Twins Sign Tim Stauffer

The Twins announced that they have signed right-hander Tim Stauffer to a one-year, $2.2MM contract. To make room on the 40-man roster, Eric Fryer has been outrighted to Triple-A. Additionally, Minnesota announced that Chris Parmelee, who had been designated for assignment to clear room for Ervin Santana, was outrighted to Triple-A as well.

The 32-year-old Stauffer, a client of agent Ron Shapiro (who also represents Joe Mauer), has spent his entire career to date with the Padres since being selected fourth overall in the 2003 draft. Though he hasn’t necessarily lived up to expectations that might be associated with his draft selection, Stauffer has quietly notched a 3.37 ERA in 480 1/3 innings dating back to the 2009 season. He’s battled injury problems a bit in his career, undergoing surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder and to repair a flexor strain in his right arm, but Stauffer has a clean bill of health over the past two seasons.

In that time, he’s worked almost exclusively as a reliever with mostly positive results. Since 2013, he’s notched a 3.63 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 46.3 percent ground-ball rate. Estimators such as FIP (3.30), xFIP (3.23) and SIERA (3.04) praise his work in those two campaigns.

Presumably, Stauffer will be working as a reliever for new manager Paul Molitor, though he certainly has proven that he can step into the rotation to make a spot start, should the need arise. (He posted a 3.73 ERA in 185 1/3 innings for the Padres back in 2011 and started three games in 2014.) He’ll join Casey Fien as a right-handed bridge to All-Star closer Glen Perkins.