Twins Make Roster Moves

The Twins have now officially begun the off-season in my mind today after outrighting three players off of the 40-man roster. The three players are outfielders Lew Ford, Josh Rabe and infielder Tommy Watkins. Now that they have been outrighted, all three players have the option to go somewhere else via free agency. It is likely that neither Rabe nor Ford will be back next season, but there is a chance that Watkins could sign with the team at a later date. These three moves (at least Ford and Rabe), seem good to me, considering it gets a few of those guys off the roster that we didn't need this past season. I personally would have taken Rodriguez off before Watkins though. Here is what new GM Bill Smith said about the moves. "We needed to clean up the roster a bit so there was a number of moves to be made. And rather than wait until the winter to do so, we felt it was best to do that now." I'm happy with the way the off-season has started, but lets hope the signings start to roll in as well. UPDATE: I guess I didn't finish reading the story. According to this report, Luis Rodriguez was also let go on Thursday when the San Diego Padres claimed him off of waives. More good news...