The 40-man spot cleared by DFA’ing Michael Tonkin has been filled, as the Minnesota Twins announced on Wednesday afternoon that they had claimed left-handed pitcher Adam Wilk off waivers from the New York Mets. Wilk will join the Twins in Chicago on Thursday, with the corresponding move coming then.
Wilk found himself amidst a media circus in New York recently, as he took the place of Matt Harvey on Sunday after the latter was suspended by the team. Predictably, the start went poorly, as Wilk allowed six runs (five earned) in 3.2 innings while allowing eight hits (three home runs).
The Mets designated him for assignment on Monday.
Wilk has only thrown 30 big-league innings across four seasons between the Tigers, Angels and Mets with a 7.20 ERA, 1.77 WHIP and 6.3 K/9. In the majors, Wilk has averaged 87.6 mph on his four-seam fastball, and has thrown a changeup, cutter and curve as well. The cutter — which is a fastball-slider hybrid, really — has had fairly good whiff rates in his short big-league time.
In parts of eight years in the minors, Wilk has a solid 3.67 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 1.7 BB/9 and a 1.20 WHIP. It would seem he has a good chance to start on Saturday, even with Jose Berrios biding his time down there and ready to pitch again as early as Friday.
Wilk has been tough on lefties in the past. In 2016, he held them to just a .376 OPS at Triple-A Durham. In 2014 with Triple-A Indianapolis, he held them to a .647 OPS. With that said, righties have pretty much always hit him hard, and lefties seem to see him very well every other year as well.
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