Twins, Paul Clemens Agree To Minors Deal
The Twins are in agreement on a minor league deal with right-hander Paul Clemens, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). The Ballengee client was recently released by the Padres. While the 29-year-old won’t factor into Minnesota’s Opening Day roster plans, he can serve as a depth option for an unstable rotation and as a potential long man in the bullpen as well.
[Related: Updated Minnesota Twins depth chart]
Clemens split the 2016 campaign between the Marlins and Padres, logging 10 innings for the former and a considerably larger 61 1/3 inning for the latter. Clemens finished the year in the San Diego rotation and posted solid surface-level numbers down the stretch, recording a 3.67 earned run average in 16 appearances (12 of which were starts).
A bit of a deeper look suggests that Clemens had some good fortune in posting that solid mark, though; his 6.9 K/9 rate, 3.4 BB/9 rate and 40.3 percent ground-ball rate were all worse than that of a league-average starter in 2016. ERA alternatives like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged Clemens for a mark in the 4.80 to 5.00 range. In parts of three big league seasons, Clemens has a 4.89 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 in 169 1/3 innings between the Astros, Marlins and Padres.
The Twins are poised to enter the season with a rotation consisting of Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes, Hector Santiago, Kyle Gibson and one of Adalberto Mejia or Tyler Duffey. Well-regarded young righty Jose Berrios was recently optioned to Triple-A, and the team’s rotation depth took a notable hit earlier this month with the news of Trevor May‘s Tommy John surgery.
Padres To Release Paul Clemens
The Padres are set to release righty Paul Clemens, according to Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). It’s not apparent whether the organization has an immediate, corresponding 40-man move in mind.
Clemens, 29, entered the spring out of options, meaning he had to crack the Opening Day roster or face the waiver wire. Instead, the club has made up its mind early, with Clemens now set to head to the open market.
The Friars added Clemens last summer on a waiver claim after he struggled with the Marlins. He ended up providing 61 1/3 innings of 3.67 ERA ball, with 6.9 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. Clemens managed only a 39.8% groundball rate and 6.6% swinging-strike rate.
That showing was reasonably promising, all things considered, though it didn’t do enough to move the ball on Clemens’s overall trajectory. He owns just a 4.89 career ERA over 169 1/3 major league frames. And Clemens was off to a rough start this spring, with ten earned runs and 15 hits charged to him over a dozen frames, over which he has just six strikeouts to go with seven walks.
While it seemed there was a reasonable chance Clemens might crack the Padres’ rotation at the start of the offseason, San Diego added four starters over the winter. It seems the club has other plans with its fifth and final rotation spot; Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource currently projects lefty Christian Friedrich to take that job.