{"id":507444,"date":"2026-01-06T05:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507444\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:13:16","slug":"twins-reporter-suggests-pair-of-unheralded-players-could-be-significant-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507444\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Reporter Suggests Pair of Unheralded Players Could Be Significant Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Twins are pinching pennies this offseason even though they’re coming off two straight non-playoff campaigns. After signing first baseman Josh Bell to a one-year, $7 million deal, they traded for infielder Eric Wagaman and signed shortstop Orlando Arcia to a minor league contract.<\/p>\n

Bell is the only major addition of that trio, as he’s notched a .700-plus OPS in each of the last five seasons. Conversely, Wagaman had a .674 OPS in 2025, which is his only full big-league season thus far, and Arcia has had a sub-.650 OPS in each of the last two campaigns after making the NL All-Star Team in 2023.<\/p>\n

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However, Wagaman and Arcia could both be bench pieces<\/a> for Minnesota moving forward, according to The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman.<\/p>\n

“Wagaman is 6-foot-4 with below-average speed, so he\u2019s limited defensively, but he does have experience playing all four corner spots,” he wrote. “He could platoon at first base with Kody Clemens, pushing the weak-gloved Bell to DH, and he could be paired with Matt Wallner or Trevor Larnach in the outfield.”<\/p>\n

“In recent years, the Twins have struggled to find right-handed corner bats who can do damage facing lefties, too often leading to ill-fitting platoons in a lineup susceptible to southpaws,” he continued. “Wagaman is capable of filling that role, stylistically at least, but he seemingly lacks much upside beyond that.”<\/p>\n

Gleeman also specified that Arcia could become Minnesota’s backup shortstop.<\/p>\n

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“Arcia was likely brought in to compete with the 28-year-old [Ryan] Kreidler for the utility infielder role, an essential component of which is backing up [Brooks] Lee at shortstop. Twins officials have talked up Kreidler\u2019s glove, so Arcia will need to prove he can still handle shortstop and\/or rediscover some offensive pop.”<\/p>\n

\"Minnesota<\/p>\n

Minnesota Twins first baseman Eric Wagaman. \u00a9 John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Not only are Wagaman and Arcia underwhelming additions considering Minnesota’s lack of other moves, but the other players that they could reportedly split reps with aren’t exactly franchise cornerstones. Clemens has a career .666 OPS, Wallner had a .202 batting average last season, Lee has a .636 career OPS, and Kreidler has a .383 OPS over 89 career games. The Twins claimed the latter player off waivers in October.<\/p>\n

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The best of the bunch is Larnach, who has a .726 career OPS and played 100-plus games in each of the last two seasons. Still, the 28-year-old is a supporting piece at best, and Minnesota still has no major offensive threat besides outfielder Byron Buxton.<\/p>\n

Until the Twins are ready to spend more aggressively in the coming years, they likely won’t be threats in the AL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins are pinching pennies this offseason even though they’re coming off two straight non-playoff campaigns. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2388],"tags":[30986,5,2213,1392,3541,461,1251,822,60,3190,4,727,1131,3477,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-507444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-aaron-gleeman","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-byron","11":"tag-eric-wagaman","12":"tag-josh-bell","13":"tag-kody-clemens","14":"tag-matt-wallner","15":"tag-minnesota","16":"tag-minnesota-twins","17":"tag-minnesotatwins","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-ops","20":"tag-orlando-arcia","21":"tag-trevor-larnach","22":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115846447351319932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}