The Twins will select the contract of right-hander Cody Stashak from Triple-A Rochester prior to tonight’s series opener against the Yankees, per La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Minnesota has four open spots following a recent spate of DFAs in the bullpen; each of Mike Morin, Matt Magill and Adalberto Mejia have been designated for assignment and landed with a new club in the past week. Stashak will take the 25-man roster spot of righty Zack Littell, who was optioned to Rochester following yesterday’s game.
Stashak, who turned 25 last month, was Minnesota’s 13th-round pick back in 2015 and will make his MLB debut the first time he sets foot on the mound. He didn’t enter the season considered to be among the Twins’ top echelon of prospects even after a strong showing in Double-A last season (2.75 ERA, 11.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9). Stashak posted even better K/BB numbers in Double-A this season before moving up to Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 1.61 ERA with 12.5 K/9, 1.6 BB/9, 0.4 HR/9 and a 38.5 percent ground-ball rate in 22 1/3 innings of work.
The bullpen has been an ongoing problem for Minnesota, particularly in the past few weeks (hence the considerable turnover). While Twins relievers improbably rank 13th in each of ERA (4.36), FIP (4.27) and xFIP (4.41) as a collective unit, their relief corps has struggled to find consistency beyond closer Taylor Rogers and rookie Ryne Harper. The Twins are widely expected to add at least one veteran arm to the mix between now and next week’s trade deadline, but for the time being they’ll once again dip into their farm to provide some depth while waiting for a still-stagnant trade market to develop.
Nice AAA numbers for Stashak. Very nice actually.
With Cleveland breathing down their neck, Minnesota could use a big move. Doubtful Cleveland is prepared to go all in. They will penny-pinch. Twins can bury them.
Twins are underperforming, Indians are arguably underperforming. Safe money is on the Indians to win division.
All the more reason why the Twins may want to make a splash. Cleveland certainly won’t.
The definition of “safe money” varies quite a bit among people.
Indians are in a stretch of game against very easy opponents, and have YTD had the easiest schedule in the league. The twins have the easiest remaining schedule. Not sure i agree that “safe” money is on the Indians (and FWIW fangraphs and baseball reference playoff odds pages also disagree with you), but the twins NEED to start making actual changes to their pitching staff.
Indians have many major injuries and holes. they dont seem like they want to pay them, so i wouldnt keep your hopes up.
safe money is in no way whatsoever on the Indians, “safe money” is on the team that currently has an 82% chance to win the division, and that aint the Indians.
Finally!!! Now it’s Romero and Alcala’s turn.
Im all for Romero coming back up and trying again but his last few outings hes been hit hard
Romero is still wild and will be shelled again. I’d hold on bringing him up until he knows where the pitches will be going.
Check his game log, he’s actually been a lot better lately.
Although I do understand the risk, I’m willing to take it because we need him to be the pitcher Falvey thought he could be, and the only way he’ll reach that potential is with more experience at the ML level, along with more time with Wes.
Im all for him getting another chance and working with Wes, still have high hopes for him that he turns into the pitcher we all assumed he would be
Twins bullpen is horrendous lately. Throw numbers and stats out the window. The old eye test is good enough in this case. They definitely have plenty of good stock to net them a couple of pen pieces and a starter without giving up the untouchables.
Who are the untouchables besides Kepler and Rosario? Berries?
Hes probably not talking about anyone in the majors, probably more like Kirriloff, Bruterol in the minors
Lewis, Kirilloff, Graterol, Balazovic, Duran, and Arraez.
Lol Graterol not Bruterol, and I agree with your list
I love the stock photos yall use when you dont have a player picture. who knows who the players are supposed to be?
If they want someone like Yates, they may have to give up one of those untouchables. That is how good Yates is. Or they can settle.
Larnach and Thorpe should be plenty.
Falvey has failed to identify help for the bull pen. Should have been looking for bull pen trade weeks ago. Any Twins fan could tell weeks ago that the bull pen would be the weak spot on the success this year. Now the Twins have to overpay to get some help. Twins front office get a clue and get some help for this team!
Well, they would have likely had to overpay to convince someone to sell early too. But if you’re going to overpay anyway (especially with the market being as buyer heavy as it is), then yes, they should have overpaid weeks ago when their division lead was still big, rather than wait til the lead is all but gone and overpay anyway.
The Twins should have made the moves to fix the bullpen this past offseason. Then, they should have made the moves earlier in the year before interest was so hot. Now, the asking prices have gotten absurd and all the F.O. can do is wait and hope prices come down.
Considering how much the gap between the Twins and Cleveland has closed up, the division championship is a real contest and Cleveland is getting back Kluber soon.
This season was everything we heard Levine talk about in regard to when the Twins were going to go all in, and now they’ve squandered their position.