FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Twins turned to a familiar face to fill out their bullpen. They will add right-hander Randy Dobnak to their roster, a move which will complete the 26-man squad they are taking to Opening Day on Thursday in St. Louis.
Dobnak¡¯s contract will be selected from Triple-A St. Paul when Rule 5 Draft pick Eiberson Castellano is formally removed from the roster. Castellano will be returned to the Phillies after passing through waivers.
As a result, barring a trade or a waiver claim, the Twins' roster is set in advance of the opener. They likely will not officially announce the 26-player roster before Thursday, but the team is settled if they do not make any external moves. Dobnak joins Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Cole Sands, Danny Coulombe, Varland, Jorge Alcala and Justin Topa in the season-opening relief corps.
The veteran Dobnak has pitched in parts of four seasons with the Twins, serving as both a starter and reliever. He had been reassigned to Minor League camp earlier in the spring, but with the decision not to take Castellano and injuries to Brock Stewart and Michael Tonkin, Minnesota had an opening.
¡°I knew it was kind of a possibility,¡± Dobnak said. ¡°I was supposed to throw five innings Sunday to be ready to pitch next week in St. Paul. And they told me before that, ¡®Hey, you¡¯re only going to throw two [innings] or 30 [pitches] tomorrow, just to keep your arm ready in case we need you.¡¯ And at that point, I started thinking, like long relief or something like that. And then it kind of just took off from there. I wasn¡¯t expecting it, but it was a possibility. It wasn¡¯t like a serious surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise.¡±
A starter by trade, Dobnak will provide an innings-eater if needed, something no other reliever in the Minnesota bullpen is especially equipped to offer. Louie Varland has experience as a starter, but he has not gotten more than four outs in any of his past four outings.
¡°Dobnak is a very versatile pitcher and someone we¡¯re familiar with,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°Someone that can go long, short, pitch efficiently and do a lot of good things for us. So I think he¡¯d be a good member of the group and contribute. I think it works well with him rounding out the group.¡±
The decision to add Dobnak, rather than acquiring a pitcher from outside the organization, can also be taken as something of a statement of confidence in Stewart¡¯s early availability. Stewart has been pitching in Minor League games as he recovers from a left hamstring strain. He has said he¡¯s feeling good. However, due to Stewart¡¯s injury history, the club has elected to proceed very carefully with him and make sure he¡¯s fully built up before adding him to the active roster.
¡°I think we¡¯re optimistic that Brock is trending really well,¡± said general manager Jeremy Zoll. ¡°He threw on the back fields the other day, Saturday. We¡¯re pretty optimistic how he¡¯s trending. Obviously, he¡¯s working his way back from [right] shoulder surgery, but the hamstring tightness that he was dealing with just slowed him down enough that we want to make sure he has that proper on-ramping here before the length of the season.¡±
The odd man out is Castellano, who impressed the Twins with his stuff, but he was not able to throw strikes consistently enough to convince them that they could carry him in their bullpen all year. The right-hander would have been needed as a long reliever, but his tendency to issue walks made that a difficult proposition.