Gordon: I remain surprised that there were folks (not here, of course) who thought the Gordan in CF "assignment" was risky, or even folly. The guy can fly, by all accounts he is smart, he probably played some CF way back in HS, and it is clear that he has a Sisyphusian work ethic. At worst, he was going to be an OK CF and a better than OF LF. Giving credit where it is due: Dipoto couped the baseball world on this one.
Ford: Really quiet at the plate, very discerning eye, quick bat, decent pop. That's a pretty good recipe base to cook up a pretty good hitter.
Romine: He'll do.
Other guys?
Zunino: There is some anecdotal evidence that the wear and tear of 140 games behind the plate, season after season, saps a guy's power. Look no further than Buster Posey. Over the past 6 seasons, basically uninjured, his HR totals have been 24, 15, 22, 19, 14, 12. His 2B's totals have seen no hit and he's still a .300 guy, but there is a power element to his game that seems to have been sapped. On the other hand, Gary Carter didn't see much, if any, power drain, and he caught a million games. But seeing that Zunino's game is predicated on pop, 130 games behind the plate will do just fine.
Heredia: You had me at "Paul Blair!" Well, not really, but it is a good line. He is a fine gloveman, but there are still concerns about his game. He raked in the Cuban league as a 20-year old, but was unspecial, or worse, at 21 and 22. He had a great eye in AA, but he's walked just 68 pts in AAA and 73 in two big-league seasons. Zunino's walk rate in the bigs is 71 pts, and he's not known as an eye guy. In 950 AA/AAA/MLB PA's, our Cuban has hit just 11 HR's and 32 doubles. He has been a .300 hitter in the minors, but (injury or not) he's still just a .249 hitter in Seattle. If a guy is gong to swing from his heels every time, it would be nice if he wears out the cheap seats or hits .290. Oh, remember to remember that Heredia has been Brendan Ryan-esque vs. RHP. I know that I'm the outlier on Heredia, but I still just see the lesser part of a platoon. He'll have his days, but over the course of a season, he remains (at least, in my addled mind) still a "Blah!" C'mon kid, prove me wrong.
4-man rotation and Vogs + Ford: It doesn't work for very long. We open on the 29th (an ESPN night game), have the 30th off, play on the 31st and April 1st and then have the 2nd off. So you could come back on the 3rd with your Opening Day guy very easily. We play on the 4th and the 5th, then the 6th is off. Then we play 5 days in a row. You could start 4 different guys for your 1st 8 games, all on 5 days rest...but then it gets hard. Keeping Vogelbach and Ford for Opening Day is predicated on Healy still being dinged or Ford being able to OF it a bit. That would mean we don't keep Heredia up. I have been pretty vocal about how we've not given Vogs a shot, despite paying top dollar for him, and that I like his stuff. And I can't see how Ford's approach doesn't translate to big league production. I would say it's a fair bet that BOTH, given the whacks, would top Healy's 102 OPS last season. Of course, Healy does bring a 3B glove, too, as well as the 132 from the season prior. Healy was a .853 vR guy as a freshman, but only .717 last season (.886/.873 vL). I would bet that we get Ford in trade, starting him in Tacoma.
Lance Lynn: When doesn't the guy run out 3 WAR seasons? At $12 million, this is a total garage find for the Twins. Didn't know he threw 80% percent fastballs. Man, I want him just so Moore can watch that.
Moustakas: Passed up the $17 million QO for about 1/2 that. Find a new agent.