According to Phil Mackey of 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire named Tsuyoshi Nishioka as his second baseman this morning.
This isn’t completely unexpected. Many scouts believed that his game was better suited to playing second base in the majors rather than shortstop, where he spent the majority of his career in Japan.
Nishioka played shortstop yesterday against the Rays and made a throwing error on the first play of the game. According to Mackey, Nishioka told Gardenhire that he simply feels more comfortable at second base right now.
So that’s that. Now that Gardenhire has settled on Nishioka as his second baseman, that means Alexi Casilla will be the primary shortstop.
