The promotion of Jose Berrios was a hot-button topic at the press availability of Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Cleveland Indians. Ryan said Berrios’ first start — and incidentally, Wednesday’s probable starter — are still to be determined, but reading through the lines, it’s clear that barring some sort of issue, it should be the 21-year-old Puerto Rican right-hander making his big league debut at Target Field in the series finale with Cleveland.
Ryan said the Berrios move — in tandem with recalling versatile infielder Jorge Polanco — allows the Twins to get back to 13 pitchers and 12 hitters. That’s not necessarily his ideal roster construction it seems, but it’s the best situation possible with what’s at his disposal.
The Twins wouldn’t call up Berrios if he wasn’t ready, but if his Triple-A stats are any indication, he’s as ready as he can get at this point. Through 16 starts for Triple-A Rochester between late June last year until now, Berrios has a 2.82 ERA, 10 K/9 and a WHIP of 1.04. Ryan echoes the concept that Berrios is ready. “We wouldn’t have called him up if we didn’t think he was ready,” Ryan said. “We had to purchase his contract. This isn’t just a recall; this is a purchase or a select. Those are a little different.”
The move Ryan is referring to is that the Twins had to add Berrios to the 40-man roster. Unlike Alex Meyer and Polanco recently, Berrios was a non-roster player. Teams will frequently not add players until they absolutely have to; it’s not for nefarious reasons, but because 40-man implications litter the landscape of the game. Adding a player too soon might make it difficult or impossible to send him down later if he struggles, and that’s just part of the equation.
This isn’t one of those promotions where the stay length is pre-determined, either. “It’s an opportunity,” Ryan said. “It’s an opportunity for him to make a good impression and see where it takes us. It isn’t predetermined how many starts he’s going to get by any stretch.”
Ryan also offered a deeper look into Berrios’ repertoire, which by many prospect gurus is considered to be not only refined, but strong on the stuff front. “He’s got fastball, curve and change; he’s got velocity. He’s got spin,” Ryan said. “He’s got a nice feel for the change. That’s a pretty good combination. It’s just a matter of location. He does a nice job on all the other areas of the pitching approach, too. He fields his position quite well. He’s pretty good at managing the running game. He handles lefties decent.”
So why didn’t Berrios make the team out of spring training? It came down to command. “It’s been a process,” Ryan noted. “It was just a matter of command. I don’t think he had command enough to start with us. When he got to Triple-A, that improved. As you’d expect, he worked on it and got some things ironed out. Relaxed maybe a little bit more.”
UPDATE:
Berrios made it to Target Field before game time on Tuesday night, and spoke with the media following the game for the first time:
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Ryan also added a couple updates on currently injured players making their way back to the active roster.
On Kyle Gibson, Ervin Santana and if he’s optimistic about a quick turnaround: “Yeah. We can do Santana retroactive, which is good. Gibson’s isn’t quite as far dated back, but we still think both of them will be alright in the amount of time. I don’t know if it’s going to be any longer than the 15 days, but hopefully not.”
On Trevor Plouffe: “Plouffe is feeling better. He’s going to be healthy enough — it looks — for him to be able to come off on his day, which is I believe May 3. He’s making good progress; we expect him to re-join us in Houston I believe. We’ll probably do a rehab assignment; it’ll be short, but we’ll see if we can get that accomplished.”
He also added a quick update on Tyler Duffey, who is making progress and is slated to start on Saturday at home against the Tigers: “It looks like he’ll be OK. I think he’s rebounding and he should be OK to go in the next series.”
