On Friday afternoon, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press — also friend of Zone Coverage and frequent contributor to the Midwest Swing podcast — reported that the Twins had sent right-handed reliever J.T. Chargois to Triple-A Rochester.
Chargois was amidst a handful of pitchers vying for one of the final spots in the team’s bullpen, but a rough spring performance took him out of the running with a little over a week to go.
Chargois picked up steam last September as he pitched to a 2.84 ERA over his 14 appearances in the month (12.2 IP) with a 13-3 K/BB ratio. Chargois got better as the season went on, as his final 10 appearances resulted in a 1.00 ERA, 9-1 K/BB ratio (9.0 IP) and an OPS against of just .492. After not inducing much in the way of swinging strikes in his first 11 appearances (6 percent from June 11-Aug. 31), he found his good swing-and-miss stuff the rest of the way, posting a solid 12 percent whiff rate in the season’s final month.
That momentum didn’t carry him in Fort Myers, as the 26-year-old righty posted an 8.64 ERA (eight earned runs in 8.1 IP) with 19 hits allowed, which resulted in a WHIP of 2.28 and a batting average against of .410. Despite being sent out, Chargois is probably not long for Rochester as far as the Twins are concerned. He’s already 26 — due to being drafted out of college and missing significant time due to Tommy John surgery — and he was lights out at Triple-A last season over 35 innings. Opposing batters hit just .241/.275/.333 when Chargois returned to Rochester after a disastrous first appearance against the Red Sox with the Twins, and for the season with the Red Wings he had a 1.29 ERA, 10.5 K/9 and a sparkling 1.00 WHIP.
In the meantime, this likely means one of two scenarios for the Twins. They’re most likely weighing who should have the No. 5 starter’s job between Tyler Duffey and Adalberto Mejia. Jose Berrios is a distant third, and with only 10.2 innings under his belt this spring between Grapefruit League play and with Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, it just doesn’t seem like he’ll have enough time to be lengthened out to start the fifth game of the year for the Twins after Friday’s telecast suggested the team would roll five-deep with starters to open the season.
If Mejia breaks camp in the rotation, Duffey likely heads to the bullpen as the final righty. That would set up a bullpen of:
- Brandon Kintzler
- Ryan Pressly
- Matt Belisle
- Taylor Rogers
- Craig Breslow
- Tyler Duffey
- Justin Haley/Michael Tonkin/Buddy Boshers
With lefties Rogers and Breslow already locked in, the Twins will likely want one more righty in the bullpen to shore things up behind Belisle and Pressly, hence adding Duffey. Haley is also right-handed, but for one he’s not a lock to stick with the team, and secondly he wouldn’t be expected to handle much in the way of difficult innings out of the chute. If he doesn’t make the team, Tonkin could stick around or so could Boshers. Boshers being left-handed makes Duffey’s presence all the more necessary….unless they prefer Tonkin there and would option out Duffey to keep him on track as the next man up to start.
If Mejia is sent to Triple-A to start the season, that means Duffey is probably the No. 5 starter, with two of the three guys listed last above making the team. In that case, Boshers might be the odd man out since he has options, as again, Tonkin’s right-handedness and that he pitched well at times last year would give him one last shot to stick around.
Regardless, with Chargois being sent out at this point in camp, this looks to be the pitchers the Twins are planning to go to battle with to start this season. A sleeper long guy could still emerge at this point — maybe Alex Wimmers or Drew Rucinski — but right now that just doesn’t feel terribly likely.
