The Twins announced Friday that right-hander Ian Gibaut went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A St. Paul. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to righty Matt Shoemaker, whose previously reported one-year, $2MM deal is now official. Gibaut will be in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee for Spring Training.
Minnesota claimed Gibaut, 27, off waivers from the Rangers back on Oct. 30 and held onto him throughout the winter before utilizing his roster spot for a late-offseason addition to the 40-man. He’s spent time in the big leagues both with Texas and Tampa Bay over the past two years, pitching to an ugly 6.08 ERA in 26 2/3 frames. However, Gibaut has also fanned nearly a quarter of the batters he’s faced while showing a heater that averages 95.3 mph. He’s also pitched to a combined 2.53 ERA with a 30.7 percent strikeout rate in 124 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.
Gibaut is the third offseason waiver claim the Twins have now managed to pass through waivers in the past week, joining righty Ian Hamilton and lefty Brandon Waddell. That’ll help keep the Twins’ upper minors stocked with some depth that has experience at the big league level to call upon as needed throughout the season. If he ends up being added back to the 40-man roster, he does have a minor league option remaining, which will allow the Twins to shuttle him from Target Field to their new Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul without being required to place him back on waivers.
He was easily the most frustrating guy in our pen last year besides – maybe – Jesse Chavez. I’m glad he’s gone, but I hope he can be good elsewhere.
Seems to be lots of Ian’s making the MLBTR news these days.
amassing a solid pen in St. Paul
Always looked real good in the Rays minor league system. That’s too bad he hasn’t been able to perform
Is there any info on why the Twins are able to do this? It doesn’t seem like this would be the ideal time to do this – many teams have spots open for last second free agents.
Any team could have claimed him but nobody wanted him. There are plenty of better players available these teams are targeting.
Twins seem to know who and when they can sneak someone through wavers. Probably some combination of that and the other teams not being interested in the player. Hopefully it will pan out both for the Twins and the players they’re stashing away for depth.
I think I’d rather know what Joe Mauer had for lunch. Or maybe his favorite rock band?!!
Joe Mauer was a hip hop fan. He also made some tracks himself in a home studio. Sadly those have never seen the light of day. They must be terrible.