Twins add 3 to 40-man roster

The Minnesota Twins on Friday added three players to the 40-man roster. Friday was the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft.

Minnesota added right-handed pitchers Jordan Balazovic and Bailey Ober along with catcher Ben Rortvedt to the roster.

Balazovic, 22, entered the 2020 season ranked as the fifth-best prospect in the Twins system by Baseball America. He spent part of the season at the team’s alternate training site in St. Paul. He finished the 2019 season at Single-A Ft. Myers. Balazovic was drafted in the fifth round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of St. Martin Secondary School in Mississauga.

The 25-year-old Ober pitched at three different levels in 2019, including at Double-A Pensacola, but wasn’t added to the roster to train at the St. Paul site this past season. Ober was a 12th-round draft pick out of the College of Charleston in South Carolina in 2017.

Rortvedt, who was a non-roster invitee to Spring Training in 2020 but wasn’t part of the St. Paul roster in 2020, finished the 2019 season at Double-A Pensacola. The 23-year-old was voted the best defensive catcher in the Twins system after the 2019 season. The Madison, Wis. native was drafted in the second round of the MLB Draft out of Verona High School in 2016.

After the moves, the Twins have 37 players on the 40-man roster.