Kubel or White? June 6th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
With Shannon Stewart due to come off the DL in the next week, a decision is going to have to be made as to who will go down. Jason Kubel was called up to fill Stewart’s roster spot, so an obvious option would be to send him back to Rochester, but is that the best decision?
The Twins will need to send down an OF/DH type, since there just isn’t room when you add Stewart back into the mix. The fact that Gardy seems to finally be giving up on Rondell leads me to believe that White will be released (or traded, if possible) soon.
- White has not started in 3 straight games, with no reports of an injury.
- White’s option for 2007 becomes guaranteed at 400 at-bats. At this point the Twins would be lunatics for letting him go that far. Admittedly, he does have 200+ at bats to go before that point. It seems more logical to get rid of White and clear room for someone else than it does to minimize his number of at-bats for the rest of the season.
Gardenhire has done a good job of giving Kubel playing time either in left field or at DH. It’s possible that he’s audtioning Kubel as he nears the deadline for a decision. I hope the decision isn’t based too much on how Kubel performs over the short span, afterall White was given two months to prove something.
When Stewart comes back he’ll likely get a majority of the playing time in left field. He may get more days off to rest the foot, but it’s safe to say that even if Kubel remains on the roster he won’t be the everyday left fielder. This leaves the DH spot open for him, which is fine by me, as long as he plays daily. Another question to ponder: is Kubel better off playing in the outfield everyday in Rochester or is he better off playing regularly in a DH role with the big club? When we look at our other options for DH, I think it becomes clear we don’t have a better alternative than Kubel.
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