The Twins will be without second baseman Luis Arraez a bit longer than hoped after he sprained his left ankle while playing in an intrasquad game at their alternate training site, writes La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Arraez, on the IL due to tendinitis in his left knee, was eligible to return this week but will now be “reassessed” in the coming days, per skipper Rocco Baldelli, who termed the sprain as “mild.” The 23-year-old Arraez hasn’t come close to last year’s quietly excellent .334/.399/.439 output at the plate, but his .288/.336/.337 slash through 113 plate appearances this year remains respectable. He’s also still one of the hardest people in MLB to strike out, having fanned in just 9.7 percent of his plate appearances. Overall, Arraez is a .323/.384/.414 hitter with more walks (44) than strikeouts (40) through his first 479 MLB plate appearances. Veteran utilityman Marwin Gonzalez will likely continue to man second base in Arraez’s absence.
More out of the Twin Cities…
- The Athletic’s Dan Hayes profiles breakout Twins reliever Matt Wisler, whom the organization claimed off waivers from the Mariners early last offseason. Hayes notes that the Twins had Wisler atop their wishlist of potential minor league free agents but were happy to be able to claim him instead when he hit waivers. Pitching coach Wes Johnson tells Hayes he was “ecstatic” when the Twins, who were near the bottom of the waiver pecking order, were awarded the claim. Johnson attributed the Wisler interest to Minnesota’s “phenomenal” team of developers, who helped to identify him as a breakout candidate. “We get a lot of information,” said Johnson. “…What you see is you see Matt Wisler has tremendous vertical depth up and down and he has late movement on that.” Wisler has thrown his slider at an outrageous 86 percent clip en route to a 1.11 ERA and a 34-to-14 K/BB ratio through 24 1/3 frames with Minnesota. Hayes also chatted with Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and Wisler himself about the right-hander’s turnaround.
- The Twins have yet to determine whether right-hander Homer Bailey will be on their postseason roster, but the veteran helped his case in last night’s return from the injured list. The 34-year-old, who’d made just one start in 2020 thanks to a lengthy bout of biceps tendinitis, returned with three innings of one-run ball, allowing two hits and a walk with a hit batter and three strikeouts. Via MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park, Baldelli offered praise for Bailey but wouldn’t commit to the composition of the team’s playoff roster just yet. “We’re going to need — especially in this year’s playoff situation — a number of guys, especially as we move forward in the playoffs and you have the possibility of playing in these five or seven-game series with no days off,” said Baldelli. Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda and Rich Hill seem likely to get starting nods as needed, but both Bailey and a hopefully healthy Jake Odorizzi will provide alternative options or at the very least some long relief potential.
Wisler is a money ball type of player. always had good stats but never given a chance to pitch. In Seattle he gave up to many long balls but still his stats were good.
Gave him a chance in San Diego and he sucked. He still sucks
A guy with a 1.11 e.r.a sucks? Okay
No u suck I don’t think a 1.23 era is bad
Atlanta gave him tons of chances
He had one bad year in Atlanta. His starting numbers were not bad he just gave up to many home runs.
I mean, he didn’t really have a good year in Atlanta. 5.27 era in 325 innings across 3.5 seasons with Atlanta. They gave him a long look and he wasn’t good. He has a 1 WAR this season and a 0.8 WAR for his career, which goes to show how good he’s been.
ATL has not had the chance to give guys consistent starts (not spot starts) to learn and make adjustments because they’ve been in contention where every game counts. Bryse Wilson has been victim of this, and he just had a career game last night. Unfortunately, Wisler/Sims are collateral damage.
Different situations. Wisler was around for some awful Braves teams and he was given chances. Wilson should’ve been given a look earlier for sure and I get what you’re saying about him, but Wisler had his chances.
Maybe you are way to young to remember Sparky Lyle a great closer for the Yanks. When he came up as a start he did poorly. Change to the bullpen and he dominated his era of closing. Behind every good closer was a guy who wasn’t a good starter. Wisler is better as a bullpen guy.
Marwins okay but I really hope arraez and his bat on ball skills are ready come playoffs. Thanks for the few mediocre games Bailey but we’ve got healthy guys with better stuff
Boys the twins are in a good spot… they have like 7 starters that can come out of the pen in the playoffs when needed. It all depends if they’re consistent and can get the job done. Go twins
I had always thought of Marwin Gonzalez as an above average guy to have in your lineup, but I was just looking up his stats and other than a great 2017 he’s been very ordinary. He’s still a useful piece to have on any team, just not the offensive threat I somehow had thought he was.
He’ll be elsewhere in 2021
It’ll be interesting to see the career path of a guy like Arraez in the current offensive climate. He can hit for a high average, but you wonder if he’ll lose playing time because his OPS is so low. A .288 average is pretty empty when you have zero power or speed and you don’t walk. He basically has to hit .320 to be league average for OPS+.
He generally walks a lot. .400 on base last year.
His 400 on base was due more to him hitting 334 than because he was drawing walks. It’s not like he’s Javier Baez, but he doesn’t have a high walk rate.
9.8% last season, 7.1% this season, and if you look at his numbers in the minors, it doesn’t really indicate that he’s going to walk much. Just as comparison, a guy like Max Muncy walks a lot, his walk rate is around 15%.
15% is super high tho