10:49am: Twins manager Rocco Baldelli confirmed the signing, tweets Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com. “We’re glad to have him in the organization and to give him an opportunity to go out there and pitch and show all the things that he’s been working on,” said Baldelli.
9:43am: The Twins have agreed to a minor league deal with left-hander Dallas Keuchel, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). The WME client has recently been working out with Driveline Baseball and, as Driveline director of pitching Chris Langin recently noted (Twitter thread), has restored some of the velocity on his heater and movement on his sinker and revamped sweeper. He’ll presumably wind up with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, though he might first require a tune-up at a lower-level affiliate.
The 35-year-old Keuchel’s past two seasons have been a nightmare, as the former AL Cy Young winner was shelled for a 6.35 ERA in 222 2/3 innings between the White Sox, D-backs and Rangers. That includes a particularly calamitous 2022 campaign in which he was tagged for 62 earned runs on a whopping 94 hits and 31 walks in just 60 2/3 frames. Keuchel’s fastball averaged a career-worst 87.8 mph in 2022, and his 10.2% walk rate was his highest since a 10.3% mark as a rookie way back in 2012.
That said, Keuchel had strong results back in 2020 (1.99 ERA in 63 1/3 innings) and from 2014-20 was a high-end starting pitcher for the Astros, Braves and White Sox. During that time, the lefty piled up 1126 1/3 innings of 3.25 ERA ball (3.55 FIP, 3.63 SIERA). Keuchel has long posted below-average strikeout rates but, at his best, will offset them with excellent command and one of the top ground-ball rates in the Majors. Opponents have averaged just an 87.4 mph exit velocity against him since Statcast began tracking it in 2015, and even in his recent disastrous seasons Keuchel was only slightly below average in terms of limiting hard contact.
Certainly, it’s beyond optimistic to expect Keuchel to recapture his 2015 Cy Young form. The Twins would likely be thrilled if the lefty were able to even emerge as a viable back-of-the-rotation starter or perhaps a multi-inning reliever. Langin notes that Keuchel has been sitting 89 mph with his fastball and 88.9 mph with his sinker in workouts — down slightly from peak levels but roughly in line with Keuchel’s 2016-19 seasons, when he posted a 3.77 ERA over 102 starts.
Fortunately for the Twins, they can look at Keuchel as a pure depth option rather than someone they’ll realistically need to turn to before long. Minnesota recently optioned fifth starter Louie Varland to Triple-A, but the expectation is that Kenta Maeda will be returning from the injured list in his place. Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober give the Twins a strong top four in their rotation anyhow, and the club is hoping for Chris Paddack to finish off his rehab from Tommy John surgery later this summer as well.
Keuchel will merely add to that stockpile of rotation options. If he looks to be in pre-2021 form in Triple-A, that’ll be a major bonus for the Twins, but if he continues to struggle as he has over the past two seasons, they can move on without feeling they’ve placed a major strain on their rotation depth.
He’s cooked.
He’s got his heater back up to 72 mph w some spin. Watch out for him
How desperate for pitching must the Twins be to sign Keuchel, who was dfa’d by the White Sox, Dbacks and Rangers last year? I know he’s a lefty, but he’s lost it in a big way.
How little you must know about baseball if you think the twins with a top 5 team era are desperate for pitching
Man of the Twins pitchers have frequented driveline the past couple years so if they heard something decent why wouldn’t it be worth taking a non roster flyer on the guy?
Driveline= burned out arm in 3 years
Then why sign a pitcher as bad as Keuchel? All three teams can’t be wrong.
I will say the videos that Driveline posted recently are promising. He’s averaging out at 88.9 MPH, which would be the fastest his sinker has averaged out at since 2018. Also looks like he’s added some more movement. Not saying I’d expect much, but he’s looked better so far in training.
Because he’s getting paid nothing and starting pitchers drop like flies every season. Is it really that difficult for you to understand? They’re not calling him up unless he shows something. Are you that worried about him ruining the St Paul Saints season?
Take a moment to do some research on driveline as you’ve obviously not heard of them
We all think that our teams could use some pitching help – and then you read this!!! Makes issues with our fav teams, look quite small.
I’ve heard of them. They helped Trevor Bauer learn the nuances of foreign substances. He’s currently getting shelled overseas. Same with Karinchak. He’s in triple A – as soon as MLB cracked
down he had nothing.
It’s the Second Coming of Jamie Moyer.
I’m actually surprised the Pirates didn’t sign him and aren’t starting him immediately. It’s the kind of signing that Pirates fans have come to expect
No gamble, whatsoever. It’s a minor league deal.
Start planning the parade.
I think you mean procession.
I figured he was retired ..by 30 teams.
Kaka Keuchel giving it one last push ?
This certainly is confusing…
Is Mad Bum next…?
At least he wasn’t getting lit up like a Christmas tree every time he got within 20 feet of a mound like Keuchel did last year
MadBum is done. Very poor performances and he has also gotten very grouchy with age. Today’s game is really irritating him and he may even show up at a ballpark and execute all the analytics guys and young showboating type players
I’d pay to see that, and baseball would benefit greatly.
Twins have plenty of starter depth. This could be intriguing if he is put in the pen. Twins are looking for lefties with Thielbar not staying healthy and Moran being overused.
I like it !
No risk sifting through the ash heap by Twins management to try to resurrect a once great career.. Best of luck, Dallas Keuchel, in your comeback attempt. It should be a good opportunity for young pitchers in the Twins farm system to pick the brain of a former Cy Young pitcher.
Absolutely worth taking the gamble. Worst case you’re out what amounts to a handful of peanuts for a ML club. Best case, he’s rediscovered something- and you can never have too many pitchers.
Why is a slider all of a sudden called a sweeper?
They’re not distinguishing the difference between a normal slider and a sweeping slider. Foolish Baseball does a good job of explaining it, if you want a better, more detailed explaination: youtube.com/watch?v=XwMot7JOjCI&pp=ygUYRm9vbG…
I believe the Sweeper is the Roundhouse Curveball of the 60’s
Why not? No major damage on a minor deal.
What’s the record for being released? Shelby Miller has been dropped four times and he is lights out this year.
I’m counting nine times for Ryan Weber. May be missing one or five releases
Unlike Dallas, Miller can top 89 MPH and has an effective nreaking ball.
Cards were just waiting in the wings to make this their deadline deal, now the season is ruined!!! What will we do Mo? “Oli, fire the ball boy and go kick Stuby in the Clap…I’m pissed”
He’s back up to 88-90 MPH, which is much closer to 2017-2019. Maybe he’s found a groove again. We shall see.
Dallas Keuchel, one of the luckiest baseball players ever … in more ways than one haha
He still has more Cy Young Awards than 99% of all MLB pitchers.
You didn’t get my little joke lol
As long as you amuse yourself, you will always have a captive audience.
Truer words have never been spoken
Miss Nash perhaps?
Miss Nash indeed. Rod Carew gets it.
KOOOOOCH!!!!!!
How am I gonna be an optimist about this? But if you close your eyes…
> “We’re glad to have him in the
> organization and to give him an
> opportunity to go out there and
> pitch and show all the things
> that he’s been working on,”
> said Baldelli.
Heya Coach, check this pitch out. I call it the “neck burner”, because you’re gonna burn yours watchin this pitch fly out of every park.
I also learned in the power of Hope. I no longer try to put spin on the ball or throw it hard. I throw it with hard thoughts of Hope. If you believe in Hope, that’s all that matters, and destiny will be yours.
jack trump
1.2 IP 8 hits 6 runs 1 BB 0 K.
> 1.2 IP 8 hits 6 runs 1 BB 0 K.
So you’re confirming that he has improved!
BATTER UP!
Twins hitters irritated they won’t have the opportunity to tee off on him like their opponents will. Oh well, the experiment won’t last very long any way.
How many nursing homes did they have to search to find this guy?!
Kelly Nash wants him out of the house.
I would bet by now, that have had enough of each other. But again, they deserve each other.
I would cringe in my seat when I watched him pitch for Sox, Sox could use him as batting practice now… Twinkies are desperate enough to sign him.
Even Kelly Nash has taken him deep, right in the giggy. Lol
Another 3 inning pitcher !
Smug, ugly cheater
Can someone in both Central divisions pull away from the pck to send all the bad teams into being sellers? The way things are now, we’re looking at losing teams who will be buyers because they can still win those two Central divisions.
Gotta respect the hell out of the guy for not giving up.
His strange wife must have been driving him up a wall and he needed to get out of the house.
Just needs a brief stint to get his 10 years service time & max out his pension. Then he can go ahead and retire w/o leaving $$ on the table.
He could show a bounce back. The Twins have a way of making low velocity arms successful. The 100mph heaters are getting all the hype, but if you can adjust speeds with 15 mph+ between off speed and fastballs it messes enough with the timing of hitters to be effective. I would not be surprised to see him have success with the Twins.