The Twins have selected the contract of veteran righty Nick Vincent from Triple-A St. Paul and placed shortstop Andrelton Simmons on the restricted list, tweets Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Minnesota has also reinstated outfielder Brent Rooker from the paternity list and optioned lefty Andrew Albers to Triple-A.
Simmons’ placement on the restricted list is due to visa-related issues, Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). He’s in the process of establishing permanent residency in the United States but would reset that process by traveling to Toronto, so he’ll miss the entire Jays series. Presumably, shortstop duties will fall to utilityman Nick Gordon in Simmons’ absence. Jorge Polanco, the Twins’ former everyday shortstop who moved to second base this year, could certainly pick up some reps there as well, if needed.
It’s been an ugly year at the plate for Simmons, who signed a one-year, $10.5MM contract with the Twins over the winter. He’s batting a career-worst .223/.285/.277 (58 wRC+) with just 15 extra-base hits (12 doubles, three homers) through 390 plate appearances. Defensive Runs Saved (10) and Outs Above Average (15) still rank him among the game’s best defensive players, but the 2021 campaign marks a third consecutive season of below-average offense for the 32-year-old.
This will be Vincent’s second stint with the Twins this season. The 35-year-old was sharp in his prior look, holding opponents to one run on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts through 4 1/3 frames of relief. He’s spent the bulk of the season with the Triple-A affiliates for the Twins and Rangers, pitching to a combined 4.40 ERA with 28.4 percent strikeout rate and a 6.6 percent walk rate.
Vincent has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past ten seasons. He’s been a consistent and seemingly underappreciated option over the years, logging a lifetime 3.37 ERA with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 6.1 percent walk rate. He’s posted a sub-4.00 ERA in eight of his ten MLB seasons (this year’s small sample included) and recorded identical 4.43 marks in the other two campaigns.
Wut?
Have a freaking off-season Twins!
Probably the last MLBTR comments I’ll read.
RIP you will be missed
A lot of people say the Braves trading Andrelton Simmons for Sean Newcomb was a bad move for them. I agree in the sense that they should have and probably could have gotten more. Newcomb was the Angels top pitching prospect at the time and has pretty much busted as a quad-A relief pitcher. It still makes sense though. No one knew Newcomb would bust and the Braves were in rebuild mode. Simmons would at best have just been a great defensive player on a terrible team for years. Simmons was also on a $40 million contract which would have been wasted money on a bad team like that. I thinks it’s better to spend that $ when your team can actually contend. Not to mention Simmons started having serious long term injury problems as soon as he left. I still wish the Braves had gotten a better player than Newcomb though. Back then Simmons was a platinum glove SS so that should have garnered some serious interest. I wouldn’t mind the Braves signing Simmons as a backup infeilder for the bench next season if it’s a low cost contract that can’t really hurt the payroll if he flops.
The Cooking channel is looking for followers, hook up.
Just DFA him at this point…
Should have happened when the Twins couldn’t move him at the deadline.
The “logic” of some laws/rules is amazing. Heaven forbid a guy go work in Toronto for 3 days when he’s establishing US residency. That’s almost 0.9% of the year spent out of the country.
that said, Simba has some issues. I’m glad he took time off for mental health last year but if you follow him on social media, yikes. There isn’t a conspiracy theory he doesn’t like.
He is definitely off the deep end a bit.
Ya that’s weird. I don’t think we should give people special privileges that the average person wouldn’t get just because they are talented at something but you’d think whoever is in charge of Simmons case would clearly see what’s happening lol.
Perhaps, but then someone has to pay an immigration lawyer to work with the U.S. government to get an exception. But the Twins aren’t playing for anything and losing Simmons for a series can’t hurt much. Heck, the Twins might even be better off on the field with someone else.
The “logic” of some laws/rules is amazing. Heaven forbid a guy go work in Toronto for 3 days when he’s establishing US residency.
You’re correct @HalosHeavenJJ, no logic here.
It is a very strange case involving Simmons: Why? There are plenty of Athletics who applied to become permanent residents of the US and it is understood that is part of their job that they have to go to Canada if they are in MLB, NBA and especially NHL ( because of the number of teams). In fact Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins applied to become a US citizen and the road trips to Canada did not affect his application.
@NY_Yankee, it’s a puzzle to me as well, but the rules are different & they shouldn’t be. No logic, not fair
There’s a difference. Malkin was already a permanent resident when he applied for citizenship. He left the country and returned under his preexisting permanent residency. Citizenship applications are handled differently.
However, if you seek to change a temporary status to a permanent status, leaving the country invalidates the old temporary status.
There’s a reason why most status changes are done in the offseason. How often do you hear a player is delayed in coming to Spring Training because of status issues? All the time. Pretty much every team has at least one player fouled up during ST. It’s an oddity that the status change is happening during the season, especially this late in the season.
I agree with you that there are players who have visa issues but those are generally those who only work in the US during the season and return to their home countries when the season ends. It is also strange that the Twins did not work with Simmons on this, teams do it all the time. For example : I remember when Jordan Eberle was traded to the New York Islanders, and the team sponsored him for permanent residence.
@Kje76, Why is it so complicated? Do players have to hire lawyers?
Almost all players have lawyers. In fact, Groups like Boras Corp have almost every type of lawyer on staff ( immigration included). In fact, Scott Boras almost never does a contract himself. Gerrit Cole was an exception because Hal Steinbrenner requested Boras negotiate with him one on one. No Brian Cashman, no middle man.
Yes but keep in mind that at the beginning of the season the Blue Jays were not playing home games in Canada and there was no reason to believe they would be by the end of the season. I’m sure that factored in his decision to file for residency this year.
Simmons is number one reason for twins failure this year. caused the covid outbreak in april….so they had to use Travis Blankenhorn, who urinated away a game in Oakland…..
I thought Kyle Garlick caused the outbreak?
No, Garlick caused the bad breath outbreak
That’s about the most ignorant comment on here. His positive test caused ZERO other positives. The failure is that of the team and it’s under performing players. The Donaldson contract is proving to be a disaster and everyone else is under performing. To lay an entires team failure on one guy is idiotic. Caused COVID outbreak?? Not sure where ya got that from or what outbreak.
I put way more blame and colome and baldelli than I do on Simmons.
That being said, Simmons has been awful this year.
He should establish permanent residency in an asylum.
That’s crazy!
wishing you the best, Simba
oop, nevermind, though it was a repeat of last year. still a sucky situation though.
I still remember the pre Simba free agent days when Angel fans on MLBTR wanted to pay this guy a 100 million dollar contract!!!!
He would have to completely start over by leaving the country at all, even for work? That’s a really poorly thought out guideline.
Legal immigration is that complicated?
No Simmons and elite athletes like him get what is called a P visa ( entertainers get an O visa). The only time it should be difficult is s if the player or entertainer has a criminal record
I said it before and I will say it again a very strange case.,Here is another example: When Pageau was traded from the Ottawa Senators to my team the New York Islanders, his agent negotiated a five year contract with the Islanders ( including him and his wife gaining permanent US residency) before he even left Canada.
It’s the way it works. If you leave the country and want to come back you have to renew your visa.
Apparently it doesn’t apply to the walk-ons
so Why are the Twins not giving experience to some of those prospects???? seems like when they knew the season was over there was lots of time to cut players who weren’t part of next years plan and bring up the ” studs”… from the minors and get them ready for next year….. but that would take being serious about building a Championship team instead of a team that ” competes”… those competing teams sure sell a lot of tickets though… no need to make every effort as long as the money rolls in from the Minnesota Mediocres..
To start a players clock with 2 weeks left in the season would be pith poor roster management.