Are service time considerations holding up a Twins newcomer's debut?

One of several intriguing players the Twins acquired in their trade deadline fire sale was outfielder James Outman, who came over from the Dodgers in exchange for reliever Brock Stewart. Outman is already 28 years old and has struggled in the big leagues over the past couple seasons, but he finished third in NL rookie of the year voting in 2023 after hitting 23 home runs, stealing 16 bases, and playing high-level defense in center field.

He's played in 233 MLB games since debuting with Los Angeles in 2022. The Twins have an obvious immediate need in center while Byron Buxton is on the IL. And yet Outman, who has crushed minor league pitching for years, was assigned to Triple-A St. Paul by the Twins after the trade was completed.

On the surface, that doesn't make much sense, considering how poorly someone like DaShawn Keirsey Jr. has played in the big leagues (.324 OPS this season). There was no room for Outman on the championship-contending Dodgers' roster, but that certainly isn't the case on this post-deadline Twins team. Why wouldn't they want to get him up to the big club as soon as possible to start evaluating what they have in their newest outfielder?

The explanation, it seems, is rooted in a controversial part of the business side of Major League Baseball: service time manipulation. Teams sometimes delay a player's promotion to the majors in order to gain an extra year of team control before the player reaches arbitration or free agency. It works because the amount of service time a player has sets those timelines, based on the league's collective bargaining agreement.

Whether you agree with it or not, the only logical reason for Outman to be in Triple-A right now is that the Twins are waiting for a certain date to pass that will give them an extra year of control on his contract. That's what KSTP insider Darren Wolfson believes to be the case.