The Twins announced that they have claimed right-hander Ryan Jensen from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment two weeks ago. DFA limbo normally only lasts a week but the clock is paused for the week from Christmas to New Year’s Day. Minnesota’s 40-man roster count is now at 38.
Jensen, 26, now joins his fourth organization, though he still hasn’t made his major league debut. He was drafted by the Cubs with a first-round pick, 27th overall, in 2019. As he climbed the minor league ladder, he posted some mediocre results, largely due to control issues. The Cubs nonetheless added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2022 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. His struggles continued in 2023, which put him into the waiver carousel. Between August and today, he has gone to the Mariners, Marlins and now Twins via waiver claims from each club.
He was moved from the rotation to the bullpen this year, which didn’t lead to immediate results. He started the year in the Double-A rotation in the Cubs’ system, got moved to the bullpen and then bumped up to Triple-A. He posted an earned run average of 5.06 at that level between the Cubs and Mariners, walking 20.1% of batters faced in the process. He has walked 14.5% of batters faced in his minor league career overall.
For the Twins, they had a few open roster spots and will take a flier on the former first-round pick to see if they can help him harness his stuff. Despite the free passes, he’s also struck out a strong 25.9% of batters faced in his minor league career overall. He still has a couple of options remaining and can be kept in the minors until he shows some progress.
What burner do u use on the stove for waiver claims ?
It’s the broiler on low setting with the rack too low
This is akin to one of those little USB-powered hot plates you plug into your computer and use to keep your coffee cup warm.
What did the Twins claim he did, something fishy?
they claim he knows where his pitches are going, well see if they actually find any truth to that, though
Did this guy ever have the chance to put on a Marlins uniform?
Crazy how fast they have already moved on from Buxton (the Buxton DH experiment was an abject failure, by the way- essentially the lowest value of his entire career, and much much lower than 2021 and 2022).
They moved on from Buxton? Last I checked, he was still on the roster.
They idiotically made him a DH and basically destroyed all of his value.
Twins obviously did that to upset people like you because it’s fun, not because his surgery did not correct his knee issue as they’d hoped and he wasn’t even close to 100% at any point last year. Get a grip
I’m not sure what his value has to do with anything when the Twins are trying everything to keep him healthy and playing for them, and he’s already gotten a good contract.
Hmmmm…playing CF and only being able to play half the season if he’s lucky or DHing and being able to be in the lineup for a lot more games to help the Twins win? Hmmmm…what should they do? Yeah, having him in the lineup for 120+ games instead of half a season is certainly destroying his value to them.
The Twins most definitely have not moved on from Buxton. He DH’d the whole season because of his sore knee.
Can’t see anything to get excited about with Jensen as-is. Two teams DFA’ing him when he still had options speaks volumes.
every year guys get protected from the rule V, and so every year guys go around on waivers who were good enough to be added but then maybe hit a roadblock the following season. if he can figure out his control, he is a former first rounder for a reason, hes had huge K numbers in the minors and he could work out to be a swing option, starter or reliever. the control issues leave him as decidedly not major league ready, so roster squeezes (multiple now) have forced him out but the potential is also pretty clear to see. any team who is able to sneak him through outright waivers would be lucky.
His upside is pre-arb middle reliever from what I see.
I don’t feel it’s reasonable to project K rate staying the same while BB rate dropping. Especially when the BB rate is so rough in MiLB. Typically, when you see high K and BB rates in the minors, the pitcher is getting inexperienced and aggressive hitters to swing at pitches well outside the zone. As the pitcher reigns in their pitches to be more concentrated at throwing strikes, walks do drop, but hitters tee off and K rates decline. The best outcome is usually identifying pitches which don’t play and eliminating them from the repertoire allowing the pitcher to focus on a couple pitches which are good. Sometimes that leads to guy being just good enough to have a few year career eating middle innings.
Very underwhelming off season from the Twins Front Office.. Late December signing of the underwhelming reliever, Josh Staumont, and now this. Nothing else. At least the team is saving money for the Pohlads this season.
Expect a trade or 3 in the next few weeks. We knew from the outset that they weren’t going to be huge players in free agency.
Welcome to my world. Cubs’ Hoyer still hasn’t gotten off the couch!
They have to do something, their rotation would be a joke if they don’t. I think the TV contract is holding up any spending.
Nice to see Chef Jenny find a new home and new teammates to enjoy his cuisine
Twins need at least one starter and one solid bp piece if we’re going to compete…
I’ll be criticized, rightfully so, I suppose, but I don’t mind this one because they had the open 40 man spots for now, at least-
That said, however, WHY ON EARTH do Falvey/Levine utterly REFUSE to sign any quality middle relievers!? They’ve been at this for a decade-they’ll sign Correa for $30m plus as a small/mid market venue, the one position they were stacked with in terms of prospects, they’ll sign Gallo for $13m-they will not sign two quality veteran relievers that aren’t over the hill, makes no sense. Odd individuals, just saying.
We need pitching more than anything. At least a 2-3 starter to replace Sonny Grey. And what have we done so far? Absolutely nothing. I’d like to see a one or two year deal for Stroman, or trade for Luzardo from the Fish. Maybe give them Polanco and Brooks Lee for him and a lottery ticket…