The Twins activated Alex Kirilloff from the 10-day injured list, but he won’t be joining the big league roster for his 2023 debut. Instead, Minnesota has optioned Kirilloff to Triple-A, where he will continue to play after already spending over a week in St. Paul as part of a minor league rehab assignment.
There was speculation last weekend that the Twins might take this route with Kirilloff, as the club’s hand was somewhat forced by the fact that Kirilloff was nearing the end of this allotted 20-day rehab period. Kiriloff has played in 11 games (seven at Triple-A, four in A-ball) during his rehab assignment, and at least performance-wise, he appears to be in good form — the outfielder/first baseman is hitting .316/.447/.658 over 47 total appearances. However, it was already known that Kirilloff didn’t have anything left to prove in the minors, given the strong numbers he has posted throughout his minor league career and his past status as one of baseball’s top prospects.
Kirilloff made his MLB debut in 2021, but his first two Major League seasons have come to an early end due to wrist surgeries. Kirilloff’s most recent procedure took place last August, and was described by The Athletic’s Dan Hayes as a “drastic” and “complex” surgery meant to fully correct the lingering wrist issues. As a result, the Twins took things slowly with Kirilloff in the offseason and throughout Spring Training as he recovered, and Kirilloff ended up not playing in any spring games.
With this in mind, the Twins likely want to see Kirilloff get at least a little closer to a Spring Training-esque workload before he makes his return to the majors. After a string of injuries earlier in the season, Minnesota is also now getting pretty close to full roster strength on the position player side, so there might be more benefit to Kirilloff getting regular at-bats in St. Paul rather than playing in a part-time basis with the Twins.
I am surprised they didn’t put him on the MLB roster. But I am not a Twins fan and don’t know the team as well as them. Twins fans Larnach or Kirilloff?
Kirilloff, but I can understand why they didn’t send Larnach down and Kirilloff up. Larnach is one of the top 4-5 hitters on the team this year.
Taking Larnach. The shiny prospect status of Kirilloff has worn off with all the wrist problems. We have no reason to doubt Larnach won’t live up to his top 100 prospect status. He’s been slightly above average hitter in the small sample size so far.
Kirilloff deserves to be in the majors but Larnach has been showing improvement against breaking pitches (his weakness) and with Buxton DH-ing instead of playing CF, there’s no room for him. He’s also only playing every other day in the minors right now, according to Aaron Gleeman.
This is the same as any injury prone player. No need to rush him back to the majors. You do that and the next thing you know back to injured list. Let him play for a couple of weeks to see if he can stay healthy.
Do you really think an injury prone player is less likely to be hurt in a minor league game?
If so, why? Last I checked, he’ll still be playing baseball in MLB or in AAA…
Frankly, if anything, he’s more likely to get hurt on a poorly kept MiLB field compared to a major league field
BeforeMcCourt but if he gets injured in minors he isn’t accruing service time
And more than likely riding the bench. At least in the minors (regardless of injury), at least he gets some AB’s
Why would any team have “poorly kept” fields, especially at AAA? Yes, they probably don’t have the sheer number of grounds keepers, but its hardly like playing on the local schoolyard ball diamond. It is professionally maintained.
He could end up being one of those hitters this year like Marsh or Outman fantasy owners look out! (As long as his wrist holds up)
It would b great to see. I’m very skeptical tho. This will b year 3 of him getting a shot in MLB and he looks thoroughly outmatched against MLB caliber pitching. He constantly seems to b behind pitches.
He was league average his rookie season, that’s hardly “thoroughly outmatched”. If he can stay healthy, he’ll be fine.
Kirilloff was only league average his first year because that’s when his wrist problems first started.
@Sky a .251 avg and 8 HRs is not league avg for a natural 1B whose a minus defender when forced to play OF. And yes he had little spurts of productivity but more often than not went through stretches of being outmatched.
Tigers, many would say he looked that way due to the wrist problems. Imo regardless of the injury issues he still looks outmatched. If you’re always injured then injury can’t be an excuse for poor performance
@ tiger3232
Buy the vowel.
With good health and that beautiful swing… oh, please, baseball gods,give Alex a fair shake this time.
Doesn’t matter how beautiful a swing is if u r missing the ball or timing is off. Yes, him staying healthy might have prevented him getting into any sort of rhythm, but in the 2 seasons he has played at MLB level quite a few other prospects have adjusted and succeeded.
Can he play SS?
He is naturally a 1B who can barely play OF. So I’d say no he can’t play SS
Interesting to me that they’re willing to burn an option year for him right from the get go. He’s got under 2 years of service time and 1 option remaining at age 25. That could be a problem in a couple years of he’s out of options and they need roster flexibility.
Its really not a problem. If he works out, they won’t want to send him out. If he doesn’t work out, they will want to give someone else a shot, so it works out, much like Sano.
I was worried about that too. He’s using up his last option right now. The only way he doesn’t is if he spends less than 20 days in the minors (rehab doesn’t count). It’s easily possible that someone gets injured this month and then anything can happen.
Kirloff should have to prove himself in AAA. When/if he does, then bring him up. Same goes for Kenta Maeda