The Twins have placed right-hander Tyler Mahle on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 18) due to right shoulder inflammation. Southpaw Devin Smeltzer has been called up to take Mahle’s spot on the active roster.
The IL placement isn’t a big surprise, after Mahle left Wednesday’s game after only 2 1/3 innings, and the Twins already announced that Mahle’s next turn in the rotation would be skipped. On the brighter side, an MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage, and Mahle also told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) yesterday that he was feeling better and was able to left weights two days removed from his early exit.
Ideally, Mahle will be able to return when first eligible to be activated off the 15-day IL. Of course, losing the righty for any amount of time is a tough beat for a Minnesota club that is battling for both the AL Central lead or at least a wild card berth. Mahle was supposed to be a big part of this postseason push, acquired from the Reds in a major deal at the trade deadline — thus far, Mahle has a strong 2.51 ERA over his first 14 1/3 innings in a Twins uniform.
Smeltzer could be the likeliest candidate to fill Mahle’s rotation spot, assuming that the Twins pick one single pitcher to cover those starts. The advanced metrics aren’t fans of Smeltzer’s work this season, but the left-hander has managed to outperform those peripherals and post a 4.02 ERA over 12 starts and 62 2/3 frames. If not Smeltzer, the Twins could also turn to Aaron Sanchez or Cole Sands, or possibly a combination of these pitchers in a piggyback situation.
Reds fleeced them in this trade
Least have them tied up next year. Can get some value out of this doomed trade
Is this sarcasm like your other comment?
Somewhere Preller is giggling about getting them to take Chris Paddack too. At least AJ turned Rogers plus into Hader. Hopefully Minnesota has better luck trading for arms going forward or maybe they shouldn’t trade for pitchers in the discount pile.
Mahle is hardly a discount pile pitcher..
You mean the guy with a mid 4 lifetime ERA and FIP?
I consider him discount pile. Mahle has always been an average pitcher.
I’m glad you weighed in, bro.
It’s always interesting when people cite career ERA, as if pitchers don’t change over time.
That’s funny gbs42 because Mahler has an ERA in the 4’s this year too.
Yeah he is laughing so hard. Rooter and Rogers are no longer on the team. So he got nothing from MN. And short term Hader has been a train wreck. He sure pulled a fast one there.
Rooker stupid auto correct
Down goes Mahle – laughing
Meanwhile.. Dodgers bring back a kid from TJ who throws 99+ and gets 10k’s in 6 innings his first time out.. looks unhittable.. and looks about 4x better than any twins pitcher since Santana – and embarrassingly he’s probably their #3 or #4 pitcher. Twins are decades away from even competing..
Baseball has consolidated into about 4 teams in huge markets that outspend all the other teams 3 to 1 … and by being at the top every deal is done to their advantage.. the top only gets stronger. Twins will never compete until they spend 2x their opening payroll – and we don’t have that market or owner. We had unprecidented amounts of top level draft picks for the past 10 years and we have barely anything to show for it.
Maybe they ought to convert Duran back to a SP role.. probably their best option to competing again.. that and hiring a real manager – like Maddon. And maybe drafting something other than SS and or CF.. and sketchy OF/DH types