Jason

Bartlett

With Luis Rivas out of action for a week, Bartlett may get a start at second base this week. Other than that, he will act as Minnesota’s back-up middle infielder the rest of the year.

Bartlett, who is hitting .320 with a homer and 14 RBI for the Twins’ Class AAA affiliate, will take over Punto’s utility infielder’s role. Punto, who broke his right collarbone last night, could be out of action for the rest of the season.

He’s playing shortstop and batting ninth. The Twins have Nick Punto at second base and Brent Abernathy filling in for Shannon Stewart in left field.

He entered the game as a pinch runner in the ninth inning and was picked off first base.

Manager Ron Gardernhire thinks he needs to rest his players a little more. Nick Punto had tonight off.

Bartlett is now batting .377 in 159 at-bats in the majors this season, thanks in part to going 19-for-35 during his recent streak. Since Nick Punto is playing well and Luis Castillo is the established veteran, its likely that Bartlett will have to remain batting ninth for the Twins.

Barlett singled to start the inning and then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. A pair of walks, one intentional, with two outs loaded the bases, and Bartlett then sprinted home when Dohmann’s throw went wild. Torii Hunter added a two-run single after that to give the Twins a three-run cushion that Joe Nathan would successfully protect. The win keeps the Twins 1 1/2 games behind the White Sox and two games behind the Red Sox in the wild card race.

Bartlett has started every game since his recall last week and is 10-for-22 with three walks. It looks like he’ll be a decent AL-only shortstop.

Bartlett was hitting .307/.337/.446 with six steals in 231 at-bats for Triple-A Rochester. He’ll probably get a lot of playing time at shortstop, with Juan Castro and Nick Punto sharing time at third base. He’s worth grabbing in AL-only leagues, but don’t expect much more than decent average and a handful of steals. He won’t help a lot in runs and RBI while batting at the bottom of the lineup.

Bartlett hit well enough in spring training to win the Twins’ shortstop job, but the club decided it preferred Juan Castro’s defense and returned Bartlett to Triple-A. Surprisingly, Bartlett never did work anywhere other than shortstop at Rochester. We’re assuming that he’ll get the majority of the starts at the position for now, but if he commits a couple of errors early on, there’s nothing for him to fall back on. We already know that he’s not one of Ron Gardenhire’s favorites.