July 30: The Twins announced that Breslow has been released.
July 23: The Twins have designated veteran left-hander Craig Breslow for assignment, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports (Twitter link).
Breslow signed a minor league deal with Minnesota last winter that ended up paying him $1.25MM in guaranteed money when he broke camp with the team after Spring Training. After getting off to a good start in his first 21 outings, Breslow struggled in June and then spent much of July on the DL with a rib injury. Overall, Breslow has a 5.34 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 1.64 K/BB rate over 30 1/3 IP for the Twins.
Twins manager Paul Molitor told Berardino and other reporters that Breslow (who turns 37 on August 8) intends to continue his career. Despite the lackluster overall numbers, there is still evidence that Breslow has something left in the tank — he held left-handed hitters to just a .176/.262/.235 slash line this season. Since right-handed batters (.992 OPS) were responsible for much of the damage against Breslow this season, he could still provide value to another team in a strict specialist role. With several teams looking for bullpen help, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Breslow get some calls should he hit the open market, or perhaps even a club could work out a minor trade to acquire Breslow from Minnesota during the DFA period.
qbass187
Good pitcher and a good guy, but this feels like the end… Glad he got a WS ring.
GoRockies
Good pitchers don’t get released
I Believe We Can Win
Think he meant over the course of his career. Breslow had a pretty decent career.
In fact, if a team were to strickly use him as a LOOGY he could still probably pitch as he has limited lefties to .158/.262/.235 this year.
qbass187
Exactly what I meant.
Pretty obviously too.
mattgarcia2324
Kind of ironic a rockies fan wants to talk about good pitching. I don’t remember the last time they had one of those
marckahn
Good pitchers who hang on too long do.
He had a good career
Known as the smartest man in baseball
mikedickinson
I’m shocked he was able to hang around this long….
mp9
about timeee!!
wjf010
Belisle next?
schwing
I hope so
ReverieDays
Remember the silly stories this off season about how he was wanting to be a starter and that he could be the next “Rich Hill”? Yeah, that would have turned out even worse.
eyoung11
Breslow to Boston all but confirmed now
Connorsoxfan
No
Polish Hammer
Cleveland to claim him to fill in for Boone Logan?
raysdaze
Go get him Rays!
Kevin McKeon
Craig Brewslow, Brewers agree to deal.