The Twins have acquired lefty Neal Cotts from the Brewers, Milwaukee announced on Twitter. Milwaukee will receive a player to be named later or cash in the deal.
Minnesota was obviously the team that won the waiver claim for Cotts, as was reported earlier today. The 35-year-old bolsters a pen that was already struggling before an injury to closer Glen Perkins further reduced its depth. And Minnesota’s other two pen lefties — Brian Duensing and Ryan O’Rourke — have not been very effective.
Cotts has looked like a pure lefty specialist this year, holding opposing lefties to a .185/.230/.346 slash while being tagged to the tune of a .847 OPS by right-handed hitters. But he’s actually posted very neutral platoon splits over his career, and was significantly better against righties last season.
Adding Cotts to a club that remains in the Wild Card hunt will tack on $721K to the Minnesota payroll this year, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press calculates (Twitter link). For the Brewers, they’ll save that amount, pick up the PTBNL (or additional cash), and open a roster spot for the just-claimed Cesar Jimenez, who may well have been added with a deal in mind.
shocked he cleared nl waivers
seriously. you’d think the Mets would have had interest considering O’Flaherty is in no way a “lock” and they have no other LOOGYS in the system.
Alvarez up tonight…
They’ve got a roster crunch already (sending down Conforto despite some decent production), plus Cotts is very erratic and has outpitched his FIP by quite a bit. Good numbers against lefties this season, but as the article above points out, that hasn’t been true over his career. I’m fine with them not touching Cotts.
I’m rooting for the PTBNL. But, either way, makes sense to have moved him. Certainly wasn’t doing us any good to keep him.