The Twins announced after tonight’s game that they will designate righty Tyler Kinley for assignment, as Phil Miller of the Star Tribune was among those to report on Twitter. A corresponding move has yet to be announced.
Kinley, 27, received his first shot at the majors after being plucked from the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft over the offseason. He’ll now be offered back to the Miami organization if he clears waivers.
The Twins have not utilized Kinley much to open the year, and for good reason. In his 3 1/3 innings, he has allowed nine earned runs on nine hits while recording as many walks as strikeouts (four apiece).
Though he’s sitting at nearly 97 mph with his average fastball and keeping a decent 10.8% swinging-strike rate, Kinley has surrendered a .538 batting average on balls in play. While that would surely have trended down over time, it’s also not a complete aberration given that he has allowed hard contact at a whopping 73.3% clip.
Steve called it this morning
That was my first thought too
Good thing the Twins kept Kinley on the roster when they signed Morrison instead of J.T. Chargois. Sure Kinley can’t throw strikes, hadn’t advanced as far, had to be kept on the 25 man all year, and almost certainly wouldn’t make any positive contributions this year; but he averages 2 mph more than Chargois on his fastball and is almost 2 months younger. Great job front office! I’m sure that Chargois guy is having a horrible year and will end up in unaffiliated baseball by the all-star break.
In fairness to the Twins, Chargois’ velocity is down 2mph in LA, and 27 teams passed on claiming him. I think, given his injury history, most clubs assumed he’d never hold up.
Doesn’t mean the Twins were right to keep Kinley over him — this outcome always seemed inevitable, and the decision was definitely head-scratching — but I wouldn’t assume JTC is a viable setup option based on seven solid innings with the Dodgers. If other teams believed he could stay healthy, they’d have claimed him.
It’s irreverent who claimed him and who didn’t, though. It was a homegrown guy the twins let guy that they shouldn’t have. We sure could use him in our bullpen right now. Looking like a bad mistake.
Homegrown Terry Ryan guy, you mean. The new front office certainly isn’t going to cut THEIR guys just yet….Randy Rosario was claimed by the Cubs earlier in the off season and I don’t recall much outcry. There is only so much room on a 40 man roster. Players have to get exposed when spots are needed. In the past, with the Twins, there were always a couple disposable players they could DFA and no one would care. It’s just part of the game.