The competition for the long-relief spot in the Twins' bullpen will remain a competition after all.

Minnesota received confirmation on Wednesday that left-hander Lewis Thorpe has been granted a fourth Minor League option following a decision by an arbiter regarding several such outstanding cases around the Majors. This means that the Twins won't need to expose Thorpe to waivers in order to move him off the Major League roster, giving the club an additional year of flexibility with his usage.

Had Thorpe not received the fourth option, he likely would have been in line to make the Opening Day roster, which would have been required to ensure that he stayed in the organization. Instead, there should still be a battle between Thorpe and Randy Dobnak for a spot with the Twins, and both are likely to see plenty of time on the Major League roster throughout the season.

As was the case for several others, the decision regarding Thorpe's option came down to whether the abbreviated 2020 season would be counted toward his "full seasons" of 90 or more active days. Considering Thorpe missed the entire 2015 and '16 seasons in the Minors due to Tommy John surgery, his comparative lack of full seasons made him a candidate for a fourth option.

Though this hurts Thorpe's chances of making the Opening Day roster, it might still benefit him and the Twins in that roster flexibility will likely help Thorpe's development and ability to contribute.

If Thorpe had been forced onto the roster due to a lack of remaining options, he likely wouldn't have had a consistent role, and it might have remained difficult for him to stay on rhythm as a starter. Now, the Twins have the ability to keep him in rhythm to start, for when he'd be needed due to injury or otherwise.

"We have difficult decisions every year toward the end of camp," president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said over the weekend. "I’m hopeful it stays that way because that means those guys are throwing the ball well."

Thorpe has certainly pitched well enough for a roster spot this spring, with added strength and zip to his fastball that have helped his quality offspeed stuff play up. But so has Dobnak, whose slider has helped him miss more bats. The Twins will be better off now that they'll be ensured both can stick around through the 2021 season.

"They've definitely both put in the kinds of efforts that can land them in a prominent role on this team, and, really, other factors ... yes, they do play in," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Where a guy is in his career, what that person may need to continue to be prepared as the season starts, and then goes on from there. We want to put guys in position to succeed. It's not all about just making the Opening Day roster."

Jeffers, Simmons, Larnach go deep
The Twins rank second to last in runs this spring among American League teams, but big homers from Ryan Jeffers and Andrelton Simmons in Wednesday's 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay showed that there's still plenty of pop in the lineup, even outside the biggest names on the roster.

Trevor Larnach, the No. 80 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, added a solo blast to left-center in the eighth inning.

Jeffers, a rookie ranked No. 6 among the organization's prospects, continued to show that he and Mitch Garver should be one of the most formidable catching tandems in the AL by crushing a two-run blast off Joey Krehbiel in the fourth inning as part of a 2-for-3 afternoon. The 23-year-old Jeffers is in camp with a guaranteed big league job for the first time, and he should split time relatively evenly with Garver, the 2019 Silver Slugger Award winner.

"I've seen him probably settle in a little bit more, but this is kind of who he is and kind of who he's been since the day he walked in the door," Baldelli said. "I haven't seen large changes."

Simmons' second-inning blast off Chris Archer was also promising. The shortstop's bat had gotten off to a slow start this spring following his delayed arrival to camp from his native Curaçao. He's now 3-for-20 (.150) in Spring Training.

Quotable
"That was worth some hard-earned money, and the thing is, a lot of people within the game would probably say, ‘A shirt like that doesn’t exist.’ And now, because I have one and it’s in my locker and I can touch it whenever I want, now I can say it does exist. It was made. Even when they try to rip them off the shelves and claim that they’re not around, they’re around. And I consider it a collector’s item. It’s something that I think I’ll have forever." -- Baldelli, on the "2020 AL Manager of the Year Kevin Cash" shirts that the Rays' staff distributed as a prank on Cash

Up next
Eleven strikeouts across 6 1/3 innings in his past two starts? What on earth has gotten into Dobnak?

"Don't they say strikeouts are sexy?" Dobnak quipped after his last appearance.

They certainly make it tougher to leave him off the Twins' Opening Day roster. Dobnak's work to add horizontal depth to his slider has paid off in a big way this spring as he competes with Thorpe for the long-relief spot. He could be making his final start of Spring Training when he takes the mound for a 5:05 p.m. CT home contest against the Red Sox on Thursday.