The Twins announced that right-hander Jhoan Duran has been reinstated from the injured list, as had been reported on earlier this week. In a corresponding move, right-hander Matt Bowman has been designated for assignment.
Bowman, 33 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Twins in the offseason. He was added to the 40-man roster just over two weeks ago, after throwing six scoreless frames in Triple-A, and has since pitched 7 2/3 innings over five appearances in the majors.
He only allowed two earned runs in that time, which is why his earned run average looks nice right now at 2.35. However, the underlying metrics have been less impressive. He has six strikeouts and four walks, leading to respective rates of 19.4% and 12.9% thus far. His 57.9% ground ball rate is strong but he wasn’t going to maintain a .056 batting average on balls in play nor a 90.9% strand rate. That’s why his 5.64 FIP and 4.38 SIERA are much higher than his ERA in this small sample.
Since Bowman is out of options, the Twins had to remove him from the 40-man roster entirely in order to open an active roster spot for Duran. They will now have one week to trade Bowman or pass him through waivers. If the latter scenario were to come to pass, he has over three years of service time, giving him the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency instead. However, he doesn’t have five years of service, meaning he would have to forfeit the remainder of this $925K salary to return to the open market.
Elbow injuries, including Tommy John surgery, prevented Bowman from pitching in official game action from 2020 to 2022. He was able to return to the mound last year, tossing 58 2/3 innings for the Triple-A club of the Yankees with a 3.99 ERA. He struck out 22.6% of batters faced in that time while giving out walks at an 11.7% rate and getting grounders at an 51.9% clip. He also tossed four innings for the Yanks in the majors but was outrighted after the season, which allowed him to sign with the Twins.
What’s his assignment?
Free to a good home. Kidding on that of course, but lots being left out with regards to this guy last few days on this site. Something has been going on behind the scenes regarding him.
Team doesn’t just DFA a cheaply controlled, 26yo closer, who happens to dominate 2y straight, sit 100+mph, coming back from injury (now) or not who still has an option year.
no.. there has to be at least 1 serious wart with this guy. Twins fans might know, some hardcore fans of theirs.
Was wondering the same thing.. makes no sense to DFA this guy.
Who, Bowman? Are people reading this way different than I am?
Matt Bowman is a 4A reliever ever since Mike Matheny destroyed his arm from 2016-2017. He had bad peripheral numbers that were prime for regression
I watched the guy this year. Great break on his stuff. I think it just comes down to this – our bullpen is stacked. Justin Topa is due to finish rehab soon too.
Sure they do, it’s the entire point of the 40 man roster. The Twins used him to cover a short term need brought on when several of their MLB-ready relievers went on the DL at the same time. Instead of bringing up someone who was not ready they added a throw-away guy who they could try to pass back through waivers rather than risk losing someone younger they care about, like Festa for example.
Also, Bowman is not the guy you’re describing, which is why he was freely available last winter. He could definitely be an improvement for a lot of bad bullpens, so I expect he’ll be grabbed (Hello Chicago!) but better him than one of the youngsters they don’t want to start the clock on.
You do realize they are DFA-ing Bowman, not Duran, right?
I feel like Duran coming back is the bigger news for the headline.
I believe that’s called “Burying the lede.”
Man poor Matt Bomer………oh wait
Yankees have their Tonkin replacement.