“Lou’s going to probably be pitching in some different roles as the season goes on,” Baldelli said.
Varland may have been pushed into the Twins bullpen earlier in the season if it weren’t for injuries to Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack.
“You can’t deplete your organizational staff, your depth, of those guys to move guys to the ‘pen early on,” Baldelli said. “I think in a lot of our conversations, we’re talking about this like there’s a week or two left in the season. We have a ton of baseball still to play. We have weeks and weeks of innings to fill up, so we’re going to need guys that can do this sort of thing. Is it possible that if things went a little bit smoother that he could have found his way into different roles earlier? I do think it’s possible, yes.”
Etc.
* The Twins optioned reliever Diego Castillo to Class AAA St. Paul after Tuesday’s game to make room for Varland on the 28-man roster.
* The Twins conducted their annual fantasy football draft Tuesday night, which Pablo López hosted despite not participating in the league. The first five picks were held by Bailey Ober (Christian McCaffrey), Matt Wallner/Edouard Julien (CeeDee Lamb), Cole Sands/Brock Stewart (Tyreek Hill), Lewis (Justin Jefferson) and Buxton/Senior VP of communications Dustin Morse (Breece Hall).
