A tale of two Twins: Eiberson Castellano and Mickey Gasper

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Twins surrendered a pair of three-run innings on Tuesday, ultimately costing them a 6-5 loss to the Tigers. But far more fascinating than the outcome are the hints those two bad innings offered about the roster decisions — one about a pitcher, one about a catcher, sort of — that manager Rocco Baldelli and the Twins’ front office must make within the next seven days.

Eiberson Castellano pitched the sixth inning, facing six hitters and allowing four of them to reach base, and ultimately three to score. That wasn’t the outcome he wanted, obviously — but far more damaging to Castellano’s chances of heading to St. Louis for the season opener next Tuesday night was the difficulty the 23-year-old righthander had in finding the strike zone.

“The raw ability is pretty straightforward and obvious to everyone watching him. It’s really good. The secondary pitches are very good. He had a good changeup today,” Baldelli said. “But the main focus will always come back to the strike-throwing. … That’s just a fact. We have to throw strikes.”

Castellano did so only 11 times among his 26 pitches on Tuesday. He walked the first batter he faced, hit the next one with a 97-mph fastball, and nearly hit two other batters. He threw first-pitch strikes only twice, falling behind at least 2-0 to three hitters.

In 8 ⅔ innings this spring, Castellano has walked nine batters, given up seven hits and allowed nine earned runs, a 9.35 ERA.

“His last outing was excellent. Honestly, he couldn’t have looked much better,” Baldelli said of Castellano’s two-inning, walk-free, one-hit outing against the Braves on Saturday. “And this outing, he wasn’t where he needed to be. … He’s got to keep working and keep putting himself into position to really control that strike zone and own it and pound it and make the other team swing to earn their bases.”

With any other young pitcher on the roster, the solution would be straightforward: Send him to the minor leagues to refine his talent and master the strike zone. But the Twins don’t have that option with Castellano, whom they plucked out of the Phillies’ minor league system in the Rule 5 draft last December.

That rule stipulates that the chosen player must remain on the 26-man major league roster all season. If the drafting team cannot keep him, it must offer him back to his original team for half of the $100,000 drafting fee.

But the Twins, who used 32 different pitchers in 2024, cannot afford to hand over a roster space to an unproductive player, Baldelli made clear. They would very much like to keep a pitcher who seemed headed to the majors as a starter last season, but not if it means hiding from competition for a year, and not if it means cutting a player they trust instead.

“If he’s on the roster, he’s going to pitch. Everyone on our roster will pitch, especially early on” in the season, the Twins manager said. “They’re all going to have to contribute.”

Before Tuesday’s outing, Castellano sounded optimistic that he could build on Saturday’s excellence. “I’m truly grateful for all the work and drills that the pitching [coaches have] provided me, and for giving me the trust and confidence that I can be myself and attack the zone,” Castellano said in Spanish. “I’m very confident. I want to be the Castellano that I’ve always been.”

Time grows short to do so, though.

“There are a lot of calls that are difficult at the end of spring training. This is a unique one,” Baldelli said. “He’s giving it everything he has out here to show what he can do. He’s putting all of his body, heart and soul into it. That’s all you can ask for.”

Three innings later, Jhoan Duran suffered his own minor meltdown, loading the bases with one out via a single and two walks in the ninth. All three eventually scored after Duran was replaced, but that wasn’t the intriguing part.

Catching Duran was Mickey Gasper, for the third time in camp and the second time this week. As the battle for bench spots heats up — Gasper, Austin Martin, Edouard Julien and Brooks Lee are arguably fighting over two spots — it’s clear that Baldelli is intrigued by the flexibility of having a third catcher, particularly one who hits as well as Gasper has this spring, could lend the roster.

“He actually is someone that can go behind the plate and help you win a game. … It gives you tremendous ability to make changes, be an even more versatile club,” Baldelli said.

For instance, “it allows us to pinch-run for our catchers when we’re down. And you can put him in a game for an inning or two or three and not worry about him. He’ll be prepared. He’ll work hard.”

Gasper, who played first base for the first six innings, raised his Grapefruit League average to .313 with an RBI single in the fourth inning, then went behind the plate for the final three innings.

“It was great today that he got to catch Duran. It’s one thing to catch 85-mph fastballs. It’s a really different ballgame when the stuff’s moving all over the place,” Baldelli said. “So getting him out there today was a great step, and I’m glad we did it. It’ll help him going forward.”