It’s overcast and warm as the Minnesota Twins prepare to take on the Boston Red Sox for the first time this season. It’ll be left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez taking on righty Phil Hughes with the first pitch on tap for 7:10 p.m. More on that in a bit.
Commissioner Rob Manfred was in town and met with media for about 20 minutes prior to regular clubhouse availability, and was peppered with questions by Twins and visiting media alike. Keep an eye on ZoneCoverage.com for some audio from the press conference.
The Twins are celebrating University of Minnesota night at Target Field, so there will be some maroon and gold dotting the usual red and blue in the stands this evening. Manager Paul Molitor and Glen Perkins are two alums of the Gophers, as is Padres scout Mark Merila, who attends every game at Target Field as well.
There are quite a few players who share mutual ties between the Twins and Red Sox, even with retired designated hitter David Ortiz out of the picture. Per the game notes, Ryan Pressly, Craig Breslow and even first base coach Jeff Smith — who played in the Red Sox system in 2003 — all have ties to the Boston organization.
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Here’s how the Twins will line up to take on the Red Sox:
Here’s how the Red Sox will counter:
Hughes has had to reinvent himself on the fly in lieu of a fastball that is averaging a career-low 89.3 mph according to PITCHf/x (housed on Fangraphs). As a result, he’s throwing way more changeups than ever (19.2 percent) and is mixing in curves and cutters at the expense of his fastball, which he’s throwing at a career-low rate. Don’t look now, but he’s also throwing more two-seamers (24.2 percent) than ever before, and not by a small margin.
This continued altered approach is going to be interesting, especially against an offense like Boston’s which is supposed to be potent, but collectively is off to a bit of a slow start.
Rodriguez is the least known of the three lefties who’ll make regular starts for the Red Sox this year — Chris Sale and David Price, of course — but he’s a very solid pitcher in his own right. He was absolutely brilliant in the second half last year — 3.24 ERA after the break, 8.59 before it — as he found a strikeout per inning with a good WHIP (1.13) down the stretch.
He’s off to a nice start through five appearances (four starts) this year as well, with 31 strikeouts in 23.1 innings. He’s had some trouble with walks (14 so far) and at times has been susceptible to right-handed hitters — like most lefties — but he’s an intriguing young talent. He throws mostly four-seam fastballs that are firm (93.3 mph average) and will mix in a change most frequently with a slider from time to time as well.
His fastball is really, really good, which is why he throws it so often. It has a 12 percent swinging strike rate — absurdly high for a fastball — and the changeup is a showstopper as well (26.6 percent). In all, Rodriguez has thrown five different pitch types — all have double-digit whiff rates. This is a potentially elite talent.
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Roster Moves
The Twins made a handful of roster moves on Friday afternoon. The move that set everything in motion came on Thursday, with the team sending Kyle Gibson to Triple-A, where he’ll make his first non-rehab appearance at that level since the 2013 season. The Twins also designated utility man Danny Santana for assignment. Santana has 10 days to be released, traded or placed on waivers for the purpose of outrighting him to the minors. If he clears waivers, he’ll remain in the organization because it’s his first outright, and he does not have the requisite service time to refuse.
“The quietness of our roster the first three weeks or so is a distant memory,” Molitor said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on, starting with Kyle yesterday. So you put everything in place to move forward the best way that you can.”
Regarding the Santana move, Molitor said he wasn’t totally sure how taken aback Santana was, but he was sure it was tough news to take. “That’s a guy with long tenure here,” Molitor said. “But he wasn’t getting a lot of opportunities to play. I talked to him at the end of camp about being patient and prepared and doing what you can do when called upon, but he wasn’t getting a very big chance. You’d like to find a way to keep a guy like that around, but we were in a box where we had to make a spot. I’m sure he’s disappointed and probably a bit emotional. We’ll go from there. I know as a manager it isn’t fun to have those conversations with people you have known for a long time and have a lot of respect for. To do those on back-to-back days, it has an effect.”
The Twins filled Santana’s spot on the roster by activating utility man Ehire Adrianza from the disabled list. Adrianza was battling an oblique issue, but is now fully healthy and ready to help fortify the team’s defense. He’s a tremendous defensive shortstop who can hold his own all over the infield and can also play the outfield in a pinch. He played left field near the end of his rehab stint at Rochester.
“We found out quite a bit about (Adrianza) before we saw him in camp just talking with people from San Francisco and things that he’s done,” Molitor said. “He knows the big-league game. The old cliche is that he’s a pretty good pro about how he handles himself. He knows what he has to do to take care of himself and prepare every day. We’ve tried to add to his versatility a bit by sticking him in the outfield just to give us another option out there with Danny’s’ departure. He’s a really solid defender in the infield — particularly at shortstop — and he can play around a little bit. He puts together good at-bats. You wouldn’t call him a high offensive player, which has probably held him back from more regular playing time, but he knows how to take a good at-bat.”
Adrianza said he felt a little something in his oblique early in his rehab stint, but that trainers assured him that was normal and now he feels pretty good. He also said he feels pretty comfortable wherever Molitor ends up playing him. “I feel pretty good,” Adrianza said. “I played the last four games in left field. I didn’t get an opportunity to make a big play or anything like that, but I feel pretty comfortable.” He also agreed with Molitor’s previous assertion that throws from the outfield will have a bit more natural tail to them, which is something he’ll continue to work on.
The Twins also purchased the contract of right-handed pitcher Drew Rucinski from Triple-A Rochester. Rucinski has some big-league time with the Angels between 2014 (6.28 ERA in just 14.1 innings) but his numbers jump off the page in his early work with the Red Wings at Triple-A: 3.48 ERA, 13-2 K/BB ratio in 10.1 innings (six appearances, one start).
“We obviously needed to try find another arm in the bullpen,” Molitor said. “We have a lot of guys who are borderline available today. The whole roster question with 40-man and 25-man and all that…we were limited on our 40-man options because Boshers is not available. J.T. Chargois is hurt, different things like that. So we needed a spot and had to designate Santana.”
Molitor said the Twins also considered some other pitchers already on the 40-man roster, but with Boshers and Chargois not available for different reasons, a move had to be made. Mason Melotakis has been very, very good at Double-A Chattanooga. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in 11.2 innings with an 8-1 K/BB ratio, but Molitor said most in the organization would like to see him get even just a little bit of work at Triple-A Rochester before he moves up to the big leagues.
LISTEN: Rucinski joins Midwest Swing during the offseason to chat about his new team.
Molitor said the team saw Rucinski quite a bit in the spring, and got pretty good reports from him at Rochester. “He’s not overpowering,” Molitor said. “He’s got a nice cut fastball. He can throw the curve for a strike early in the count or to get back in it. His best pitch is a split. You hope he pitches from ahead when he gets a chance to use it.”
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Injury Updates/On the Horizon
There is still not a ton of clarity on the condition of Byron Buxton. “I think he’s banged up,” Molitor said before the game. “I think we’re fairly confident about not having to deal with concussion stuff, which would mean potentially a seven-day DL stint. That could possibly change depending on how the rest of the day unfolds. But I know his body is sore and I know he’s got some headache issues he’s been dealing with on and off today. We’ll just monitor how does pregame to see if he might be available as a pinch runner or some kind of replacement late in the game, but I’d like to stay away from him if possible tonight.”
It sounds as though Buxton is not out of the woods as far as concussion testing, however. “I talked to (team trainer) Dave Pruemer today and he said they were waiting for him to come in,” Molitor said. “He told me they’re probably going to have to do some of that stuff today and probably tomorrow. I’m not sure how they determine that. Some of the things like headaches are not good. But if you bang your head against a wall you’re going to have a headache, but it doesn’t mean you’re concussed. So I think some of the other things that they feel have tested negatively in terms of symptoms.”
Keep an eye on the open rotation spot vacated by Gibson. Molitor said on Friday that Jose Berrios and Adalberto Mejia are the two candidates to make that start. That could come on Saturday, but it’s not certain that’s exactly when it’ll happen. “You know the candidates down there,” Molitor said. “I think Mejia is supposed to start today and Berrios tomorrow, but they’re having weather issues down there. So we’re not sure if they’re going to have that chance and how that’s all going to play out. We’re just going to kind of see if we can gather more information before we make that decision, whether we want to wait until next Saturday or potentially interject them somewhere differently according to how these next couple days go. Who and when…we’ll have to see.”
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Law and Order
Miguel Sano’s disciplinary hearing took place this afternoon via a conference call with Joe Torre and his cohorts in New York City. The call lasted about 90 minutes, according to team translator and communications assistant Carlos Font, with Sano’s side presenting its case and then the league office’s side presenting theirs. The expectation is that the Twins will likely hear back on Monday or Tuesday about what, if anything, has changed regarding Sano’s discipline.
“I got to sit in on part of the hearing today,” Molitor said. “Obviously Thad (Levine) did a really nice job of presenting our side of the arguments. We had to listen to some of their accounts as well, and they’re going to put it all together and let us know on Monday or Tuesday with a final answer. So we know he’ll be available for the weekend, which is good.”
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#OldFriend Updates
The Arizona Diamondbacks purchased the contract of an outfielder at Triple-A Reno on Friday, and former Twins outfielder Oswaldo Arcia was not it. Despite the fact that Arcia is hitting a blistering .384/.440/.767 through 23 games and 100 plate appearances, the Diamondbacks went with former Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco, who appeared in just one game for the Aces but had played in five games with High-A Visalia beforehand.
Former Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki has gotten into 15 games so far this year backing up starting catcher Tyler Flowers for the Atlanta Braves. He’s hitting .222/.375/.306 and has thrown out two of five attempted base thieves (40 percent). He looks to be the primary catcher when R.A. Dickey and Mike Foltynewicz — who is starting for the Braves this evening — are on the mound.
Notes
- The Twins are expecting 30,000 fans tonight against the Red Sox. That would mark the highest attended game at Target Field since Opening Day drew 39,615.
- Friday night marks the first game for the Twins against an AL East team. The Twins are 10-10 against the AL Central and 4-2 against the West.
- Brian Dozier needs one more leadoff home run to take over No. 1 on the team’s all-time list. He’s currently tied with Jacque Jones (20).
- The Twins are 14-12; they didn’t win their 14th game until May 28 against Seattle last season (14-34). In other words, they’d have to lose 22 straight games to match last season’s pace.
- The Twins still boast baseball’s No. 1 walk rate offensively (11.7 percent). Boston is tied for 18th (8.3 percent).
- In terms of wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) the Twins have the No. 6 offense in baseball (106). They’re tied with the Rays in that respect. The Red Sox are 18th (94).
- The Twins rank 10th in MLB in overall ERA (3.97).
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