Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Cole Sands

Twins Notes: Kirilloff, Winder, Sands, Payroll

By | at

With Spring Training getting starting this week, that means updates are rolling in on various players and their health, or lack thereof, as well as details on teams and their plans for the season ahead. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey provided a couple of updates to reporters, including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (Twitter links).

“No setbacks, no concern,” Falvey said of first baseman/outfielder Alex Kirilloff. “AK has been in a great spot. Our strength guys said [the wrist is] probably in as good of a spot as they’ve seen him coming into camp, where he’s at. The early returns on swinging are very positive.”

The health of Kirilloff’s right wrist has been an ongoing concern for the past couple of years, seemingly preventing him from reaching his potential. Ranked as one of the top prospects in the game as he was coming up through the minors, he has thus far hit .251/.295/.398 for a wRC+ of 91 in the majors. That’s come in 387 plate appearances over the past two seasons, each of which ended in wrist surgery for Kirilloff.

The club has plenty of outfielders but it seems Kirilloff has a path to regular playing time at first base. The Twins declined an option on Miguel Sanó and traded Luis Arraez to the Marlins, in addition to trading Gio Urshela to the Angels in order to have José Miranda take over at third base. Those moves have left Kirilloff atop the depth chart at the cold corner and the club will be hoping that better health can help him produce at a level more like his minor league work. Since reaching Double-A in 2019, he’s hit .305/.378/.484 at the top two levels of the minor leagues for a wRC+ of 143.

Turning to the pitching staff, the club had some success turning a starter into a reliever last year with Griffin Jax. He had mostly started coming into last year but worked exclusively in relief in 2022. He ended up posting a 3.36 ERA over 65 appearances with a 26.9% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate. However, no such plans are currently in place for other members of the staff right now, with Falvey stating that pitchers like Josh Winder and Cole Sands will be built up as starters this spring.

The Twins seem to have a strong rotation on paper, with Pablo López, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda and Tyler Mahle likely taking the top five spots, with Chris Paddack potentially returning from Tommy John surgery and joining them at some point as well. That will leave pitchers like Sands, Winder, Bailey Ober and others likely squeezed down to Triple-A. Though that’s plenty of arms in theory, most of them have injury concerns. Maeda missed all of 2022 while recovery from an internal brace procedure and each of Gray, Ryan and Mahle dealt with various injuries that kept them below 150 innings on the year. López got to 180 frames last year but he’s been hampered by his health in the past, never previously reaching 115 innings in a major league season.

With all of those question marks, it makes sense that the club would want to maintain some starting depth as they plan out the season ahead, especially after those injuries seemed to play a role in the club fading in the second half last year. Winder posted a 4.70 ERA in his first 67 MLB innings last year but with a subpar 16.4% strikeout rate. Sands, meanwhile, had a 5.87 ERA in his debut last year but in a smaller sample of 30 2/3 innings. Since they both have options, they can head to Triple-A and wait for their next opportunity to arise.

Turning to the bigger picture, Dan Hayes of The Athletic recently spoke to Joe Pohlad, who is taking on a more meaningful role with the club these days. It was reported in November that club chairman Jim Pohlad would be ceding responsibilities to his nephew Joe going forward. Some have wondered if that switch would lead to changes in the ways the team is run, with the younger Pohlad perhaps giving a small bit of insight into that. “I think that there are a number of factors that you need to consider,” Pohlad said in response to a question about the club’s payroll getting into the $180-200MM range. “I don’t think something like that is ever out of the question. I really don’t.”

The Twins have yet to get near that level of spending, with their franchise high payroll being last year’s $134MM figure, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. It seems likely that they will set a new record this year, with Roster Resource currently pegging their spending at $154MM. That’s a nice jump but it would still require another one to get into that proposed range. Despite generally being in the middle of the pack in terms of spending, the club has made some surprising splashes of late, including giving a huge extension to Byron Buxton and twice being the surprising victors of the Carlos Correa free agent frenzy. Though it doesn’t seem like there are any imminent plans to hit the gas pedal and really ramp up spending, it appears that there’s at least some hope for more aggression going forward.

Austin Davis Elects Free Agency

By | at

TODAY: Davis has cleared waivers and has chosen to become a free agent.

SEPTEMBER 8: The Twins announced Thursday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Cole Sands from the injured list and opened a spot on the active roster by designating left-hander Austin Davis for assignment. Minnesota had claimed Davis from the Red Sox on Aug. 31 after he was also designated for assignment in Boston.

Davis, 29, struggled to a 5.47 ERA in 54 1/3 innings with the Red Sox this year and wasn’t able to right the ship in a brief stint with the Twins. Though he appeared in just two games, the lefty yielded three runs on a hit and four walks in just 1 2/3 innings. His DFA will drop the Twins back down to two lefties in the bullpen — Caleb Thielbar and Jovani Moran — and open a spot on the Twins’ 40-man roster.

Originally a 12th-round pick of the Phillies, Davis has appeared in the Majors in each of the past five seasons but has never posted a single-season ERA south of 5.00 and currently carries a lifetime mark of 5.61 in 144 frames at the MLB level. He’s fanned 24% of his opponents against an 11% walk rate and kept 39.5% of batted balls against him on the ground.

Davis has regularly excelled at limiting hard contact, evidenced by a career 87.2 mph average exit velocity and 33.4% hard-hit rate. However, when opponents do square him up, the result is often a worst-case scenario; even with that lack of consistent hard contact, he’s still yielded an average of 1.25 homers per nine innings pitched. With the trade deadline now well in the rear-view mirror, the only options for the Twins will be to place Davis on outright or release waivers. He reached three years of Major League service time earlier this season, so even if he clears he’ll have the right to reject an assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency.

As for the 25-year-old Sands, he’s followed a standout 2021 Double-A campaign (2.46 ERA in 80 1/3 innings) with a rough year both in Triple-A and the Majors. The 2018 fifth-rounder has been saddled with a 5.70 ERA in 53 1/3 Triple-A frames and an even more troublesome 6.56 mark in 23 1/3 MLB innings. That said, Sands has fanned and walked batters at a better-than-average rate while also being plagued by sky-high averages on balls in play (.404 in Triple-A, 3.62 in the Majors).

Twins Release Tyler Duffey

By | at

Aug. 8: The Twins have released Duffey, per the transaction log at MLB.com.

Aug. 5: The Twins have designated right-handed reliever Tyler Duffey for assignment, as first reported by Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link). Right-hander Cole Sands is being recalled from Triple-A St. Paul to take Duffey’s spot on the roster (and, seemingly, in the bullpen for now). Minnesota has yet to formally announce the move.

Duffey, a fifth-round pick by the Twins back in 2012, has had an up-and-down career in Minnesota. Debuting as a starter back in 2015, he quickly looked as though he could hold that role down for the foreseeable future, pitching to a 3.10 ERA with solid strikeout and walk rates as a rookie that year. However, Duffey was clobbered for a ghastly 6.33 ERA in 133 innings the following year and moved to the bullpen in 2017.

It took some time, but by the 2019 season, Duffey had become an indispensable member of the Twins’ bullpen. He logged 57 2/3 innings of 2.50 ERA ball and punched out a whopping 34.5% of his opponents against a 5.9% walk rate that season. From July 28 through Sept. 25 in 2019, Duffey went 26 straight appearances without allowing a run — a total of 23 2/3 innings during which he posted a scintillating 40-to-5 K/BB ratio. He followed that year with an even better showing in the shortened 2020 season (1.88 ERA in 24 innings), and while his numbers took a step back in 2021 they were still quite solid (3.18 ERA, 3.49 FIP in 62 1/3 innings).

All in all, from 2019-21, Duffey logged 144 innings with a 2.69 ERA (3.16 FIP), a 29.8% strikeout rate, an 8.2% walk rate and a 44.4% ground-ball rate. By and large, he was an effective late-inning reliever on whom the Twins relied with regularity.

This season, however, has been another story entirely. Duffey owns a 4.91 ERA and has already yielded eight home runs in just 44 innings of work (1.64 HR/9). The fastball that averaged 94 mph in 2019 is now averaging 92.3 mph, and he’s seen his strikeout rate plummet to 21.1% while his 8.1% walk rate is more than two percentage points higher than it was during that 2019 peak.

Much as he did in 2019, Duffey had an impressive run this summer when he rattled off 15 2/3 shutout innings with a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio from June 17 through July 23, but that hot streak has been bookended by nightmarish bouts of home runs yielded in leverage spots. Duffey has yielded multiple runs in 20% of his appearances this season (eight of 40), including five different outings where he’s been tagged for three runs. Since that promising run from mid-June through late July, Duffey has yielded seven runs on six hits (two homers) and four walks with three strikeouts in a total of 4 1/3 innings.

Minnesota’s bullpen has been the team’s greatest flaw this season, and Duffey’s wild inconsistency has played a significant part in that Achilles heel. He’s earning $3.8MM in his final season of club control before free agency, meaning any club who claimed him — he can’t be traded now that the deadline has passed — would be on the hook for the remaining $1.28MM on this year’s salary. Because of that, he’ll likely go unclaimed, and even if the Twins attempt to outright him to Triple-A St. Paul, he can reject the assignment and retain the rights to that salary, as is his right as a player with five-plus years of MLB service time.

As for the 25-year-old Sands, he’s been rocked for 16 runs in 16 1/3 Major League innings during this season’s debut, but he has a better minor league track record. Like Duffey, he’s a former fifth-round pick (Florida State University, 2018) with a history of solid minor league performances. While it’s true that Sands has been hit hard in St. Paul this season (5.59 ERA in 48 1/3 frames), he posted a brilliant 2.46 ERA through 80 1/3 Double-A frames last year and also notched a sub-3.00 ERA in his first full pro season with the Twins back in 2019.

Sands has worked primarily as a starter in his career, so it’ll be intriguing to see if, similar to Duffey earlier in his career, Sands’ stuff will play up in the ’pen and allow him to seize a role there moving forward. Alternatively, he could simply operate in a long relief role until lefty Jovani Moran returns from the injured list and then head back to St. Paul where he’d continue working as a starter and serve as rotation depth both this year and next.

Twins Select Elliot Soto

By | at

The Twins announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Elliot Soto from Triple-A St. Paul. Right-hander Cole Sands was optioned to St. Paul to make room on the active roster, while righty Cody Stashak was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Stashak underwent season-ending shoulder surgery recently.

Soto, a 32-year-old journeyman, made his big league debut with the Angels in 2020 and went 2-for-6 in a brief three-game cup of coffee. Originally a 15th-round pick by the Cubs back in 2010, he’s seen action with the Cubs, Marlins, Rockies, Angels, Dodgers and now Twins over a 12-year minor league career. He was never a top-ranked prospect with any of those teams, although Baseball America at one point rated him as the best defensive infielder in the Cubs’ system.

Thus far in 2022, Soto has appeared in 41 games with the Saints and posted a .213/.327/.331 batting line. He’s a career .262/.341/.371 hitter in 1680 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. The Twins recently lost Royce Lewis for the season when he re-tore the ACL in his surgically repaired knee, and a seemingly minor hamstring issue for Nick Gordon have thinned things out a bit further. Gordon exited Saturday’s game against the Rays early and didn’t start Sunday, though he entered the game in the eighth inning.

Even if Gordon is available to start, Minnesota had been playing with a short bench and a 14-man pitching staff prior to optioning Sands, so Soto will give manager Rocco Baldelli a bit more flexibility.

Twins Place Carlos Correa On Covid IL

By | at

May 31: The Twins announced that Correa has been placed on the Covid-related injured list. Shortstop Jermaine Palacios has been selected to the roster as a substitute player in his stead and will make his Major League debut in Game 1 of today’s doubleheader in Detroit. Minnesota also tabbed righty Cole Sands as the 27th man for that twin bill, and he’ll make the first start of his big league career in Game 2 today.

Palacios, 25, was signed by Minnesota out of his native Venezuela as an amateur free agent back in 2013. The Twins eventually flipped him to the Rays in the 2018 Jake Odorizzi trade with Tampa Bay, but Palacios struggled throughout the bulk of his two-plus years in the Rays organization. Upon being released in the 2020-21 offseason, Palacios returned to the Twins on a minor league deal and placed himself back on the prospect map with a solid 2021 showing. MLB.com currently ranks him 29th among Twins farmhands, while Baseball America tabs him as the best defensive infielder in Minnesota’s system. Palacios hit .259/.340/.439 in Triple-A last year and is off to a .262/.325/.379 start in 2022.

Sands, 24, was the Twins’ fifth-rounder in 2018 and made his MLB debut with a pair of relief outings earlier this season. The Florida State product has had a rough showing in Triple-A so far, albeit in just five starts. He’s widely considered to be among the Twins’ 15 best prospects, thanks largely to a 2.46 ERA and 28.7% strikeout rate in 80 1/3 innings of Double-A ball last year. Sands hasn’t pitched more than five innings in an appearance since April 13, so he may be in for a relatively short outing today. He did toss three scoreless frames in his last Triple-A appearance a week ago.

May 30: Carlos Correa didn’t play in the Twins’ 7-5 loss to the Tigers today, and after the game, Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters that it was learned mid-game that the shortstop had tested positive for COVID-19.  Correa will be placed on the COVID-related injury list at some point prior to the Twins’ doubleheader tomorrow in Detroit.

There have already been quite a few ups and downs over Correa’s first two months with the Twins, as he also spent 10 days on the regular IL due to a contusion on his right middle finger.  Correa also got off to a pretty slow at the plate, but is now hitting a lot more like his usual self, with an overall slash line of .279/.344/.407 with three homers in 154 plate appearances.  This works out to a 122 wRC+/123 OPS+, only a little below Correa’s career average.

However, Correa is now sidelined for a minimum of 10 days following a positive COVID-19 test.  As per league rules, Correa can make an earlier return if he goes 24 hours without a fever, tests negative twice, and gets approval from three physicians (the Twins team doctor, a league-appointed doctor, and an MLBPA-appointed doctor).

Correa joins Joe Ryan and Gilberto Celestino on Minnesota’s COVID list, one sub-section of an overall injured list that is worryingly long for the Twins.  Once Correa is officially added, he’ll be the 13th player on the Minnesota IL, and the club will also be short a few more non-vaccinated players for a series in Toronto on June 3-5.

Former first overall pick Royce Lewis had filled in at shortstop during Correa’s previous IL stint, but Lewis himself was just placed on the injured list today after suffering a bone bruise on his right knee after a collision with the center field wall in yesterday’s game.  This leaves utilityman Nick Gordon or regular second baseman Jorge Polanco as the likeliest candidates to cover shortstop in Correa’s absence, and third baseman Gio Urshela also has experience as a shortstop.

Twins Reinstate Luis Arraez, Option Jose Godoy, Transfer Chris Paddack to 60-Day IL

By | at

The first-place Twins made a flurry of moves this afternoon, the team announced, including reinstating infielder Luis Arraez from the COVID IL and optioning catcher Jose Godoy to Triple-A St. Paul. They also appointed right-hander Cole Sands as the 27th man for today’s game against the Astros (allowed as a result of the suspension of last night’s Twins-Astros tilt in the fourth inning) and transferred right-hander Chris Paddack, who’s been out since Tuesday with elbow inflammation, to the 60-day IL.

Arraez, who’d been out since Friday, had gotten off to a hot start to the season, slashing .301/.378/.370 while logging significant time at first, second, and third. He’ll return to his role as manager Rocco Baldelli’s super-utility man, though he could also serve as the Twins’ primary first baseman with Miguel Sano set to miss a significant chunk of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He’s shared time there with top prospect Jose Miranda and outfielder Alex Kirilloff since Sano hit the IL.

Given the relatively short duration of Arraez’s absence, perhaps the more significant news in Minnesota is Paddack’s transferral to the 60-day injured list, which could signal that the recently acquired righty will undergo a second Tommy John surgery — as had been feared since his departure in the third inning of Sunday’s game against the A’s. This hasn’t been confirmed, though the timing is ominous: Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported yesterday morning that the former Padre would get a second opinion by today. Regardless, Paddack will now be on the shelf until at least July — and quite likely until at least next year. In 22 1/3 innings across five starts prior to the injury, Paddack posted a 4.03 ERA (1.73 FIP) for a Twins staff already without Bailey Ober, Dylan Bundy, and Kenta Maeda.

Sands, selected out of Florida State by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2018 amateur draft, has mostly started in the minors. While he’s off to a rough start to the season at Triple-A St. Paul, he did turn in a strong 2021, logging 80 1/3 innings with a 2.46 ERA and solidly more than a strikeout per inning for Double-A Wichita. The call-up marks his second stint in the majors this year; he covered two innings (and allowed two earned runs) in an early May blowout of the Rays.

Godoy, who made his big-league debut with the Mariners last year, appeared in only a single game for the Twins. The 27-year-old backstop will return to Triple-A to serve as injury cover Ryan Jeffers and Gary Sanchez.

Twins Place Bailey Ober On Injured List, Recall Cole Sands

By | at

The Twins have placed starter Bailey Ober on the 10-day injured list with a right groin strain, per MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park (via Twitter). In a corresponding move, Cole Sands has been recalled from Triple-A to make his Major League debut.

Ober has gotten off to a strong start for Minnesota, making four starts and posting a 2.75 ERA/3.56 FIP spanning 19 2/3 innings. He’d lasted at least five innings in each of his first three before being pulled early due to the injury.

Sands had an excellent season in Double-A last year, posting a 2.46 ERA in 80 1/3 innings. He hasn’t gotten off to quite that grand of a start in Triple-A, but the sample is small after just 12 2/3 innings.  He is the Twins 15th-ranked prospect per Baseball America.

Twins Designate Willians Astudillo, Charlie Barnes For Assignment

By | at

The Twins are designating utilityman Willians Astudillo and left-hander Charlie Barnes for assignment, the club announced. Additionally, left-hander Devin Smeltzer and outfielder Kyle Garlick have cleared outright waivers. Minnesota added six prospects to the 40-man roster in advance of tonight’s deadline for Rule 5 draft protection: Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Blayne Enlow, Cole Sands, Chris Vallimont and Josh Winder.

Minnesota also announced that they’ve agreed to terms on a deal with outfielder Jake Cave on a major league contract. He’ll make $800K, reports Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (Twitter link). Cave had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $1.1MM salary via arbitration. It’s not uncommon to see players on the non-tender bubble (as Cave appeared to be) agree to salaries for a bit lower than projected in advance of the non-tender deadline, however.

Amidst this large flurry of Twins transactions it’s the one jettisoning Astudillo that may grab the most attention. While the 30-year old didn’t quite get it done at the plate this past season, producing a .236/.259/.375 slash, his Twins tenure has often left fans looking past his offensive contributions. Dating back to his 2018 debut with the Twins, Astudillo has lined up at every position except for shortstop, providing adequate defense and pitching as admirably as one can expect in mop-up duty (including a 2.25 ERA in four 2021 innings). The multi-talented Astudillo is now all but certainly headed for free agency, though a reunion with the Twins later in the offseason isn’t yet out of the question.

Barnes, 26, is a soft-tossing lefty and former fourth-rounder who made his big league debut out of necessity to help soak up some innings in an injury-ruined season for the Twins’ rotation. He was clobbered for a 5.92 ERA while striking out just 20 of the 175 batters he faced. The Twins now have a week to trade Barnes or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Also gone from the roster are Smeltzer, a former Dodger prospect who came to the Twins in the Brian Dozier trade, and Garlick, an offseason waiver claim last winter who played a platoon role in Minnesota early this season. Smeltzer logged a 3.86 ERA through 49 innings during the 2019 season, his debut campaign, but has battled injuries and seen his performance dip in the two years since. He missed nearly the entire 2021 season due to elbow troubles.

Garlick, meanwhile, hit .232/.280/.465 with five homers and eight doubles in just 107 plate appearances. He hit 10 extra-base hits (four homers, six doubles) in just 63 plate appearances against lefties but spent the majority of the season on the injured list himself.

Most of the Twins’ additions are wholly unsurprising. Lewis was the No. 1 overall pick in 2017 and, despite missing the season due to an ACL tear, was never going to be exposed to the Ryle 5 Draft. Miranda was the Twins’ minor league player of the year and posted video-game numbers in the minors, hitting his way into Top 100 consideration. Winder has battled injuries but might be Minnesota’s top pitching prospect based on stuff alone. Enlow was an overslot third-rounder who has had his own injury troubles but is still held in high regard. Sands and Vallimont both rank among the Twins’ more promising arms themselves, even though Vallimont had a down year in 2021. The former Marlins righty, acquired in the trade that brought Sergio Romo to Minnesota and sent first baseman Lewin Diaz to Miami, is a potential fourth/fifth starter who’s reasonably close to MLB readiness.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top