teammates with Solano in Cincinnati.

Baldelli acknowledged that the Twins’ recent moves are, indeed, an indication that the club has been looking to add options against left-handed pitching, considering so many of the team’s impact lineup options hit left-handed. Solano is a career .282 hitter with a .711 OPS against southpaws; Taylor has hit .257 with a .722 OPS against lefties.

"I really enjoy [playing] the game, no matter what position it is," Solano said. "Over there in Cincinnati, they told me that [first] is a little hole here where I can play mostly, so it's a good opportunity to get more at-bats for me. So I kept enjoying being at first base."

They could swap in for the likes of the left-handed Max Kepler, Joey Gallo, Alex Kirilloff, Gordon or Larnach depending on matchups, with Farmer's flexibility to play first base and outfield possibly coming into play in such situations.

The Twins have built themselves a roster from which they hope to mix and match more than ever on a daily basis -- and even on a matchup basis -- to allow themselves to find advantageous situations against as many opposing pitchers as possible. An extra element to that toolkit can’t hurt.

“We’re trying to solidify several different lineups that we’re going to want to construct during the year,” Baldelli said. “It’s not that easy to create a roster with this many options that fit together well. … We have the ability right now that we were looking for, and also the fits we were looking for, which makes it doubly exciting on our end.”