The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who triggered an opt-out in his minor league deal two days ago. In order open space for him on their roster, right-hander Joe Ryan has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left groin strain while righty José De León will be transferred to the 60-day IL.
Keuchel, 35, is looking to bounce back from a rough stretch in the big leagues in the previous two years. After close to a decade of effective pitching, including a Cy Young-winning season in 2015, the lefty allowed 6.35 earned runs per nine innings over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He started that time period with the White Sox but bounced to the Diamondbacks and Rangers last year, with each club trying unsuccessfully to get him back to his previous form.
The Twins signed him to a minor league in June of this year, at which time it was reported that he had done some work with Driveline Baseball to restore some velocity and movement to his pitches. The early results of that have been encouraging, as he made six Triple-A starts lately with a 1.13 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 61.5% ground ball rate.
He had a couple of opt-outs on that minor league deal, the first of which was about two weeks ago. He skipped that first chance, likely due to the fact that his second chance would be on trade deadline day, when new opportunities might emerge. He triggered that second opt-out on Tuesday, giving the Twins 48 hours to either select his contract or release him back to free agency.
There were arguments to both sides of the choice. On the one hand, Keuchel had previously shown literal Cy Young upside and was again posting encouraging results. On the other hand, his recent improved form was a small sample in the minors and it’s been quite a while since he was effective at the major league level. Plus, the Twins had a strong group of five starters in Ryan, Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Pablo López and Bailey Ober. But it now seems Keuchel will get his shot after all, with Ryan now going on the IL.
It’s unclear exactly when Ryan suffered his injury but his results have been getting worse as the season has gone along. His ERA was sitting at 2.98 after a complete game shutout against the Red Sox on June 22. Since then, however, he’s allowed 31 earned runs in 32 1/3 innings, bringing his season ERA to 4.43.
It hasn’t been reported how long Ryan is expected to be out, but it seems Keuchel will take his spot in the rotation for at least a couple of turns. The southpaw will try to revive his reputation as a viable major league starter while the Twins try to hold onto the lead in the American League Central. They just barely have a winning record at 55-54 but that’s still good enough for a two-game cushion in the division.
De León required Tommy John surgery in June, so this transfer was an inevitable formality. He’ll be out for the rest of this year and at least the first half of next year as well.
“Ok ok, we’ll bring you up the majors; don’t cry. Joe Ryan, we’ll give you a fake injury for a couple weeks.”
Giving Joe Ryan a “fake” injury would not benefit the Twins when they are in the middle of a pennant race.
When every other team in that division was selling at the deadline, they’ll be fine.
I like your profile name. Seinfeld was a great show.
Idk, a 6.20 ERA since the start of June might argue otherwise.
It cost certainly should benefit the team. I live in MN and watch every game. Joe’s been in a real bad place lately.
Dallas spells “desperation”
The best thing this guy has thrown is a lousy birthday party.
that, and a 1.13 era in the minors this year.
Joe Ryan on that phantom IL
I hope Twins have figured out why Ryan has pitched so bad lately.
Giddy Up!
I was there last night. Ryan was struggling from the first pitch. Each home run it just seemed like he was here you go hit this a mile I do not care. There just seemed to be something different on those pitches. I mean he did strike out Goldschmidt and Arenado in the same inning. So he obviously has some talent. But those pitches he gave up the homers with it was just weird.
If Ryan is healthy, the Cubs probably would be happy to trade Stroman and Smyly to the Twins, for Ryan. That way the Twins could avoid the embarrassment of trotting out Keuchel.
Can’t trade, deadline has passed.
Twins reporters said that Ryan first strained his groin in Atlanta on June 27th and was trying to treat it on his own. He’s had an 8.63 ERA since that date.
Yeah, Joe needs to take a break and get fully healthy. He has an 8.63 ERA and has given up a Twins-record 17 bombs over those last 7 starts. I’m confident that Dallas K. can put up numbers that good or even slightly better for a couple of weeks in the meantime.
So they kept him after all. I don’t understand why the Mets didn’t select Luke Voit after he’s been mashing in Syracuse.
True that fellas. Let’s burn one for Dallas.
I hope Keuchel tosses a complete game shut out in his first game back then terrorizes every other team along the way the rest of the year to claim the 2023 American League Cy Young Award.
It’s good to give Ryan some time to heal the pulled groin from late June. Without rest and recovery it can be a nagging injury and definitely would affect a pitcher. I have had that injury and it took a month to be somewhat close to full strength.
Dallas K. I think will have some success this year. He did a lot of off-season work on his mechanics and I suspect he will induce a lot of soft contact. I bet his ERA will be around 3.50 at year end. You heard it here first.
C’mon MLBTR, please give me the update on DK’s service time? I know he’s like 2 months away from 10 years. If he finishes out the season on the Twins’ roster, will he get the fully vested pension?
He currently needs 52 days of service time to qualify for a 230k max pension at age 62.
Thanks. Then he will almost certainly get it.