The Padres announced that they have claimed right-hander Pat Neshek off of waivers from the Twins. The news was first broken by the reliever himself on his Twitter feed.
Neshek first broke into the Majors with Minnesota in 2006. Over his first two seasons, the side-armer posted a 2.68 ERA through 107 1/3 innings of work with fantastic marks of 10.6 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. He struggled out of the gates in 2008 and was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL in his throwing elbow. After months of attempting to rehab without surgery, Neshek underwent Tommy John in November of that year.
He returned in 2010 but struggled with an inflamed tendon in his pitching hand leading to a decrease in strikeouts and some command issues. The 30-year-old Neshek has made 132 career relief appearances over parts of four seasons with the Twins. He owns a career 3.05 ERA with 10.5 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9, but his minor league numbers since his injuries (4.35 ERA, 5.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9) aren't as encouraging.
MLBTR's Steve Adams also contributed to this post.
Kind of an odd move, but Phil Mackey of 1500ESPN Radio suggested that the Twins may have put Neshek on waivers to make room on the 40-man roster for reliever Kyle Waldrop.
how Eric Hacker’s name didn’t come up first is outright mind-numbing to me…I officially have no idea WTF the Twins FO has been thinking this offseason with all of their secondary roster moves. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt since they’re the “professionals”, but I haven’t read a single response from other “pro” front office people that has agreed with or said Twins know what they’ve been doing…
They probably want Hacker just because he can start in the Minors, but that’s a ridiculous reason to keep him on the roster and instead try to sneak Neshek through waivers instead. Boneheaded logic.
This is why its dumb to me, pretty sure Hacker WOULD have cleared waivers, and if he didn’t, who cares, we didn’t have any history with him to begin with…
Yeah, I don’t understand the Hacker thing. I didn’t like the pickup. I didn’t like that they gave him a 40 man spot just so he’d sign. And so far he’s shown that he doesn’t deserve it.
Sad day for Twins fans. I hear he was placed on outright waivers and claimed.
Congrats Padres, if he is health, he is a great setup man. Not to mention, he is the most fan friendly athlete in sports.
He’s a great guy and a class act, but that 86 mph fastball just wasn’t getting it done.
Good luck, Pat. Hopefully you can regain your form out in Petco and get a nice paycheck.
This guy is right up the Padres’ alley, wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he becomes their next stud setup man.
With Adams, Gregerson, Bell and Qualls among others, I would say he is more like a 6th inning type guy. The Padres have Ernesto Frieri and Joe Thatcher with arm problems in spring. Neshek will provide depth. I always liked Neshek. Very solid pick up!
I don’t like this. It seemed like he was starting to turn the corner and regain his velocity. I guess that’s why the Padres claimed him. That leaves Mauer and Perkins as the only native Twin Cities residents on the team. Hopefully, whoever they made room for on the MLB roster is worth it.
Not going to lie, I kinda like this pickup… IF the salary fits as well. Does anyone know what he is making this year?
625k
Then in that case, I think this was a good deal. He is making just over league minimum, so I don’t see any negatives in this move.
Good grab Padres. Hop it works out for you. (Wish the Astros would have jumped on this)
believe he signed an arbitration deal at $625K, so its nothing that will break any MLB Banks, and significantly cheap if he can get back to how he pitched before injury. Padres fans feel lucky, as Pat is one of the most fan friendly players you’ll find and highly entertaining. I’m INCREDIBLY PISSED that the Twins just outright put him on waivers.
Can someone explain why Eric Hacker gets a spot on the 40-man roster over Neshek!?! I thought Neshek still had an option, so this seems like a terrible move.
I will be curious to see who gets added to the 40-man roster (hoping for Kyle Waldrop), because I would imagine that player had a shot at making the team out of spring training.
Hacker doesn’t have a Twitter account.
That kid, Jed the “Jedi” Hoyer knows what he is doing.
So what are the Twins thinking? Complete bullpen overhauls usually don’t pan out.
As a Giants fan, I really despise the twins for allowing this to happen. Neshek should just be getting up to full strength following his TJ surgery and will be better than ever, his injury from last year definitely raises some questions, but I wouldnt expect that to continue
I posted this to someone else, but I’ll copy it here too:
The thing with TJ surgery is that the person needs to work up shoulder strength and usually change their delivery. Neshek can only throw one way because of a previous injury, and that’s sidearm with all elbow force.
He could get better, but he will continue to pitch from the elbow because that’s the only way he can pitch. That’s probably why they gave up on him. He may never gain velocity back and throwing slower with a sidearm is not going to help. He’s an odd case and likely different than all or most TJ surgery pitchers because of those two reasons (can’t change delivery, shoulder strengthening does nothing).
This is disappointing, prior to injury probably the most entertaining pitcher to watch in the bigs (that says a lot since he was on Santana teams), not the best, but the most fun to watch. I’m assuming the Twins know what we don’t and must see him never returning to form because if he even got close to returning to form he would be one of the best relievers in the MLB.
I’ll miss him, but my biggest worry was that he’ll never recover because of his delivery. I’m surprised but not at the same time. I figured they’d at least send him to the minors since he has an option.
I wish him the best, easily the nicest MLB player I have ever met. I’ll be rooting for him.
Pat is the best hands down. Nothing but good luck coming his way.
Even though he has battled some injuries, I think that this is a major loss for the Twins bullpen. When he’s healthy, he is one of the best setup men in the game.
I’m not sure it is, unless Pat somehow turns a major corner. It’s not like he was good last year (minors or majors). 2009 he was out for the full year. 2008 he also wasn’t good in the short time in the majors.
2007 was the last and only time that Pat was actually great for a full season. He was a great set-up man, but that was four years ago now. He’s 30, he’s had TJ surgery. So far he hasn’t shown that he’s recovered from that. He may never, because he throws with his elbow.
I agree, when he’s healthy he’s awesome, but it’s been four years since that’s been the case. I like the guy and I wish him the best, but his time is running out if he doesn’t do something this year.