- Twins utilityman Willians Astudillo won’t return from an oblique strain until September, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweets. This will go down as a nightmarish regular season for Astudillo, who has been out since June 27 and saw his numbers nosedive before he went on the injured list. The versatile Astudillo became a fan favorite in Minnesota last year, when he burst on the scene with a .355/.371/.516 slash in a 97-plate appearance debut, but he’s only carrying a .263/.282/.383 line in 142 attempts this season. Astudillo does, however, own rather interesting strikeout and walk percentages (3.5 K, 1.4 BB).
Twins Rumors
Twins Acquire Ian Miller From Mariners
Today, 12:38 PM: The Mariners will receive cash considerations in return, per the team.
FRIDAY, 11:56 PM: The Twins are set to acquire outfielder Ian Miller from the Mariners, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). The precise return isn’t known, but Divish indicates it’s not expected to be significant.
Because he isn’t playing on a MLB deal, Miller can still be dealt. The 27-year-old, a former 14th-round pick, is still looking for his first taste of the majors. Miller has been plying his trade in the upper minors in the Seattle system since 2015.
Divish indicates that the chief interest for the Twins lies in Miller’s baserunning abilities, and that makes sense. He is an accomplished base thief, with 237 bags snatched over seven professional seasons.
Miller is less accomplished with the bat, with a .699 career OPS through just under three thousand total plate appearances. He’s sporting a bit of a power surge this year, with a .272/.354/.453 slash and 11 long balls (easily a career high) over 441 plate appearances. But that’s still slightly below the mean for Pacific Coast League hitters.
Twins Place Nelson Cruz On 10-Day IL
5:25pm: Cruz has been diagnosed with a ruptured ECU tendon, as MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park was among those to cover (links to Twitter). While that sounds like it’d be a bad thing, it may actually not be much of a problem. It’s an injury that others have played through before and Cruz says he isn’t experiencing pain at the moment.
“It’s a miracle that it feels like that,” says Cruz. “I don’t have any pain, so maybe that’s what I needed. Just tear that tendon and we’re good.”
2:05pm: The Twins announced today that they have placed slugger Nelson Cruz on the 10-day injured list. Righty Cody Stashak was called up to take the open roster spot.
Cruz was diagnosed with a wrist strain after leaving last night’s game in the middle of a plate appearance. There’s no indication to this point as to how long Cruz may be sidelined.
This isn’t the first time this year that Cruz has experienced an issue in that particular joint. He spent three weeks on the IL for a similar injury earlier this season.
It’s tough news for a Minnesota club that is trying to hold off the charging Indians in the AL Central. Cruz has been on a nearly unbelievable tear at the plate, slashing .333/.429/.900 with 16 home runs in his past 25 games (106 plate appearances).
Twins To Sign Ryan O’Rourke
The Twins have struck a minors deal with lefty Ryan O’Rourke, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). He had been with the Minnesota organization from 2010 through 2016.
O’Rourke appeared briefly in the majors earlier this year with the Mets, marking his first showing since the ’16 campaign. He has spent much of the year with the top affiliate of the New York organization, where he carries a 3.27 ERA with 9.6 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 over 44 innings.
It’s possible that O’Rourke could end up getting some MLB work in Minnesota, even if he has to wait until rosters expand in September. The club’s lone present southpaw reliever, Taylor Rogers, is its closer. There are four other lefties on the 40-man roster, but Martin Perez and Devin Smeltzer are working from the MLB rotation while Lewis Thorpe is starting at Triple-A. Stephen Gonsalves remains on the injured list in the minors.
Nelson Cruz Suffers Left Wrist Strain
9:32pm: Cruz has once again suffered a left wrist strain, Hayes tweets. He’s day-to-day for now.
8:42pm: Twins designated hitter Nelson Cruz left the team’s crucial matchup against the AL Central rival Indians on Thursday with an apparent left wrist injury, Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to report. The Twins replaced Cruz with C.J. Cron.
Cruz’s departure is particularly notable because a strained left wrist forced him to the injured list earlier this season. The ageless slugger sat out from mid-May until early June because of the ailment, but the time off didn’t have a negative effect on him. On the contrary, Cruz has slashed a phenomenal .295/.385/.652 with 35 home runs in 372 plate appearances, making him one of the most valuable Twins and among the best free-agent signings of last winter.
Minnesota inked the 39-year-old Cruz to a $14MM guarantee in the offseason, and the team looks sure to exercise his $12MM club option for 2020. In the meantime, the Twins will continue trying to hold off the charging Indians, who entered Thursday’s contest two games behind. Of course, doing so will become all the more difficult if Cruz has to head back to the IL.
Twins Select Randy Dobnak
TODAY: The Twins officially announced the move.
YESTERDAY: The Twins will select the contract of right-hander Randy Dobnak from Triple-A Rochester on Thursday, Darren Wolfson of SKOR North 1500 first reported (Twitter link). Minnesota already optioned righty Kohl Stewart to Rochester following today’s game. The Twins already have a 40-man roster spot open following last month’s bullpen purge that saw the team DFA Adalberto Mejia, Mike Morin, Matt Magill and Blake Parker in less than two weeks’ time.
Dobnak, 24, hasn’t exactly taken a conventional path to the Majors. Undrafted out of Division-II Alderson-Broaddus College in West Virginia, Dobnak’s first professional outing came with the Utica Unicorns of the independent United Shore League in June 2017. He signed with the Twins less than two months later and began his career in affiliated ball with the Twins’ Rookie-level affiliate in the Appalachian League. Dobnak posted strong numbers there against younger, teenaged competition and enjoyed a solid, if unspectacular 2018 campaign in Class-A Cedar Rapids.
In 2019, Dobnak opened the season in the Class-A Advanced Florida State League but was promoted to Double-A before the calendar flipped to May. By early June, he’d been promoted for his first taste of Triple-A ball. Dobnak hasn’t posted an ERA higher than 2018’s 3.14 mark in the Midwest League at any stop in the minors; in fact, his next-highest ERA at any level is 2.57. Through 125 innings across three minor league levels in 2019, Dobnak has pitched to a minuscule 2.02 ERA with 7.3 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.43 HR/9 and a 59 percent ground-ball rate.
That meteoric rise was enough to land a player who once looked like little more than organizational filler in the No. 30 spot on Baseball America’s midseason update to the Twins’ top prospects, and all he’s done since the publication of that list is toss another 26 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on 12 hits and five walks with 21 strikeouts. While Dobnak still shouldn’t be mistaken for any kind of elite pitching prospect, his ascent from undrafted indie ball player to Major Leaguer in just north of two calendar years is nevertheless remarkable. The Twins currently have Michael Pineda on the injured list, so it’s possible that Dobnak will get a start. If not, he’ll add some length to a Twins bullpen that has been a frequent source of headaches for fans and the organization alike in recent months.
Angels Acquire Drew Hutchison
The Angels have acquired right-hander Drew Hutchison from the Twins, according to the Pacific Coast League transactions page. Cash considerations went in return, per Morrie Silver of the Rochester Red Wings (via Twitter).
Hutchison, who’ll soon turn 29, will add to the depth for an Angels organization that has had to work to keep its MLB staff afloat. The staff has been taxed again recently by more injuries.
Conditions are tough for hurlers in the International League, where Hutchison has pitched all year long. He owns a 5.55 ERA in 108 2/3 frames, with 9.4 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9. Through 460 1/3 career innings at the game’s highest level, Hutchison carries a 5.10 ERA.
Twins’ Brusdar Graterol Could Earn Promotion Soon
The AL Central-leading Twins could promote well-regarded pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol to the majors as early as this month, assistant general manager Rob Antony told SKOR North. The right-hander will likely work as a reliever this year if he does come up to the bigs, Antony suggested.
The 20-year-old Graterol has missed time this season with shoulder issues, but he’s back now and has turned in encouraging results when healthy. In his first Double-A action this year, Graterol has logged a 1.89 ERA/3.26 FIP with 8.69 K/9, 3.59 BB/9 and a 52.1 percent groundball rate across 47 2/3 innings. Moreover, Baseball America (No. 34), FanGraphs (52) and MLB.com (58) all rank Graterol among the best prospects in the game.
Capable of hitting triple digits on the radar gun, Graterol could be a serious late-season weapon (perhaps a multi-inning one, per Antony) for a Twins bullpen that hasn’t been great at preventing runs this year. The unit sits a middle-of-the-pack 14th in ERA (4.45), and it has undergone major changes of late. The Twins recently rid themselves of Blake Parker, Matt Magill, Mike Morin and Adalberto Mejia – who combined for upward of 100 innings from their bullpen – and then tried to upgrade their relief corps by adding Sergio Romo and Sam Dyson prior to the trade deadline.
Romo has thrown 4 1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit ball since Minnesota acquired him from Miami, but the Dyson pickup has surprisingly blown up in the Twins’ faces so far. After an impressive start to the season with the Giants, Dyson surrendered a total of six earned runs on six hits and two walks in 2/3 of an inning in his first two appearances as a Twin. Dyson then hit the injured list with right biceps tendinitis, which he alarmingly revealed has been bothering him since mid-July.
Sam Dyson's Injury Dates Back To Mid-July
Newly acquired Twins reliever Sam Dyson went to the injured list Sunday with right biceps tendinitis. It turns out the issue has been bothering him since mid-July, Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com tweets. Dyson let Twins general manager Thad Levine know about the discomfort “a few days ago,” per Park, who reports the club decided to shut him down thereafter. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Dyson, who had been enjoying a great year before Minnesota acquired him from San Francisco at the trade deadline, and for a Twins team that made him its headlining July pickup. Dyson pitched twice for the Twins before going on the IL and put up calamitous numbers in both outings, yielding six earned runs on six hits and retiring just two hitters.
Twins Place Sam Dyson On IL
The Twins announced they have placed reliever Sam Dyson on the 10-day injured list with right biceps tendinitis. In his place, they’ve recalled prospect Devin Smeltzer, who will start this afternoon’s game against Kansas City.
Dyson has pitched just twice since Minnesota acquired him from the Giants at the trade deadline. He’s continued to ride a fastball-heavy approach to great success, working to a 3.48 ERA with a strong combination of strikeouts (23.3%), walks (4.4%), and groundballs (54.3%) in 2019. He’s not quite the groundball machine he was in his best days with the Rangers, but he’s still an integral part of the Twins’ bullpen. Fortunately, manager Rocco Baldelli told Dan Hayes of the Athletic that Dyson’s rest period will be measured in “days instead of weeks.” That’s welcome news for a club hanging onto a three-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central.
Smeltzer, a low-slot lefty acquired at the 2018 deadline from the Dodgers for Brian Dozier, will start his third game of the season for Minnesota. He’s been quite good in 16 starts in the high minors this year and ranks as the #23 prospect in a strong Twins’ farm system, per Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs.
