Third baseman Trevor Plouffe suffered a fractured left forearm today, as LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports on Twitter. That will end the 28-year-old’s season, but not before he posted a solid .258/.326/.423 slash over 520 plate appearances. Presumably, he will return to full strength in time for the spring — after taking his second pass through the arbitration process.
Here’s the latest out of Minnesota:
- As things stand in today’s game, starter Phil Hughes has gone eight innings on 96 pitches and stands just one out away from reaching 210 innings on the year — which would trigger a third and final $500K incentive payment. But, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets, a rain delay is now threatening to complicate Hughes’s bid to finish his excellent season with a complete game and a healthy bonus payout.
- GM Terry Ryan told reporters that he hopes to stay at the helm of the Twins next year, as ESPN.com reports. Ryan said he is doing well eight months after his cancer diagnosis, and feels physically capable of doing the job. He will sit down after the season with owner Jim Pohlad, as usual, to discuss his future. All reports have indicated that Ryan is expected to return.
- Meanwhile, manager Ron Gardenhire said today that he, too, hopes to be back in 2015, as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reports. “Why wouldn’t you want to be here? This is as good as it gets,” said Gardenhire. “But I’m all for whatever’s best for the organization, too.” For his part, Ryan has said that a decision on Gardenhire’s future has yet to be reached, but will be forthcoming quickly after the season ends.
- The Twins have a talented group of young Latin American players, but lack Spanish-speaking coaches to serve as mentors, writes Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune. As the flow of Latin talent to the club’s MLB roster increases, says Reusse, it is incumbent upon Minnesota’s leadership to create an environment that will get the most out of those players.
Someone in the Twins organization has gained the ability to control the weather,
“Why wouldn’t you want to be here? This is as good as it gets,” said Gardenhire. – Exactly – in other words – the owners don’t care about winning, so my incompetence goes unnoticed (except by us fans, of course.)
You took the words right out of my mouth. With 4 straight 90+ loss seasons and 6-21 playoff record (with 12 straight losses), it just plain shows ownership does not care.
If he gets within 1 out, the Twins should just give him that bonus, especially if he fails to go that far due to weather. That’s just so unfair.
While I agree baseball is a business.
the manager show throw him 1 out outta the bullpen sunday.. thinks like that is whaT will make players run thru a wall 4 u
Not a bad idea. Or Hughes could have just gotten one more out during any other game this season.
They did right by Pelfrey last year when they were well out of contention with like a week left to play and didn’t yank him when he was closing in on the amount of innings needed for an incentive. After the season Hughes had for them, I would like to think they would do right by him too.
It would be a nice gesture if the Twins could still pay him the bonus. He has more than earned it with his played this year, nearly 6 fWAR. The most mind boggling stat is he has given up as many free passes as he had wins or HRs.