The Twins plan to pick up starter Sonny Gray’s $12.7MM team option for the 2023 season, per Jon Heyman of the NY Post.
Acquired at the start of the 2022 season from the Reds, Gray has been a solid presence in the Twins’ rotation. Across 24 starts (119 2/3 innings) the veteran right-hander pitched to a 3.08 ERA with a 24% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate, and 44.1% groundball rate.
However, Gray has been burdened by injuries in recent years, pitching over 140 innings in only two of his last six seasons, excluding the shortened 2022 season. In 2022, the righty spent time on the 10-day and 15-day IL with a right hamstring strain and a right pectoral strain, respectively. Additionally, Gray averaged just under five innings per start in 2022.
Nevertheless, when healthy, Gray has been a strong presence in the Twins’ rotation. In the second half of the season, the veteran pitched to an impressive 2.38 ERA in 56 2/3 innings. During this time, opposing batters hit a meager .212/.286/.335 against him.
As noted in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook, Twins starters ranked 20th in the Majors with a 4.11 ERA and 27th with 782 2/3 innings in 2022. With Joe Ryan and Tyler Mahle returning, along with Kenta Maeda who spent the 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, the Twins have a formidable quartet of quality starters as they look to return to the top of the AL Central.
And it begins….
Solid pitcher
Jon Heyman*
Maybe the new head trainer can Cher some bright ideas to keep him healthy and pitching deeper into games
Bono post
Somewhere out there is a tree with your name on it.
Perhaps those ideas can help Sonny to turn back time and reach his full potential.
Great move by the Twinkies, its cream filled & good with milk…
$12.5 mil. Easy money for 18 outs a start.
The last couple of years it’s been more like 15 outs. And every time Sonny gets roughed up early, he begs out with some dubious ailment- usually a leg thing.
Perhaps with better conditioning he could be good for 18 outs.
The averaging under 5 innings isn’t really his fault, it’s a team philosophy twins had no one close to qualifying for era title because they yank them all so early
Hard to win a ERA title from the training room
Formidable quartet? The rotation was 20th in ERA and 27th in IP. Maeda turns 35 in April coming off TJ and wasn’t very good his last full season. Define formidable
Four #2 starters and two of them have serious injury concerns. Formidable ? I’d say more traditional as twins seem to always have a just good enough rotation to make em competitive
Generous to have them all as #2’s I’d be ecstatic with that, there’re a bunch of very good. Hoping they are able to add someone better than Sonny as he’s their ace. Shudders typing that one.
Don’t forget that in addition. Mahle had shoulder issues pretty much the entire second half.
The Twins need to target signing Christian Vazquez as starting catcher with Ryan Jeffers as his backup. Even without Carlos Corea, the Twins will be fine with Nick Gordon, or the possible arrival of Royce Lewis at shortstop.
If another injury prone Buxton requires Gordon to play centerfield, and the oft-injured Royce Lewis can’t step up at short, the Twins can always move Araiiz back to second, Polanco back to short, and Urshela and Miranda handling the corners.
Ugh, what a terrible infield. Doubly so when they only have about $11.50 on their payroll past 2023.
They need a middle infielder from outside the org to cover SS either forever or until Lewis proves he’s ready to take it over. They have a ton of good young infielding hitters, but very few should be trusted with 2b much less SS. Gordon and Polanco were pulled from short years ago, and both Polanco and Arraez have had injury problems and are no sure things away from DH/1B.