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Twins Haven’t Recently “Initiated” Extension Talks With Jose Berrios

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Though the Twins are getting some notable reinforcements back from the injured list in the coming days, the 26-39 club has a big hill to climb to even approach the postseason race.  With this in mind, speculation has swirled around the Twins as a trade deadline seller, and Jose Berrios stands out as a major potential trade chip depending on how big of a reload Minnesota wishes to make.

Berrios has one final year of arbitration eligibility remaining before hitting free agency in the 2022-23 offseason.  As to whether or not his time in Minnesota could continue beyond the 2022 season, SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson reports (Twitter link) that the Twins haven’t “initiated any talks in recent weeks” with Berrios’ representatives at Wasserman about a potential contract extension.  Of course, this might not be that surprising a detail considering that most players prefer to not discuss contractual matters in-season.

If such extension talks did place, it would seem that the Twins would be making such overtures as something of a last-ditch effort to lock up Berrios, and if a deal couldn’t be reached, the club would be more open to moving him prior to the July 30 trade deadline.  The issue with that scenario, however, is that Minnesota isn’t under any immediate pressure to make a decision on Berrios’ future, since he is still under contract through 2022.  The Twins could wait until the offseason to shop Berrios to a wider market of interested teams, or they could take the time to revisit extension talks heading into their final year of control over Berrios.

Even if neither a trade or an extension is worked out, it wouldn’t be out of the question that the Twins would just keep Berrios in the fold for 2022.  Despite this season’s struggles, it would seem like Minnesota is still planning to regroup and make another run at contention next year, so Berrios has plenty of value in the Twins’ own rotation going forward.

The 27-year-old Berrios is having another solid season, with a 3.49 ERA/3.61 SIERA and an above-average strikeout rate (26%) and walk rate (6.4%) over 77 1/3 innings.  The overall Statcast metrics aren’t quite as positive, as Berrios’ xwOBA and hard-hit ball numbers have been subpar for the second consecutive season, but the righty has continued to be a durable and effective arm in the front end of Minnesota’s rotation.

Back in March 2019, Berrios said the Twins had made him an extension offer that he declined, though he was open to more negotiations.  “We’re waiting for the best for both sides. If it doesn’t happen this year, maybe next year,” Berrios said.  Rather than a contract extension, the two sides went to a hearing the next spring to determine Berrios’ salary for his first arb-eligibility, with the Twins winning the hearing and paying Berrios $4.025MM rather than his desired $4.4MM figure.  This past winter, the two sides reached a deal to avoid arbitration, with Berrios receiving a $6.1MM salary for the 2021 season.

Even with another raise in his final arb year, Berrios is still a very affordable option for any team looking for rotation help, which only elevates his trade value.  The Twins could be hard-pressed to decline if another club makes a truly spectacular trade offer for Berrios, despite his importance to the 2022 team.  Michael Pineda, J.A. Happ, and Matt Shoemaker are all scheduled to be free agents this winter, so moving Berrios would create another hole for the Twins to address in their starting staff.

Twins Notes: Maeda, Pineda, Buxton, Arraez, Kepler

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The Twins have been plagued by injuries in recent weeks, but they’re on the verge of getting several key players back. Right-hander Kenta Maeda will be activated from the injured list to start tomorrow night’s game against the Mariners, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Dan Hayes of the Athletic). He hasn’t pitched since May 22, when he went on the IL due to a groin strain.

It’s been a difficult season for Maeda, last year’s AL Cy Young award runner-up. The 33-year-old has managed just a 5.27 ERA over his first nine starts. Maeda’s strikeout rate has fallen from an elite 32.3% in 2020 to a below-average 20.5% this season. He’s also seen rather significant drops in his swinging strike and groundball rates, with opposing hitters making much harder contact off him.

Those struggles aside, the Twins will assuredly be happy to get their Opening Day starter back on the mound. Minnesota’s assortment of back-end starters (Matt Shoemaker, J.A. Happ, Randy Dobnak, Bailey Ober) have struggled to varying degrees, perhaps the biggest reason for the team’s horrible 26-39 start. Making matters worse, righty Michael Pineda is day-to-day after leaving this afternoon’s start with right forearm tightness (notes Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). Baldelli suggested Pineda could require an IL stint of his own (via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com).

While the rotation has been a massive disappointment, the Twins also haven’t been helped by a series of injuries to some of their top position players. Byron Buxton was off to an MVP-level start, but he went down with a right hip strain on May 7. Buxton has been on the IL for the past five weeks, but Baldelli said the star center fielder will accompany the team to Seattle (via Park). The same is true of utilityman Luis Arráez, who’s been out since May 26 with a right shoulder strain.

Buxton and Arráez have been on rehab assignments at Triple-A St. Paul, but they’re evidently nearing a return to the majors. They should be followed in relatively short order by Max Kepler. The 28-year-old outfielder began a rehab assignment of his own today, serving as the designated hitter in St. Paul. Kepler put up a .212/.303/.424 line in 152 plate appearances this season before straining his left hamstring.

Kyle Garlick Has Sports Hernia

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  • It appears the Twins will go without outfielder Kyle Garlick for the foreseeable future, as they announced that he’s going to the IL with a sports hernia. Minnesota is already without fellow outfielders Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Luis Arraez and Jake Cave, who have all been on the shelf since May. The Twins recalled outfielder Gilberto Celestino to replace Garlick, who’s off to a .232/.280/.465 start with five home runs in 107 PA.

Juan Minaya Accepts Outright Assignment

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  • Righty Juan Minaya will stay with the Twins after accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul, Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweets. The club designated Minaya over the weekend after he yielded three earned runs on five hits (including two homers) and put up four strikeouts against three walks in 6 1/3 innings. It was the first major league action for the 30-year-old since his run with the White Sox from 2016-19. He joined the Twins on a minors pact over the winter.

Buxton, Maeda Set For Rehab With Saints

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The Twins’ season has been a disaster thus far, but they’re on the verge of getting some desperately needed reinforcements. The team announced that Byron Buxton will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul beginning today, and Kenta Maeda will make a rehab start for the Saints tomorrow. The 27-year-old Buxton stormed out of the gates looking like a legitimate MVP candidate, slashing .370/.408/.772 with nine home runs, 10  doubles, five steals and his typical stellar defense through 24 games (98 plate appearances). A Grade 2 hip strain has sidelined him for more than a month, however.

Maeda, meanwhile, was the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2020’s shortened season but has had a rough go of it in 2021. The 33-year-old posted solid numbers in his first three starts but didn’t tally many innings due to high pitch counts. He’s since had a bit of a velocity dip while struggling in the run-up to an IL placement of his own due to a groin strain. The Twins have trotted out a carousel of outfield options with Buxton, Max Kepler and utilityman Luis Arraez all injured, while injuries on the pitching staff have prompted the team to remain committed to veteran Matt Shoemaker in the rotation despite pronounced struggles (as explored here by Dan Hayes of The Athletic).

Latest on Byron Buxton, Kenta Maeda

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Before this afternoon’s game against the Twins, the Royals placed shortstop Adalberto Mondesi on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 4, with a left hamstring strain. It’s a tough blow for the speedy shortstop, who missed almost all of the season’s first two months with an oblique issue. In between the injuries, Mondesi has gotten off to a productive start, hitting .360/.360/.720 with a pair of homers in seven games. To replace him on the active roster, Kansas City recalled outfielder Edward Olivares from Triple-A Omaha.

  • Twins center fielder Byron Buxton could embark on a minor league rehab assignment at some point next week, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). Buxton has missed the better part of a month with a right hip strain, a devastating development considering his incredible start to the season. Before the injury, the 27-year-old looked well on his way to putting himself in early AL MVP conversation, hitting .370/.408/.772 with nine homers in his first 98 plate appearances. Righty Kenta Maeda, meanwhile, threw a 35-pitch bullpen session this morning and looks to be nearing a rehab assignment of his own, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (Twitter link).

Twins To Keep Matt Shoemaker In Rotation

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  • The Twins have not gotten the kind of production they need from Matt Shoemaker this season. The 34-year-old veteran gave up eight earned runs while recording just one out against the Royals on Friday. For the season, Shoemaker’s 7.28 ERA/5.98 FIP rank last by a fair margin among starters with at least 50 innings this season. He will continue to make his turns in the Twins’ rotation for now, per the Athletic’s Dan Hayes.
  • Even if the Twins wanted to make a move, they’re somewhat hampered by recent injuries in their minor leagues. Minor league hurlers Lewis Thorpe and Matt Canterino were placed on the injured list today, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (via Twitter). They are dealing with a left shoulder strain and right elbow strain, respectively. Canterino, pitching in High-A, was not likely to help out at the big league level this season, but Thorpe already has 14 innings in four appearances (three starts) with the Twins this season. He has pitched exclusively out of the pen at Triple-A.

Cubs Activate Jason Heyward, Designate Nick Martini, Claim Dakota Chalmers

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3:47PM: Left-hander Brad Wieck was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move for Abbott’s call-up, the Cubs announced.

3:14PM: The Cubs announced a trio of roster moves, including Jason Heyward’s activation from the 10-day injured list.  (The Athletic’s Meghan Montemurro was among those to report the news.)  Chicago also designated outfielder Nick Martini for assignment, thus opening up a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Dakota Chalmers, who was claimed off waivers from the Twins.  Right-hander Cory Abbott is also being called up from Triple-A to make his big league debut, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (via Twitter)

A left hamstring strain forced Heyward to the IL on May 20, and the injury hiatus could allow the veteran outfielder something of a reset of his season.  Heyward has hit just .183/.254/.341 over his first 138 plate appearances, an unfortunate slow start after the strong numbers he posted during the 2020 season.  Through Heyward’s tenure in Wrigleyville (he’s in the sixth year of an eight-year, $184MM contract) has been marked by a lack of offensive production, Heyward was one of the team’s best bats in 2020, hitting .265/.392/.456 with six homers over 181 PA.

Martini was signed to a minor league deal in February, and saw his contract selected by the Cubs in May.  The 30-year-old Illinois native has appeared in 12 games this season, mostly working as a pinch-hitter but he was only 1-for-12 in 15 total plate appearances.  Martini has hit .261/.363/.366 over 303 total PA with the A’s, Padres, and Cubs at the MLB level, though much of that production came with Oakland during his 2018 rookie season.  Martini has experience at all three outfield positions as well as first base, so this versatility and his knack for setting on base could potentially entice another team to claim him off the waiver wire.

Speaking of waiver claims, Chalmers joins the Cubs after being DFA’ed by Minnesota earlier this week.  Chalmers made his debut at the Double-A level this season but the results haven’t been good, with a 9.49 ERA over 12 1/3 innings.  Between Tommy John surgery and the canceled 2020 minor league season, Chalmers tossed only 39 2/3 total frames from the start of the 2018 season to the start of the 2021 minor league campaign.

Abbott has only a 6.39 ERA in 25 1/3 innings at Triple-A Iowa this season, his first experience of Triple-A ball.  The 25-year-old will still get a look in the Show, potentially as a starter or as a reliever.  MLB Pipeline ranks Abbott 15th on its list of the Cubs’ top 30 prospects, with his slider and curveball acting as his top pitches.  “With an easy delivery that he repeats well and a fearlessness about challenging hitters, Abbott provides consistent strikes,” according to the Pipeline scouting report.  Abbott was a second-round pick for the Cubs in the 2017 draft, and he posted some solid numbers in his first three pro seasons before hitting his Triple-A struggles.

Twins Designate Juan Minaya, Select Griffin Jax

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The Twins have designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment, as per a team press release.  Right-handed pitching prospect Griffin Jax’s contract has been selected from Triple-A (as reported earlier today by Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press), and Jax will take Minaya’s spot on the active roster.

Minaya inked a minor league deal with the Twins in the offseason and had his contract selected just last week, so he could potentially be moving on after appearing in only four games for Minnesota.  The veteran righty posted a 4.26 ERA over 6 1/3 innings, getting his first bit of Major League action since 2019 when he was a member of the White Sox.  The Twins also signed Minaya to a minor league contract prior to the 2020 season but designated him for assignment before he could make any appearances last year.

With Michael Pineda battling a sore forearm, his scheduled start for Sunday has been pushed back, so it’s possible Jax could be in line to take that start for his MLB debut.  A third-round pick out of Air Force in 2016, Jax isn’t one of MLB Pipeline’s top 30 Twins prospects, but he has posted a 3.33 ERA and 25.9% strikeout rate over 27 innings for Triple-A St. Paul this season.

Twins Recall Ryan Jeffers, Gilberto Celestino

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The Twins announced they’ve recalled catcher Ryan Jeffers and outfielder Gilberto Celestino. Catcher Mitch Garver is going to the 10-day injured list with a severe groin contusion, while utilityman Rob Refsnyder has been placed on the 7-day concussion IL. Jeffers and Celestino are starting at catcher and in center field, respectively, tonight against the Orioles.

Garver underwent surgery after being struck with a foul tip last night. Manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) this evening that Garver will be out for “a bare minimum of a couple weeks.” So long as he’s on the IL, Minnesota is expected to roll with Jeffers as the primary catcher, Park adds.

Ben Rortvedt and Willians Astudillo are also on the active roster. Jeffers, though, is generally viewed as a more well-regarded prospect than Rortvedt, while the Twins have been more willing to bounce Astudillo around the diamond as a utility player than deploy him as a true regular catcher. Jeffers, 23, got off to a strong start to his MLB career last season but scuffled in 37 plate appearances earlier this year. With Garver picking up the lion’s share of playing time behind the dish, the Twins optioned Jeffers to Triple-A St. Paul so he could continue to receive regular playing time.

Celestino is also one of the organization’s more talented farmhands and will now pick up his first major league opportunity. Acquired from the Astros as part of the 2018 Ryan Pressly deal, Celestino entered the year as the Twins #10 prospect in the estimation of both FanGraphs and Baseball America. Those outlets suggest the 22-year-old could blossom into a plus defensive center fielder with a hit-over-power approach. Thanks to last year’s cancelled minor league season, Celestino hasn’t gotten much high minors experience. Over 96 plate appearances with Double-A Wichita, he’s off to a .250/.344/.381 start with a pair of home runs. During his last full minor league season (2019), Celestino slashed a productive .276/.350/.409 with ten homers in 503 Low-A plate appearances.

While Celestino has never played at Triple-A, a series of injuries in center field have forced the organization’s hand somewhat. Byron Buxton has been out since early May with a hip strain. Max Kepler slid over to center in his absence, but Kepler went down with a hamstring strain last weekend. That led the Twins to turn to Refsnyder, a journeyman who’s surprisingly gotten off to an incredible start this year, at the position. Unfortunately, he’s out now too after colliding with the outfield wall in pursuit of a Ryan Mountcastle home run ball on Monday.

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