The Twins have designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment, as per a team press release. Right-handed pitching prospect Griffin Jax’s contract has been selected from Triple-A (as reported earlier today by Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press), and Jax will take Minaya’s spot on the active roster.
Minaya inked a minor league deal with the Twins in the offseason and had his contract selected just last week, so he could potentially be moving on after appearing in only four games for Minnesota. The veteran righty posted a 4.26 ERA over 6 1/3 innings, getting his first bit of Major League action since 2019 when he was a member of the White Sox. The Twins also signed Minaya to a minor league contract prior to the 2020 season but designated him for assignment before he could make any appearances last year.
With Michael Pineda battling a sore forearm, his scheduled start for Sunday has been pushed back, so it’s possible Jax could be in line to take that start for his MLB debut. A third-round pick out of Air Force in 2016, Jax isn’t one of MLB Pipeline’s top 30 Twins prospects, but he has posted a 3.33 ERA and 25.9% strikeout rate over 27 innings for Triple-A St. Paul this season.
Since his full name is James Griffin Jax, I am hereby referring to him as JIMMY JAX from now on which his agent should recommend as well. The kids on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch who can help him get swag and an online following have ADD and need things spoonfed in small, memorable doses, and JIMMY JAX (ALL CAPS) is better than Griffin Jax.
I also posted this on my Twitter page, so it is timestamped to give me the credit to be the first person online to call him JIMMY JAX. Between this and being the first stated member of the Willians Astudillo fan club (also posted/timestamped years ago before he made his debut), I’ve gotta say I’m pretty successful over the years.
I would like to claim that I was a Tortuga fan before you, (circa 2013ish) but ill give you this.
Well, we’re at least in the 99.9% percentile.
yes! so excited for Jax.
Welcome to The Show Jax!
Also this is an unrelated matter to this article, but would anyone sign a petition to remove Mark DeRosa from the next MLB The Show game? He doesn’t really bring much to the table.
So it’s good-bya to Minaya.
Racist!