2:02PM: In an updated announcement, the Twins moved Lopez to the 15-day IL due to mental health reasons.
1:17PM: The Twins announced that right-hander Jorge Lopez has been placed on the team’s restricted list. Right-hander Jordan Balazovic has been called up from Triple-A to take Lopez’s spot on the active roster, as Balazovic will be looking to make his Major League debut.
As per league rules, Lopez won’t collect salary or Major League service time while he is on the restricted list. The circumstances behind Lopez’s placement aren’t yet known, so it is impossible to gauge how long the righty might be absent.
After posting uninspiring numbers for much of his career, Lopez suddenly caught fire early in the 2022 season, posting a 1.68 ERA and 19 saves over 48 1/3 innings with the Orioles. This performance earned Lopez his first All-Star selection, but even though the O’s were still in the playoff race at the deadline, they chose to sell high on Lopez by swapping him to Minnesota for a package of four pitching prospects. That deal is already looking like a win for Baltimore since one of the four pitchers was Yennier Cano, who is looking like an All-Star this year after a superb first half.
The magic seemed to wear off for Lopez after the trade, as he posted only a 4.37 ERA in 22 2/3 innings for the Twins over the remainder of the 2022 season. Those struggles have carried into this season, as Lopez has a 5.00 ERA over 27 innings. Apart from an 8.1% walk rate that is slightly above the league average, there isn’t much to like about Lopez’s Statcast metrics, as he is allowing a ton of hard contact and his strikeout rate has dropped considerably from 2022. The right-hander’s old problems with home runs have resurfaced, as he allowed six homers over his 27 frames.
Lopez has been a weak link in an otherwise pretty solid Twins bullpen, but Balazovic will now get an opportunity to show what he can do at the MLB level. A fifth-round pick for the Twins in the 2016 draft, he emerged on the top-100 prospect radar prior to the 2020-22 seasons, but he battled some injuries last season and was struggled badly in his first stint at Triple-A.
After posting a 7.39 ERA over 70 2/3 innings with Triple-A St. Paul last year, Balazovic has performed better this year, though a 4.79 ERA isn’t exactly eye-popping. His 35 2/3 innings have consisted of 11 relief appearances and three starts (after working mostly as a starter throughout his career), and Balazovic has a strong 31.1% strikeout rate but also a high 13% walk rate. Just before Spring Training this year, Balazovic was also involved in an off-field incident that resulted in surgery for a broken jaw, as he claimed to have been sucker-punched by an unknown person.
It remains to be seen how long Balazovic might last in Minnesota’s bullpen, as regardless of performance, he might be sent back to Triple-A if Lopez is on the restricted list for only a brief period of time. Still, Balazovic has potential as a multi-inning reliever for now, and possibly still as a starter down the road.
In other Twins transactions from earlier today, the club activated Gilberto Celestino from the 60-day injured list and optioned the outfielder to Triple-A. Celestino has yet to play in the majors this season after undergoing thumb surgery in early March, as he had to first rehab his injury and then make up for his lost month of Spring Training. Celestino has played nine minor league games to date, and he’ll now get a longer stint at Triple-A to ramp up and be ready if the Twins call him back to the Show.
To accommodate Celestino’s return to the 40-man roster, the Twins moved Jorge Alcala to the 60-day injured list. Alcala went on the 15-day IL in mid-May due to a stress fracture to the radius bone in his right forearm, and since it isn’t known when he might return, the 60-day placement seemed inevitable.
I’m anxious for this story to be updated.
Twins Twitter only mentioned the recall. Cryptic.
ah, nvm, just took em a min.
An affair probably
What a wild assumption…
It’s good they actually moved him to the IL and not the restricted list. Thought he got Bauered, but I was wrong apparently
He has a son who has had rare diseases. But yeah, it’s probably an affair.
I’m not saying he’s in the wrong – just that he’s probably getting screwed over here
@deGrom maybe if you play your cards right.
Hopefully this isn’t about the health of his son.
Best wishes to Jorge Lopez for a quick and complete recovery.
Boy how badly did Twins front office mess up last year with deadline deals? Mahle and Lopez! I was in this year on them dealing Arraez but that isn’t looking great now but those two deals last summer are really showing terrible for the Twins and what they gave up then failed to make playoffs anyway. If anyone really wants the Central division please come take it so the Twins can clean out front office and let Baldelli and their hitting coach as well go.
Agreed. They must be wishing they could take those two trades back. And probably the Correa signing as well.
Yeah, and the O’s got Yennier Cano in the Lopez deal.
you should have see. Cano pitch last year….he was just a throw in. lucky improvement….only been 3.months….and he’s 30….
So? 30 isn’t that old for a reliever and Baltimore obviously fixed him, much like Seattle fixed Sewald. Sure doesn’t seem like lucky improvement either since his statcast page is off the charts. His changeup is unhittable now.
your first reply made it sound like it was a coup…it was a happy accident…again…Cano was a throw in…the Twins needed to roster spot at the time…watch the tape….
wjf010;
Felix Bautista was another “happy accident” for the Orioles.
Ryan O’Hearn and Aaron Hicks are becoming “happy accidents” as well.
– – – –
O’Hearn with the Orioles:
.349 / .389 / .614 / 1.003
Hicks with the Orioles:
.327 / .441 / .551 / .992
– – – –
“Luck is the residue of design.”
– Branch Rickey
happy accident or “baltimore has better pitching coaching/development than the twins”
phantomofdb;
The Twins trade for pitchers. Slowly they deteriorate.
They don’t develop many.
P.S. Orioles also love Danny Coulombe.
I never suggested he wasn’t a throw-in. If anything, him being that piece was essentially my point. He was the least heralded player, yet he has inarguably outperformed Lopez this year and now seems fixed. I have no idea how the other 3 prospects will turn out or if they are even doing well, but Baltimore got 4 players and Minnesota got 1, and the least exciting of the 4 players Baltimore received is having a better year than the player considered to have the most trade value in that deal. I do think how well Cano has performed, coupled with the fact that Lopez has been awful in Minnesota makes it a coup thus far.
Cade Povich was the centerpiece. He’s a big leaguer at some point. Ceiling looks like a mid rotation starter.
Huge w for the O’s. The other 2 are lotto tickets. I don’t expect much out of them. Don’t need to be with the return we’ve Gotten already.
They completely had him change his mechanics and lock into one arm slot… But its all a flash in the pan.
How do the twinkies fans justify selling off danny coulombe for cash?
Why is it a flash in the pan? You acknowledge the mechanical change Baltimore had him make; that mechanical change has led to him having a nearly unhittable changeup. Why is that not repeatable? Look at his statcast page. He’s a top 10 RP in the MLB. People said Sewald was a flash in the pan but the M’s made him into a near-elite reliever 2.5 years running.
I’m making fun of phantoms comment. I am on your side of this.
I was clearly being facetious
My mistake. I suppose the elipses suggest that, but seeing as so many people still don’t buy Cano’s emergence, it wouldn’t at all shock me if another poster legitimately feels this way despite the known mechanical changes.
So? 30 isn’t that old for a reliever and Baltimore obviously fixed him, much like Seattle fixed Sewald. Sure doesn’t seem like lucky improvement either since his statcast page is off the charts. His changeup is unhittable now.
Steer would look pretty good in the Twins lineup right now. Today down in the 8th bases loaded, Farmer,Gallo and Buxton go down, couldn’t even get a sac fly. Buxton looks horrible. I wasnt in on the Correa signing at all based moreso on who was coming up shortly at the time from the minors. Terrible decisions by front office.
Some may say it’s a string of bad luck, but when every step you take is into a big pile of crap, maybe time for personnel changes. The AL Central has never been more winnable, and so far the Twins aren’t doing much to prove they deserve to be in first place.
Dang, hope Jorge is okay. Weird that there was such an odd reversal here, I wonder if the PA threatened a grievance if he was not getting service time.
Either Minnesota got a quick call from the MLBPA, or they realized on their own the terrible optics of not paying a guy with a mental rather than a physical ailment.
Not only don’t restricted players get paid, but they don’t take up a spot on the 40 man roster.
How many articles can we create to show the incompetence of this franchise?
Every single article goes something like..
– Twins trade 3 nobodies for newly discovered all-star with sparkling stats for the firat time in their career.
– former newly acquired all-star hits some bad luck and is injured after mysteriously regressing from all-star levels to well below replacement level.
– former nobodies from the minor leagues have all-star renaissance with new team for the first time ever – not resembling anything of their entire career with the twins thus far.
– twins’s 4 top prospects who were all drafted in the top 5 overall and make up our teams core and are now 30 are in a deep funk for the past 3 months – which our coaches have full faith in them turning it around – even though they have yet to do so in the 8 years they’ve been in the big leagues.
– said struggling core of 4 players are still owed 5 years and $1,600,500,050
– starting pitcher really stretched out going 4 2/3 innings in today’s ball game – and may need an extra 2 days of rest.
– etc, etc, etc
At the very least – at least I can say I haven’t wasted time watyching them due to tv being limited to one provider which I don’t have and don’t plan switching to. What a sorry franchise.
The orioles and twins could swap Jorge Lopez for Mychal Givens. Thx for Cano and Povich.
Cheap: 3+ mil. Maybe he’s in an intense deep emotional funk that is not gonna resolve itself short term? Twins are playoff relevant. All hands on deck needed both physically and emotionally to continue to contend. Do they cut ties?
More likely is unfortunately that it has to do with his child, who has some pretty nasty impairments.
Seems likely they are trying to get him paid while he deals with a pressing family matter.
I hope Jorge and his family find the best solution to whatever it is that is affecting his mental health. He was a super down to earth guy with the Orioles and the story about his son’s illness is heartbreaking. That being said, the Orioles have absolutely fleeced the Twins organizational pitching in the past few years. It started with the Rule V coup of picking up Tyler Wells, who they have molded into what could be a top of the rotation star. Last year’s trade deadline deal that sent Lopez off to Minnesota netted us a filthy set up guy (Cano) and a quality rising starter (Povich) plus two Lotto tickets on guys named Juan. This year, we picked up Coulombe off waivers and he’s been lights out. Elias and Mejdal are fantastic in our front office, no doubt, but wowzers is the Minnesota front office that bad or what?
Life throws some curveballs at everyone and I hope we all do not rush to judge. Since the pandemic started this is not the easiest time in human history.
Here is to hoping the time off helps him. I also think sports psychologists can make a huge difference. Players like John Shmoltz had some great success from this type of support.
I also sense our coaching staff needs to relook their approach. A good coaching staff seems to be a better investment than high priced free agents when you look at Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and even Cincinnati. They seem to unlock more with the talent they have. I like that we are going after premium talent but I think our coaching staff has some big holes in their approach.
On a positive note. I am very excited to see Jordan B. and it would be fun to see us use him as a bullpen piece as we did with Johan Duran. I think he will succeed in this role.
It’s time to give up on the Joey Gallo rehabilitation project. He’s a .200 hitter with a ton of strikeouts and always will be. Watching him whiff three times with the bases loaded and one out against Detroit should be the last straw. Time for a DFA and eat the balance of that misguided contract. We don’t need a Dave Kingman wannabe on the roster. Also, it’s time for the front office to try some tough love on Buxton. Give him the Miguel Sano treatment and send him to the Saints for a few weeks until he can figure out his swing. He’s looked lost at the plate for weeks now. Let him eat some humble pie and earn his way back. I suspect he will feast on AAA pitching and come back better. It’s worth a try. Bottom line: The Twins have hitters available (Larnach, Solano, Wallner, Farmer and even Castro) who are sitting on the bench as just rotational players who should actually be playing every day since they can hit for average. The pitching is fine. Time to swap out some of the dead weight in the batting order.