The Twins have released 2012 second-round pick Mason Melotakis. The Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, the affiliate with which Melotakis had been pitching, made the announcement (h/t LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune, on Twitter).
Soon to turn 27 years of age, Melotakis first reached the upper minors back in 2014. He missed all of 2015 with Tommy John surgery but was added to the 40-man roster thereafter and returned to post strong results. The southpaw followed up on a strong effort at Double-A in 2016 with 11 innings in the Arizona Fall League, over which he allowed just two earned runs while compiling 11 strikeouts against a single walk.
Melotakis was seemingly off to a solid start to the 2017 season, posting a 2.28 ERA while generating plenty of grounders to go with 10.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, when he was designated and eventually outrighted. He ended that year with a 3.22 ERA and has carried a 3.07 ERA with 14 strikeouts against five walks in 14 2/3 Triple-A innings in 2018.
Evidently, despite the useful numbers, Melotakis has not convinced the current Twins front office that he’s capable of holding down a MLB bullpen spot. Otherwise, he’d surely have been kept, as he wasn’t occupying a 40-man spot and the team hasn’t exactly received top-line results thus far from southpaw relievers Zach Duke and Taylor Rogers. Melotakis was long credited with a big fastball from the left side, but perhaps his arsenal has not been as impressive of late to the Minnesota brass. Other organizations will now have their own shot at adding him.
Stupid
Why is it stupid? Are you an experienced scout who knows something? Explain why. Perhaps Falvey and Levine are cleaning house so the can advance someone who has more potential in their eyes.
Only experienced scouts are allowed to have opinions
I get a feeling based of this report that either his agent was a pain in the ass or he was.
Why’s it stupid? 1.) Pitching depth in the minors is something teams generally want to have, both to protect against injury and ineffectiveness. Look at the number of pitchers teams have used this year, you need to have a lot of them to cycle through. 2.) His numbers in Rochester aren’t bad and have been improving over the course of the young season. 3.) He’s a lefty, there’s even more incentive to keep a pitcher who might be useful if he’s left handed. 4.) The bullpen has been a major weakness of the Twins so far this season, especially the lefties. They’ll be going through quite a few more over the rest of the season. 5.) Melotakis has been going for multiple innings of relief an outing, that’s a valuable thing to have in a bullpen should you need to call someone up because of the pen being overworked during a stretch. 6.) The guy’s not even on the 40 man, so he’s not taking up a spot you need to be able to bring someone else up to the majors. If you need to advance someone to AAA, which they already have done with several pitchers, you can just drop someone else back down.
I’m not saying this guy is going to be a star, but he’s a useful depth piece. Between the way they handled the roster last year, where they were shipping pitchers back and forth between Minneapolis and Rochester if they pitched a few innings and won’t be available for a few days, the potential for an injury to pop up, and the general ineffectiveness of several of the guys they have tried this year (Duke, Rogers, Duffy, Curtiss, Kinley (now not in the organization), Hale (ditto), Moya, Hughes, Busenitz) they don’t have a set group that looks to have locked down all of the spots in the pen barring injury; they’re going to go through a lot of bodies this year. Dumping Melotakis and losing that option doesn’t make a lot of sense when viewed in that light.
Mason Melotakis sounds like a disease you get from laying too much brick and building patios and front steps hahaha
He may have been boinkinjg another player’s spouse.
You have no idea what you’re talking about
He may have been boinking another spouses player!
Hope rangers can sign him, our pitching depth is awful.
Who’s the loser who took time to sit here and dislike almost every comment? Did you expect a long insightful post on a dude none of us ever heard of? Lol, ur funny whoever you are
Please don’t turn into a quality bullpen arm for another club. I don’t think I want to see that.
Going to have a gyro for dinner tonight in tribute.
It’s great for Mason to know so many had an opinion. These comments might just get him an audition from another team.