The Twins signed veteran right-hander Adam Plutko to a minor league contract, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The CAA client will presumably head to Triple-A St. Paul once he’s built up, but he wasn’t with a team in spring training and could thus need some work at the team’s spring complex before joining an affiliate.
The 32-year-old Plutko spent the past two seasons pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization — for the LG Twins, coincidentally — and pitched quite well overseas. Through 285 1/3 innings out of LG’s rotation, he worked to a 2.40 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate, a 6% walk rate and a 46.5% ground-ball rate.
Prior to that run in the KBO, Plutko pitched in parts of five big league seasons between Cleveland and Baltimore, logging a 5.39 ERA in 273 2/3 innings while pitching both out of the rotation and in a long relief role. He’s fanned 17% of his big league opponents against a 7.2% walk rate. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey worked in Cleveland’s front office from the time Plutko was drafted in 2013 until his eventual hiring in Minnesota following the 2016 season, so he should be quite familiar with Plutko.
Plutko gives the Twins some low-cost depth at a time when they’ve already seen their rotation thinned out. Righty Anthony DeSclafani underwent season-ending flexor surgery before Opening Day, and young right-hander Louie Varland struggled in his initial rotation look after showing promise in his first 22 MLB appearances in 2022-23.
Rookie Simeon Woods Richardson has stepped into the rotation and pitched well in three starts, but Minnesota’s options behind Woods Richardson and Varland aren’t plentiful. Left-hander Brent Headrick is on the 60-day injured list in the minors due to a forearm strain. Top prospect David Festa has pitched to a 2.18 ERA in Triple-A, but he’s also posted a 14.8% walk rate and has all of 33 career innings north of the Double-A level. Right-hander Randy Dobnak has an ERA just shy of 6.00 through his first six appearances of the season. Plutko doesn’t have a great big league track record, but he’ll add a needed depth option that’s had some recent success overseas.
I’ll never forget you, Adam Plutko. You have a weird last name combining a planet and a technical knockout, so you must be cool. You were also a beacon of relief for the first few months of the rebuilding 2021 O’s before you turned back into a pumpkin with a cool last name.
You heard about Pluto? It’s messed up right?
Bonkers! Pluto got the TKO!
Nice to see Simeon Woods Richardson doing well. That trade could well be one of those deals where both teams get what they wanted.
SWR could be developing into a solid young controllable upper rotation arm, while Austin Martin seems like he could be a useful utilty player.
And the Jays got a reliable upper rotation veteran starter in Berrios, who they extended and have long term.
Yeah but it took 3 years to get some production out of the Twins side of the deal. Should have signed Berrios he’s a gamer and still young.
But that’s the point of a trade like that. One team gets immediate value, the other gets future value. The Twins were not willing to sign Berrios, or he expressed no interest in signing with them, so the trade was the best option.
Good add for the Twins. They desperately need some more insurance 5th starter options.
We’re going to need another solid SP if we hope to even GET to the playoffs. Twins are one injury in their rotation away from bringing up someone like Dobnak lol!
I’d hope we could give a guy like Festa a look before Dobnak gets brought back up. Dobnak has solidified himself as a career AAA starter.
Surprised it took this long for Plutko to get a minor league contract. MLB organizations are usually eager to sign pitchers who pitched well in the KBO to minor league deals when they return stateside.