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Twins Activate Byron Buxton, Option Willians Astudillo

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The Twins activated star centerfielder Byron Buxton today, per the Athletic’s Dan Hayes (via Twitter). He is in the starting lineup for today’s ballgame. Buxton has been out with a hip strain since May 7th. The injury was initially only expected to keep him out for a couple of weeks, but Buxton ended up with a 41-day stint on the injured list.

The injury was a particularly crushing blow because Buxton had been red hot to start the season. He logged a ridiculous 2.6 bWAR in just 24 games before going down, slashing .370/.408/.772 with nine home runs in 98 plate appearances.

Losing Buxton proved to be as detrimental to the Twins’ playoff chances as we might have guessed. They were 12-19 (.387 win percentage) when Buxton went down, but just 5 1/2 games out of first place. Rocco Baldelli’s squad has actually played a little better in the 38 games since, going 16-22 (.421 win percentage). Nevertheless, the Twinkies have fallen 13 games behind the White Sox for the division lead and 13 games behind the Astros for the second wild card spot entering play today.

In a corresponding move, the Twins optioned Willians Astudillo the Triple-A, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (via Twitter). “La Tortuga” has served as a source of, shall we say, comic relief this season, bringing a 54.2 mph heater to the mound in three relief appearances. He faced 11 total hitters and allowed one earned run on one somewhat controversial blast from Yermin Mercedes.

In his day job, Astudillo has hit .254/.276/.385 while employing his trademark all-contact approach (1.6 percent walk rate, 7.9 percent strikeout rate). Despite the hyper-specific offensive profile, Astudillo provides value through his defensive versatility. He is perhaps the most positionally agile player in baseball, having appeared at first, second, third, right, catcher and, of course, pitcher this season. Shortstop is the only position Astudillo has never played at the big-league level.

Rangers Claim Shaun Anderson, Designate Tyson Miller

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The Rangers announced Friday that they’ve claimed righty Shaun Anderson off waivers from the Twins and designated fellow right-hander Tyson Miller for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

The waiver claim brings a quick Twins tenure for Anderson to a close and shines a spotlight on a now-regrettable swap that saw Minnesota send outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to San Francisco in exchange for Anderson over the winter. At the time, the Twins looked to be dealing from a position of depth and taking a shot on a reliever with a tantalizing slider, but the Twins have been beset by outfield injuries this season and gotten nothing from their end of that exchange. Wade, meanwhile, has batted .257/.350/.443 in an admittedly small sample of 81 plate appearances for the Giants while missing some time with an oblique injury.

Anderson, 26, has been clobbered for 12 runs (nine earned) on 13 hits and five walks with eight punchouts in 8 2/3 innings out of the Twins’ bullpen so far in 2021. A quadriceps strain and a blister issue on his pitching hand have limited him to just four big league appearances and five outings in Triple-A. He’s been sharp in the minors, firing six scoreless innings with five punchouts and three walks.

The Rangers will be the fourth organization for Anderson, originally a third-round selection of the Red Sox back in 2016. He went from Boston to San Francisco via the Eduardo Nunez trade and had a rough showing, mostly out of the rotation, in 2019 before a more intriguing 2020 performance. Anderson tossed 15 2/3 frames last year and fanned 27 percent of his opponents while recording a gaudy 39.7 percent whiff rate on his slider.

The Twins surely hoped they’d be able to pass Anderson through waivers based on his injuries and rough showing in the big leagues so far. Doing so would’ve allowed them to keep him in Triple-A while reallocating his 40-man spot. Had Minnesota not been hit so hard by the injury bug this season, perhaps the club would’ve been able to avoid trying to pass Anderson through waivers at all, but the loss of the right-hander is yet another ramification of the team’s injuries and generally poor showing in 2021.

As for the 25-year-old Miller, he only joined the Rangers a couple weeks back via a waiver claim out of the Cubs organization. The 2016 fourth-rounder at one point was considered to be one of the better arms in a thin Cubs minor league system, but he’s limped to a 7.26 ERA in 57 Triple-A frames between 2019 and 2021.

Miller made two appearances for the Cubs last year, allowing three runs on two hits and three walks without a strikeout in five innings against the Cardinals. Miller has multiple minor league options remaining, so he could pique the interest of another pitching-hungry club. Texas has a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Josh Donaldson, Andrelton Simmons Leave Early With Injuries

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The Twins have been dealt a series of injuries this season, and another pair of notable players departed last night’s game against the Mariners early. Third baseman Josh Donaldson left for precautionary reasons in the second inning with tightness in his right calf. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons came out shortly thereafter with left ankle tightness (relayed by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune). There’s no indication either player is dealing with anything serious, but each of Donaldson and Simmons landed on the injured list because of issues with those respective areas last season.

Donaldson missed nearly a month with a right calf strain, while Simmons missed a similar amount of time with a sprained left ankle. Given that history, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Twins play things cautiously with their left side infielders. In better news, outfielder Max Kepler, who has been on a rehab assignment at Triple-A St. Paul, could join the big league club by this weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press).

Twins Place Michael Pineda On Injured List

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The Twins announced Monday that they’ve placed righty Michael Pineda (right elbow inflammation) and infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder (hamstring strain) on the 10-day injured list. In a pair of corresponding moves, they’ve reinstated Kenta Maeda and Luis Arraez from the injured list. Center fielder Byron Buxton has not yet been activated, though Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets that he traveled with the team to Seattle, which suggests a return is near.

The loss of Pineda is notable on multiple levels. The big righty has been one of the Twins’ few effective starters so far in 2021. He also stands out as one of the more obvious trade candidates on the roster for a disappointing Minnesota club that looks more and more likely to sell veteran pieces as the summer wears on.

Pineda, 32, was terrific for the first two months of the season, pitching to a 2.62 ERA with a 26.7 percent strikeout rate and a 6.8 percent strikeout rate. However, Pineda had one start pushed back this month, and he exited another — his most recent outing — with elbow discomfort after just four innings. He’s followed up that terrific April/May run with a three-start stretch that has seen him total just 11 1/3 innings while yielding 10 runs.

On the whole, Pineda still has plenty respectable numbers. He’s accumulated 56 innings on the year and posted a 3.70 earned run average with a 22.1 percent strikeout rate, a 6.5 percent walk rate and a 38.1 percent ground-ball rate. That type of production would help to bolster just about any rotation in baseball, and given that Pineda is playing out the second season of a two-year, $20MM contract, his salary is manageable enough for the majority of contenders. The Twins may not want to commit to selling just yet, but at 26-39 and 15 games back of the division lead, that’s the likeliest outcome.

Refsnyder, 30, was a pleasant surprise for an injury-ravaged Twins club. The journeyman utilityman signed a minor league deal over the winter but unexpectedly gave the Twins a .321/.371/.500 batting line in 62 trips to the plate before going down with his own injury. He’s taken on a good bit of the workload in center field while Buxton has recovered from a hip flexor strain.

In Maeda and Arraez, the Twins will be getting back a pair who were expected to play significant roles on a division contender. Maeda finished runner-up to Shane Bieber in last summer’s Cy Young voting, but he hasn’t looked right at all this season.

In nine starts before landing on the injured list with a groin injury, he pitched to a 5.27 ERA that was nearly double last season’s 2.70 mark. Maeda’s strikeout rate plummeted from 32.3 percent last year to 20.5 percent in 2021, while his walk rate has jumped from four percent to 5.8 percent. Most problematically, he’s given up home runs at the highest rate of his career (1.90 HR/9). Time will tell whether the stay on the IL can get the righty back on track.

Arraez, meanwhile, got out to a blistering start but saw his bat go ice-cold for several weeks before injuring his shoulder on a slide into second base. The versatile Arraez hit .331/.390/.429 with more walks than strikeouts in 487 plate appearances from 2019-20, but that output has slipped to .278/.358/.333 so far in 2021.

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).
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