After adding to their depth with signings on consecutive days, the Minnesota Twins are sniffing around the backup shortstop market, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic. He makes a point about the team’s depth being tested — beyond the allowable tension — down the stretch and the team’s desire to….not let that happen again.

And it’s a fair point. Danny Coulombe probably wouldn’t be considered higher than fourth or fifth on the team’s bullpen hierarchy. Roster Resource has him slotted sixth, behind Jorge Alcala and ahead of Michael Tonkin.

The same is true for Harrison Bader, who will functionally be the team’s fourth outfielder, but is coming off playing 143 games for the Mets last season. His calling card in defense in center field, which means he should ostensibly be capable of handling the corners while providing the Twins a much-needed right-handed stick in the outfield. Ideally, he plays against lefties every time out and gets an occasional start to spell one of the corner guys. He’ll also find his way into games late for defense, pinch-hitting against lefties and maybe even some pinch running.

His sprint speed has dropped off a bit — as we noted on Thursday’s episode of Locked On Twins — but he’s still a vastly superior runner to, say, Christian Vazquez.

For a manager who likes to use his chess pieces, these are both good signings.

It came as a little bit of a surprise to see the Twins were shopping in the shortstop bin for reasons two-fold. For one, there’s reason to be curious how the team’s “self-imposed” budget looks compared to where it’s supposed to be. Secondly, the team has Willi Castro and Brooks Lee who are both capable, if not competent, options there.

But with Carlos Correa playing just 86 games last season, the harsh reality is that the team needs to better protect itself. Castro is a fine option at shortstop now and then, but his luster wears off when he plays too often and/or no longer helps the team at multiple positions.

Adding a shortstop can only help, and there are a few interesting targets. Hayes’ piece mentioned Paul DeJong and Luis Urias, but let’s dive into what targets might be out there and get a feel for their pros and cons.

Paul DeJong

He’s not the Royals shortstop you want, but he’s the one you may end up with. He, of course, didn’t play too much at shortstop (one inning, literally) after the White Sox dealt him to Kansas City last July, but he hit a respectable .222/.277/.417 after a very similar line (.706 OPS vs. .694) with Chicago while playing some third base, too.

He’s sort of like an old-timey backup catcher who has some pop but is more known for his defense. Sure, he popped 24 home runs in 139 games last season, but his OBP was .276. His career OBP is .295.

DeJong is not fleet afoot and won’t take walks, but he does hit the ball hard now and then — hence the homers and the 69th percentile barrel rate — and Statcast still really likes his defense, ranking him plus-4 outs above average (84th percentile).

The cons are that he strikes out a ton and never walks, but that’s what you’re signing up for. A good team will bat him ninth and pray he saves more runs on defense than he costs on offense. Considering his line was almost a league-average mark (97 OPS+), that’s probably a reasonable, if not exciting, bet.

Luis Urias

This one, I have to say, I’m a bit skeptical about. He has not played any shortstop since 2022, and was not particularly great with the Mariners at third base last season (minus-2.3 runs on Fangraphs, minus-4 outs above average on Statcast) and that’s obviously a slide down the defensive spectrum.

He also slashed a seemingly ugly .191/.303/.394 in 41 games (109 plate appearances), but believe it or not, Seattle is such a tough place to hit that it was actually a 105 OPS+ (5.0 percent above league average, for those unaware).

Urias isn’t thar far removed from being a good hitter — though batting average (.232 career, .193 the last two seasons) has never been his forte — but he takes walks (nearly a 100-point split between his career average and OBP (.331)) and has hit as many as 23 home runs in a season with the Brewers back in 2021.

He’s also just 27 (turns 28 on June 3), and does have two (consecutive!) plus-3.0 bWAR seasons in his career.

Maybe I’ve talked myself into this as I’ve been writing it? The right-handed bat doesn’t hurt, and he’s a career .264/.346/.443 hitter against lefties. But how much does that matter in the infield, when the outfield is where the Twins are a bit more left-handed? Maybe that changes if Edouard Julien makes the team, or if the Twins think they can make Urias a passable shortstop while filling in at third and second?

Jose Iglesias

Iglesias still being available is a real puzzler, as he was good for 3.1 bWAR in just 85 games last season with the Mets as a second and third baseman primarily, though he did play six games at short. He did play 116 games at short for the 2022 Rockies (and did not appear in the majors in 2023), but entering his age-35 season, it’s unclear if he profiles as a shortstop anymore. With the Rockies, he was a minus-1 in outs above average and a plus-2.9 in UZR/150.

His career has been quite the pendulum swing since debuting as a flashy defensive shortstop with the Red Sox in 2011, as he’s had tremendous seasons in odd spurts (102 wRC+ in 109 games in 2013, 160 in 39 games in 2020 and 137 last season in 85 games). But I think it’s fair to say most didn’t expect him to have a career wRC+ of 90 heading into his age-35 season if you’d have asked them when he was a light-hitting prospect.

Iglesias was a cult hero for the Mets last season, and it’s beyond strange that they haven’t brought him back. He’ll find work, and the Twins could definitely do worse.

Kiké Hernandez

Hernandez, who is heading into his age-33 season, isn’t a Dodgers lifer — he just feels like one. Hernandez had a brief two-and-a-half-year stint with the Red Sox after his first stretch with the Dodgers was up following 2020, and he was tremendous in 2021 (3.7 fWAR) before backsliding to a 59 wRC+ before the Sox moved him back to L.A. in 2023.

Hernandez hit .262/.308/.423 (95 wRC+) down the stretch for the Dodgers, and they brought him back last season to hit 12 homers in 126 games (83 wRC+)

He’s long been a fit for the Twins as a jack-of-all-trades player who has stood near shortstop for long-ish stints in his career. However, he’s coming off playing just nine games (59.2 innings) at short last season, and the advanced numbers did not like him last time he played there considerably (minus-12 outs above average in just over 550 defensive innings in 2023).

Hernandez might still be a good fit, but he just wouldn’t fit neatly into that “backup shortstop” bucket. He’d have to play everywhere — he’s played some first and grades out permissibly at second, third and across the outfield (even 54.0 innings in center last season) — and it’s just uncertain if that’s what the Twins are really focusing on.

Long a career lefty masher, Hernandez hit an acceptable but not exciting .236/.300/.369 against them last season. The one interesting thing about his offensive season is that he hit .274/.307/.458 after the All-Star break.

They could do much worse than Hernandez.

Brendan Rodgers

I’m endlessly fascinated by players after they leave the Rockies, but Rodgers doesn’t play shortstop anymore. He’s been a Gold Glove-winning second baseman (back in 2022), but shortstop just isn’t in his bag of tricks anymore.

He was, however, so good at second base that he was a plus-4.3 bWAR player with the Rockies when he hit .266/.325/.408 (97 OPS+). He hit .267/.314/.407 last season (94 OPS+), but his Statcast bubbles are a ghastly mix of shades of blue. He was just a plus-1.1 bWAR player last season, and his defense was graded out poorly by Statcast with minus-3 outs above average on range (24th percentile). He’s not fast, and his only red bubble on his Statcast page is hard-hit percentage (70th).

He’s still young enough (29 in August) that someone should give him a chance, and honestly I think he could be pretty good outside of Denver, but I just don’t think I see the Twins doing it. In all reality, he wouldn’t be the worst option at second base — he just doesn’t project to be that much better than any of the internal options that the Twins need to find playing time for, either.