The Twins designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment following last night’s game against the Yankees, tweets Dan Hayes of The Athletic. They’ll bring up a fresh arm for the bullpen today.
Minaya, 31, has spent the 2021-22 seasons with Minnesota. This marks his second DFA with the Twins, who also non-tendered him over the winter but ultimately re-signed him to a minor league deal. He accepted an outright assignment with the Twins a year ago to the date after clearing waivers, and the Twins will have a week to either trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers once more. As was the case last year, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Minaya returned from his first DFA and outright in 2021 to solidify a spot in the Minnesota bullpen over the final few months. In 40 innings last year, the right-hander pitched to an excellent 2.48 ERA with an above-average 25.7% strikeout rate and a very strong 53% ground-ball rate. Those numbers were somewhat offset by an ugly 12% walk rate, but Minaya looked the part of a solid enough middle reliever.
The Twins still moved on via non-tender, or at least it seemed that way at the time. However, despite last year’s strong showing, Minaya didn’t find a big league offer following the lockout and returned to the Twins on another minor league pact. The Twins selected him to the big league roster late last month despite a rocky showing in Triple-A St. Paul (6.06 ERA, 16 strikeouts, eight walks in 16 1/3 innings), and those struggles have continued in the big leagues. He’s yielded six runs on six hits and five walks with seven strikeouts through 6 1/3 frames — and done so while averaging 94 mph on a fastball that sat at 95.3 mph in 2021.
Minaya is out of minor league options, so any team interested in picking him up would need to carry him on its big league roster. In parts of six MLB seasons (four with the White Sox and two with the Twins), he’s totaled 174 2/3 innings and pitched to a 3.76 ERA with a 25.1% strikeout rate, an 11.9% walk rate and a 39.1% ground-ball rate.
Tyler Duffey needs to go as well – put a fork in him, that dude is done
Agreed he has been bad since the start
Peepeepoopoo
I can see the Mets making a claim here for AAA depth. Just lost Felix Pena who opted out to play in Korea.
He’s out of minor league options.
DFA’d the wrong pitcher
Manaya has bad front foot placement which causes him to be inaccurate.. and starter stuff… I’d think it would be simpler to fix the foot placement… but the stats won’t tell you that..
You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out. You put your right foot in
You Twins can have Hicks back? He could probably pitch too….probably maybe.