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Twins Designate Drew Rucinski

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The Twins have announced that they’ve designated righty Drew Rucinski for release or assignment. The move clears space on the club’s 40-man roster for lefty Nik Turley, who will start today against the Giants, as expected. The Twins also optioned lefty Randy Rosario to Double-A Chattanooga.

[Related: Updated Minnesota Twins Depth Chart]

The Twins signed the 28-year-old Rucinski to a minor-league deal last offseason, and he’s bounced back and forth between Triple-A Rochester and the Majors since the club selected his contract last month. Overall, he’s allowed five runs in 4 1/3 big-league innings with the Twins, but he’s pitched very well for Rochester, with a 2.31 ERA, 9.6 K/9 and 1.2 BB/9 in 23 1/3 frames, most of them spent in relief. He had previously pitched in the Indians, Angels and Cubs organizations.

The 27-year-old Turley has spent parts of ten years in the minors since the Yankees selected him in the fifth round of the 2008 draft. He had limited success in the farm systems of the Yankees, Giants and Red Sox but has thrived since a brief stint in independent ball last season — he posted a ridiculous 0.37 ERA, 16.6 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 24 1/3 innings thus far this year in Chattanooga and has also pitched well in Rochester. The journeyman will be making his big-league debut today.

Twins Select Nik Turley's Contract

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  • The Twins have selected the contract of left-hander Nik Turley from Triple-A and optioned fellow southpaw Randy Rosario, per Phil Miller of the Star Tribune (on Twitter). Minnesota will need to dump someone from its 40-man roster to make room for the addition of Turley, who has excelled at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels this season. The 27-year-old will make his major league debut Sunday with a start in San Francisco, with which he was a farmhand in 2015.

Twins Could Target Rotation Help If They're Contending At Deadline

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  • If the 32-26 Twins remain in contention around the deadline, not only will they have a hard time parting with trade candidates such as Ervin Santana and Brian Dozier, but they could end up as buyers, suggests Rosenthal. In that situation, the Twins would likely target cheap starting help to aid a rotation that’s missing Phil Hughes and Hector Santiago, both of whom are on the disabled list. Hughes and Santiago have struggled even when healthy this year for Minnesota, whose rotation entered Saturday a solid 12th in the majors in ERA but a troubling 26th in FIP.

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Draft Notes: Twins, Reds, McKay, Ramos, Canning, Heimlich

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Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis’ latest for MLB.com contains plenty of new details on next week’s amateur draft. Here’s the latest.

  • The Twins now seem increasingly likely to take two-way Louisville player Brendan McKay and develop him as a left-handed pitcher rather than a first baseman, Callis writes. The Twins had previously been connected to Vanderbilt righty Kyle Wright, although they had California high school pitcher Hunter Greene in for a workout yesterday. The Reds will take Greene, unless the Twins pick him, in which case they’ll take McKay as a pitcher.
  • Heliot Ramos, a high school outfielder from Puerto Rico, could go somewhere in the middle of the first round, perhaps to the Astros, Giants or Orioles.
  • UCLA righty Griffin Canning’s stock appears to be falling over issues with his MRI, Mayo writes. Canning had been projected to go in the middle of the first round, but his MRI has some teams already deciding to pass on him. It’s not clear right now what those issues are. It’s perhaps worth noting that Canning’s potential arm troubles don’t seem to have hurt him this year — he has a 2.34 ERA and 140 whiffs over 119 innings this season.
  • A report late this week from Danny Moran and Brad Schmidt of the Oregonian should be disturbing news, to say the least, for teams interested in selecting Oregon State lefty Luke Heimlich. As a teenager, Heimlich reportedly pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old family member. He reportedly is thus a registered sex offender. He was previously seen as a possible second- or third-rounder, but that seems unlikely after the emergence of this news. “You absolutely can’t draft him,” a scouting official with an NL team told Callis.

Twins Linked To July 2 Dominican Prospect

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  • Baseball America’s Ben Badler (subscription required) looks ahead to the next international signing period that opens on July 2, profiling five highly-touted young players from the Dominican Republic who are already rumored to be signing with the Mets, Pirates, Rockies, Twins, and Yankees.

Twins To Have Hunter Greene In For Pre-Draft Workout

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  • The Twins will have high schooler Hunter Greene in for a workout on Friday, MLBPipeline.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports.  Recent reports have linked Minnesota to Vanderbilt righty Kyle Wright with the first overall pick and the Twins could simply be doing their due diligence on another highly-touted youngster.  That said, as Mayo writes, the timing of Greene’s visit is “not exactly the kind of thing a team does so close to the Draft for a player they’re not considering.”
  • From that same item, Jim Callis looks at how teams could use Brendan McKay, who is drawing attention both as a first baseman and as a left-handed pitcher.  The Twins, Reds, and Padres (who own the top three picks) are all likely-to-certain to use him as a pitcher, while the Rays (fourth overall) and Braves (fifth) would probably make McKay a full-time position player.  Callis, for the record, doesn’t believe McKay would fall past Tampa on the draft board.  McKay is so intriguing as a two-way player that Callis believes his future team could use him as a first baseman/DH on days he isn’t pitching, in order to gain more information about his ideal landing spot in the big leagues.
  • Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen breaks down the first round of picks in a mock draft, based on such criteria as “rumors I’ve heard from various industry sources, the presence of front-office members at certain games (especially lately), each club’s own particular modus operandi, etc.”  Longenhagen has Wright to the Twins with the first pick, with McKay also a strong possibility; Greene and prep southpaw MacKenzie Gore are less likely candidates.  Greene is projected to go second to Cincinnati, Gore to San Diego, McKay to Tampa and shortstop Royce Lewis to Atlanta, though quite a bit seems to be up in the air with just five days away from the draft.

Twins Claim Chris Heston Off Waivers, Release Nick Tepesch, Place Hector Santiago On 10-Day DL

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7:36pm: The Twins have created a 25-man roster spot for Heston by placing southpaw Hector Santiago on the 10-day DL with a shoulder strain.  Santiago has a 5.26 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 1.68 K/BB rate over 65 frames for Minnesota this season.  His career-long issues with the home run ball has been an even larger issue than usual, as Santiago has already allowed 14 homers over his 65 IP.

5:18pm: The Twins have claimed right-hander Chris Heston off waivers from the Dodgers, Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.  In a corresponding move, righty Nick Tepesch has been released to create room on the 40-man roster.  Minnesota will still have to make another 25-man roster move to accommodate Heston.

It’s been a busy six months for Heston, who will join his fourth different organization in that span.  After spending his first four seasons with the Giants (which included a no-hitter in 2015), Heston was dealt to the Mariners in December and then claimed off waivers by the Dodgers two weeks ago after Seattle designated him for assignment.

Heston will now look to stabilize his career with the Twins, not to mention simply pitch well enough to stay in the majors.  Heston has only pitched 10 big league innings in 2016-17, to the tune of an ugly 15.30 ERA with more walks (11) than strikeouts (six).  Never one to miss many bats, Heston has somewhat less margin for error, though he showed a good ability to keep the ball on the ground during his one full big league season in 2015 (53% grounder rate), and in the minor leagues.

If he can get himself on track, he could find an opportunity within a Twins rotation that is short on stability behind ace Ervin Santana and impressive rookie Jose Berrios.  Minnesota could also potentially use Heston as a reliever to help a relief corps that has a league-worst (5.32) bullpen ERA.

Tepesch signed a minor league deal with the Twins last winter and made one appearance for the team, allowing seven runs (but only one earned) over 1 2/3 innings in a losing start on May 6.  After breaking into the league as a starter with the Rangers in 2013-14, Tepesch missed all of 2015 recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and spent 2016 pitching for four different organizations, including a cup of coffee in the bigs with the Dodgers.

Rangers Nearing Sam Dyson Trade

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JUNE 5, 5:45pm: The Twins remain in the mix for Dyson, tweets Wolfson. Daniels indicated that four or five teams have made serious offers to acquire the reliever, per Shan Shariff of 105.3 The Fan (on Twitter).

4:37pm: Daniels told the Ben & Skin show on 105.3 The Fan on Monday that he’s weighing two to three offers for Dyson. The GM added that he hopes to trade Dyson in the next day or two (Twitter link via Jamey Newberg).

JUNE 2: The Rangers anticipate being able to find a trade partner for just-designated reliever Sam Dyson, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. The alternative, of course, would be to place Dyson on waivers and wait to see if he clears.

There are at least two teams said to be looking into the possibility of adding Dyson. That’s the case for the Rays, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, though it’s not yet clear just how serious the interest is. And the Twins, too, are at least considering the possibility of bringing Dyson into their struggling pen, per Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter).

GM Jon Daniels suggested that Texas believes it will work out some kind of swap, given the interest shown already by rival organizations. He also made clear that Dyson does not have any health problems.

Rather, per Daniels, the struggling reliever “just hasn’t been able to get back to what we know he’s capable of.” With the Rangers still trying to hang in the postseason picture, it seems the club simply couldn’t afford to let him work things out at the major league level.

Through 16 2/3 innings on the year, Dyson carries a 10.80 ERA. Even more shockingly, he has managed just 3.8 K/9 to go with 6.5 BB/9. While he’s still pumping mid-nineties sinkers with the grounders (61.4%) to match, something is clearly amiss. Indeed, Dyson’s swinging-strike rate has plummeted to 5.8% after topping out at 12.4% in 2015.

There are some hurdles to a deal, beyond Dyson’s on-field problems. He’s only a Super Two player, increasing the upside for teams considering a move, but he’s already earning $3.52MM this year due to his saves tallies in prior campaigns. Plus, Dyson can’t be optioned — the same reason that Texas was forced to send him into DFA limbo in the first place.

Still, it’s possible to imagine any number of teams having interest in Dyson; after all, he carried a 2.45 ERA through 187 2/3 innings over the prior three seasons. Rebuilding teams could take a chance; clubs that have fallen back a bit could hope to strike gold; and certain contenders might even consider the idea of easing Dyson back in with low-leverage work. Scouting assessments will likely drive the decisionmaking process, but it will be interesting to see what kind of return the Rangers can manage to find in this situation.

Dodgers To Acquire Jason Wheeler

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The Dodgers have struck a deal to acquire lefty Jason Wheeler from the Twins, according to LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune (via Twitter). Cash considerations are headed to Minnesota in return.

Wheeler, 26, was designated for assignment recently by Minnesota. He reached the big leagues briefly for the first time earlier this year, struggling through two outings.

But the Dodgers evidently saw something in Wheeler’s minor league work to like. The soft-tossing southpaw, who has worked almost exclusively as a starter, struggled struggled against right-handed bats in his first crack at the upper minors. But he reversed that in 2016. Over 169 1/3 innings, most of them at Triple-A, he posted a 3.30 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.

Falvey On Twins' Draft Plans

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  • Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey discussed the club’s first overall selection in the upcoming amateur draft, as Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports. The team is taking a closer look at “a group of five to six [players], probably,” according to the club’s top baseball decisionmaker. With several candidates slated to visit with the organization just days before the draft, there’s still time for new information to shape the picture. Falvey says the Twins intend to “ask some difficult questions” of the candidates when they sit down with them, in addition to taking another look at their skills. As Miller well explains, the club’s management of its overall bonus pool will also factor in. Falvey acknowledged the possibility of reallocating some of the top slot’s cash to sign other players — though he also said he’s “not yet ready to say it’s something we’d do in the first round” — and acknowledged the need “to add as many upside assets” as possible.

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