Woke up at 5:37 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So I hit the road by 6:40 to head to Clearwater to cover the Twins-Phillies exhibition game.
No Bryce Harper in Clearwater yet as Twins arrive to face the Phillies
The media have been watching for the arrival of free agent Bryce Harper. For now, they'll have to settle for Byron Buxton, as well as several former Twins who are in the Phillies training camp.
February 27, 2019 at 3:56PM
I think part of my anxiety was that the national media would be out in force in Clearwater, looking for signs that Bryce Harper is signing with Philadelphia. Now that Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado have signed, it's believed that Harper and uber agent Scott Boras are seeking a record-breaking contract, either in total value or average annual value. Heck, maybe both. Harper has been a free agent for 120 days now, so I can't see him settling for less at this point. That's a long time to wait to not get what you want.
So I just arrived at Spectrum Field, prepared to enter a packed pressbox. I was the third person in. Was told national media types have been in and out of camp in recent days. Harper remains unsigned, so fans here will have to settle for Stephen Gonsalves, Byron Buxton and the rest of the Twins.
So I'm dealing with misallocated paranoia as the Twins prepare to take on the Phils on this glorious day in Florida. Stephen Gonsalves is on the mound. More importantly, Byron Buxton is on the trip and enters the game 5-for-5 with two home runs and 10 RBI on the season.
Working on a feature on lefthander Martin Perez, who's the prohibitive favorite to open the season in the Twins rotation. The Twins feel they have spotted some flaws in this delivery and pitch selection that can be corrected, and Perez has put his career in the Twins hands. It's really an interesting tale of how some free agents can be recruited to sign with a team.
Phil Miller is back at Fort Myers, and hopefully will have a Miguel Sano update for us. Sano is supposed to have the laceration on the back of this right foot checked out today. He expects to be cleared to ramp up his workouts and begin baseball-related drills. If he gets the green light to do that, my guess is that he could appear in a game in a week or so.
Former Twins Pat Neshek, Drew Butera and Trevor Plouffe - Plouffe just signed a minor league deal with a camp invite - currently are in Phillies camp. Neshek is not scheduled to pitch.
The Phillies are televising this game on their NBC Sports affiliate. So if you have the MLB.com sports package, you can watch.
Twins
Jake Cave, LF
Byron Buxton, CF
Lucas Duda, 1B
Tyler Austin, DH
Willians Astudillo, C
LaMonte Wade, RF
Adam Rosales, 3B
Nick Gordon, SS
Luis Arraez, 2B
Stephen Gonsalves, LHP
Phillies
Scott Kingery, 2B
Jean Segura, SS
Andrew McCutchen, DH
Rhys Hoskins, 1B
J.T. Realmuto, C
Nick Williams, LF
Maikel Franco, 3B
Aaron Altherr, CF
Sean Rodriguez, RF
Ranger Suarez, LHP
Kepler was the longest-tenured Twins player after signing at 16 in 2009.
