The Twins announced today that righty Michael Pineda has been placed on the 10-day injured list with right knee tendinitis. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by lefty Devin Smeltzer, whose contract was selected.
Pineda’s right knee represents one of only a few concerns with a Minnesota roster that has fired on all cylinders to open the year. He underwent meniscus surgery in the same joint late last season, thwarting his effort to make it back to the big leagues in 2018.
Thus far in 2019, the 30-year-old righty owns a 5.34 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 59 frames. In many respects, Pineda looks like much the same pitcher he has always been. His pitch mix is familiar; though he has lost some velocity, averaging 92.7 mph on his fastball, he is generating swinging strikes (11.7%) at close to his career rate (12.5%).
Even as his team thrives on hitting homers, Pineda has been done in by the long ball. He’s allowing 2.14 per nine on a 17.1% HR/FB rate. Pineda is drawing far more contact in the air than ever before, with a 0.76 GB/FB rate that lags well behind his career 1.19 mark.
Entering the year, Pineda had never allowed a double-digit average launch angle. Opposing hitters are sitting at 17.5 degrees in 2019. And Statcast’s figures suggest he has actually been a bit fortunate, giving him a .338 wOBA and .350 xwOBA.
Some adjustments are obviously in order for Pineda, though obviously the first order of business will be getting his knee back to health. It is not known at this time what kind of timeline the club anticipates.
Meanwhile, the club will get its first look at the 23-year-old Smeltzer, who came to Minnesota in last summer’s Brian Dozier swap. He’s an increasingly interesting hurler to watch. As chief baseball officer Derek Falvey explains, the club “had some ideas around pitch mix adjustment” and other such tweaks that Smeltzer has adopted to promising effect. (Via Dan Hayes of The Athletic, on Twitter.)
Through 54 2/3 innings in nine upper minors starts this season, Smeltzer carries a sparkling 1.15 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 1.6 BB/9. He has allowed only 39 hits and two home runs, though both of those shots have come since he was promoted to Triple-A. Smeltzer’s K/BB mix has also taken a step back at the highest level of the minors.
is Smeltzer on the 40 man?
no
No, but they do have a spot open on the 40 man. I doubt they were thinking that Kimbrel would fit in with the mentality of the bullpen this year and there are large market teams that will be ready to outbid them for Keuchel.
I also don’t think they spend on Keuchel anyways, he doesn’t seem to fit the mold they like in pitchers.
He is now.
Rotation upgrade: the Twins find a clever way to fight regression!
i dont see why they’d selct a starter when they already have a bunch in AAA.
because he deserves a shot, he’s having a really nice year and has been their best pitcher in the minors at any level.
He’s also coming from AAA so I’m not really sure what the original comment is about.
He has performed the best out of pitchers ready for a callup but he has not been their best pitcher at any level. Graterol and Balazovic haven been much better. Smeltzers K/9 plummeted in AAA.
i’ll give you Balazovic, but not Graterol he can barely go 5 innings.
How hard do you want them to push a 20 year old in his first taste of AA ball with barely 200 pro innings across all levels?
Gonsalves, Graterol and Mejia are hurt and Thorpe has struggled mightily this year. Maybe Kohl could get another shot but he didn’t so well with his first cup of coffee, not sure who else was more deserving to be called up.
You can’t say Kohl didn’t do all that bad when he was up this year. He did outduel Verlander and got the win in that game. But I think the Twins are just trying to showcase Kohl when they can, to increase his ability to be traded.
Its smeltzers day to start on normal rest at AAA promotion makes sense.
Kohl actually didn’t outduel Verlander – I was at the game and he took the L (losing to the Astros isn’t anything to be ashamed of). Kohl is from here in Houston so it would have been great if he could have gotten the W against his hometown team.
Has Thorpe struggled? I’m honestly not sure. He has an 11.23K/9 versus 2.36 BB/9, and an FIP under 4. The ERA is ugly.
He has a high BABIP against and his strand rate is terrible. He’s’ never had those problems before, so I’m inclined to chalk it up to small sample bad luck.
Check out Thorpe’s game log. Almost half his starts he is brilliant. Then …
He has had some rough starts so far but overall I’m with you, lots of reason to think he’ll be fine.
15ER in his first two starts certainly didn’t help.
Should’ve been Stewart, but I ain’t complaining about Smeltzer.
However, the more important discussion that needs to be taking place is whether any of these guys are the solution if Pineda gets sidelined again with a more significant injury or if his performance completely falls of a cliff. So far I’d say no, which is why I think the Twins FO needs to at least be monitoring Stroman.
One of these guys MIGHT be the solution, but a contending team shouldn’t be rotating through them to try and find out which one. Agree they should be looking to add, although if they can do it with money rather than by trading talent I’d be happier.
Glad to see Smeltzer make it to MLB, he definitely deserves a shot.