This is a series of evaluations that will be done this offseason on every player that closed the season on the 40-man roster for the Minnesota Twins, with one appearing every weekday from now until each player has been evaluated. The plan is to start with Mr. Albers and move all the way through the pitchers, then to the catchers, infielders, outfielders and finally those listed as designated hitters on the club’s official MLB.com roster. That means we’ll wrap it up with Miguel Sano sometime before the season starts.
- Name: Alex Wimmers
- 2016 Role: Wimmers ascended from Double-A afterthought to closer in Triple-A before getting a long awaited and well deserved call to the big leagues. His MLB time was a bit rocky, but simply getting there is a big personal win.
- Expected 2017 Role: Wimmers was outrighted off the 40-man roster and re-signed on a minor-league deal. He’ll compete for a role as long guy in the 2017 bullpen, though he’ll most likely open the season at Rochester.
- MLB Stats: 4.15 ERA (4.93 FIP) in 17.1 innings, 1.44 WHIP, 7.3 K/9, 5.7 BB/9, minus-0.1 fWAR.
- MiLB Stats: 3.97 ERA in 56.2 innings (Double-A and Triple-A), 1.36 WHIP, 8.9 K/9, 4.0 BB/9.
- Contract Status: Has six years of team control remaining.
2016 Lowdown:
To say little was expected of Alex Wimmers coming into the 2016 season would be an understatement. He was 27 and had seen limited success in Double-A despite being a first-round pick coming out of college.
But that would be needlessly reductive in telling the story of where he’s been, and where he got to. We know all the facts by now. Wimmers was a first-round pick for the Twins at a time when they were playing well on the field (2010) and were looking to replicate their successes in the draft by grabbing polished collegiate pitchers. It worked with Matt Garza and Scott Baker, to some extent with Kyle Gibson, and in some instances — Shooter Hunt, Matt Bashore and Carlos Gutierrez — it, uh….it bombed.
Pitchers’ careers fall apart for a veritable plethora of reasons. For Wimmers, he had basically every issue you could imagine a pitcher having. He had Tommy John surgery at the end of the 2012 season and had another, less serious elbow operation — to decompress the radial nerve, according to the Pioneer Press — a year later, but by 2014 was fully healthy. Prior to the elbow injury, Wimmers couldn’t find the strike zone. Typically, command is an issue for pitchers coming back from major surgery; for Wimmers, it was a precursor. In 2011 across two levels he walked 5.0 batters per nine; in 2012, he threw just five innings and walked three batters and couldn’t get anybody out.
He faced 27 batters that season; 13 of them reached base.
The next season was similarly lost for Wimmers, as he threw just 15 innings with the GCL team as a 24-year-old — 3.4 years older than his average counterparts. That wasn’t particularly pretty either — nor should it have been expected to be — as 32 of the 78 batters he faced reached base. In other words, Wimmers was hit to the tune of a .357/.410/.486 line by 19- and 20-year-olds just getting their first taste of pro ball.
Things were quite a bit better for Wimmers in 2014. He started out in Fort Myers and put together a 4.04 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 62.1 innings — and as importantly, just 25 walks — before getting moved up to New Britain for the second half. Wimmers was really good in a short stint with the Rock Cats, posting a 3.74 ERA with a sparkling 27-6 K/BB ratio in 21.2 innings. In 31 appearances that season across the two levels, Wimmers made just eight starts and threw 84 innings. He also went undrafted in the Rule 5 draft for the first time, which made sense considering he was almost two years older than his High-A mates that season and about a half-year older than the average player in the Eastern (Double-A) league.
The Twins pushed him back into starting in 2015 with mixed results. He spent the whole season at Chattanooga — the new Double-A affiliate that season — and he posted a 4.53 ERA in 30 appearances (18 starts) with just so-so numbers across the board: 7.8 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 1.39 WHIP.
Wimmers was moved to the bullpen full-time in August that season, and made his final 12 appearances in relief with numbers that were in a stark contrast to what he did as a starter. In the bullpen, Wimmers posted a 23-6 K/BB ratio in 21.2 innings with a .492 OPS against, 1.02 WHIP and healthy 13 percent whiff rate. In the pen, his ERA was 2.91. As a starter, his ERA was 4.90, with an OPS against nearly 300 points higher and a K/BB ratio of just 2.1 compared to 3.8 as a reliever.
OK, message sent. Wimmers — who was again passed up in the Rule 5 draft — was going to be a full-time reliever moving forward.
After a so-so couple weeks in Chattanooga’s ‘pen to start the season, the Twins moved Wimmers up to the Red Wings for the bulk of the 2016 season. He took to the back end of their bullpen with fairly good results, eventually spending time as the closer after guys like Buddy Boshers, Taylor Rogers and Brandon Kintzler were promoted to the big club. He posted basically Wimmers-like numbers at Rochester, with a decent ERA (3.62) and plenty of strikeouts (9.1 K/9) but still too many baserunners (1.33 WHIP).
At the very least, he’s the kind of guy it feels good to root for. Never give up on your dreams.
But in a lost season, the Twins still found a way to give Wimmers the big-league shot he had so long desired. Feel-good stories don’t sit well with fanbases in 100-loss seasons, but it’s hard not to root for a guy who has been through all of this.
Wimmers’ big-league time was semi-interesting, as he basically worked higher-leverage spots than Paul Molitor might have liked because the bullpen was a disaster down the stretch. Eight of Wimmers’ 16 appearances were in above-average pressure spots, with only two appearances coming in real laugher/blowout situations.
Command again was an issue, but six of Wimmers’ 11 walks came in back-to-back appearances on Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, spanning 2.2 innings. In fact, over Wimmers’ final 12 games, he had a 2.08 ERA and 11-5 K/BB ratio in 13 innings. That’s passable, if not excitement-worthy. Opposing batters hit just .182/.260/.318 on him over that stretch with a solid 12 percent whiff rate.
Ultimately, Wimmers’ best chance at any sort of MLB career is going to be as a long guy, sort of cut from the mold of another Jeff Manship — who recently signed overseas — or Anthony Swarzak. Working in Wimmers’ favor is that he’ll be cheap for three years. However, not in his favor is that the regime which drafted him is no longer — for the most part — in power. He still managed to wrangle a minor-league deal out of them, so who knows…maybe he’ll find his way back to Target Field this season at some point. At the very least, he’s the kind of guy it feels good to root for. Never give up on your dreams.
Grade: B+. Simply getting to the major leagues is a huge win, even if he didn’t pitch all that well while up. Based on expectations, this seems like a fair grade.
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