The Twins have selected the contract of righty Ryan Eades and optioned C/INF/OF Willians Astudillo to AAA-Rochester, the team reported.
Eades, 27, had appeared in 17 games as a swingman for Rochester, notching a 5.88 ERA despite excellent peripheral markers. The former second-rounder struck out 42 men over those 33 2/3 innings while walking just 12. After his second-round selection in the 2013 draft, Eades has never cracked the top 30 in Baseball America’s assessment of the Twins system, though pre-draft reports lauded his “power curve” and “athletic frame.” He’s been generally stellar since transitioning to a mostly-relief role following the 2016 season, and he’ll look to make his mark as a likely longman in an unsung Twins pen.
Astudillo, also 27, rose to prominence with one of baseball’s most bizarre offensive profiles. The squatty backstop swings at nearly everything – his 63% swing rate was far and away tops in the majors this season – and makes contact nearly every time (his 4.1% strikeout rate was easily MLB’s lowest). The approach hasn’t worked for him so far this year, though, as the Venezuelan slashed just .250/.273/.357 (62 wRC+) in 120 plate appearances for the club. He’ll look to regain the magic-wand touch he brought to the majors last season in what hopes to be a brief stint with the Red Wings.
Until we meet again La Tortuga
Best nickname in baseball
.239 BABIP. He’ll be back, he was just unlucky this year
Agreed…8 for 12 over his first 3 games in Rochester.
I’m rooting for you Willians
Baseball is a better game with Willians Astudillo in it. Hope to see him back soon!
Astudillo wasn’t doing bad why would the first place Twinkies send him down??
Because he was their 3rd catcher and they wanted another arm in the bullpen
He needed to get more regular at bats too. He’s doing well at Rochester.
I wonder what his trade value would be?