Minnesota Twins GM Terry Ryan knows it all. He knows about the blown leads. The incredible amount of strikeouts recently. And, of course, that his team just called up one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Jose Berrios.
Berrios’ debut
Not only is Berrios getting called up at age 21 with a lot of hype surrounding him, but he could potentially be pitching in the rain — the game was delayed until 7:45 pm — or, at the very least, roughly 50 degree conditions.
“He’s a major league player. He’s pitched in Rochester for the better part of a year now, and the weather in Rochester is much worse than it is here,” said Ryan. “He’s learned to pitch in this stuff.”
“I understand it’s chilly, and it’s gonna be damp,” he added. “But that’s the way it is in major league baseball. You’re paid to play, and we’re gonna go play, and we’ve got an operation to run here.”
Plouffe doing well
“Our tentative plans right now are to have him play down in Ft. Myers with with the Miracle for Saturday and Sunday,” said Ryan. Plouffe is expected to meet the team in Houston and come off the disabled list Tues, May 3. “All things being equal, he should be ready to go.”
Too many pitchers? Not a problem
The Twins have seven potential starters on the roster right now. Ervin Santana and Kyle Gibson are on the disabled list. Tyler Duffey was called up, but can’t be sent down because he was hurt in his start. Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios are young guns the team hopes will stick in the majors one day, and Phil Hughes and Ricky Nolasco are pitching well.
“I haven’t given it any thought, because it always takes care of itself,” he said. “We got, what?, three pitchers on the DL (including closer Glen Perkins). I hope we have a jam, that means we have three pitchers coming off the DL.”
Blowing close leads? That’s a problem
“We’ve been in almost every game, and we’re 7-14. That’s not what any of us anticipated,” he said. “I don’t think any of you guys who were at Spring Training would have thought we’d get off to an 0-9 start, but we better start realizing that it’s getting to the end of April, and we’re 7-14.”
There is an interesting dichotomy between what the team anticipated, what pundits predicted for them, and how the local media sees it.
Ryan explicitly stated he wanted to win the AL Central, considered by many to be the Kansas City Royals’ to lose, at the beginning of the year. National analysts put them somewhere in the 75-win range. The local media was somewhere in between, for the most part.
“Regardless of if it’s a one-run loss or a blowout, it goes into the standings. And that old saying, ‘You can’t win a pennant in April, but you sure as heck can lose one?’ We don’t want to be in that predicament where we can’t dig ourselves out,” said Ryan.
“We’re doing a little better, and we’re winning games. There’s two or three or four of them that you certainly could look at, that we probably should have won, and we didn’t. Now we’ve gotta move on.”
Striking out a lot? That’s a problem too
“I’m not a big strikeout guy. I don’t like strikeouts. I don’t care if you’re swinging at strikes — put the ball in play, especially if you’re a catalyst,” said Ryan.
“I don’t know, I’m not a big strikeout guy. I know it’s the way the game is going and moving, but I’ve never believed anything good comes out of that.”
Strikeouts are becoming more common across baseball, however, and there are Twins players in the minors who are striking out with some frequency that could make the major leagues.
“They shouldn’t be doing that. They shouldn’t be (comfortable striking out). And we shouldn’t promote guys who are striking out at that alarming clip,” he said.
“If we were striking out in the minor leagues, let’s say at 30 percent, which is huge, then it’s gonna go up to 40 here. It’s just inevitable that that’s the way things go, and the pattern, when you’re developing players … if they walk in the minor leagues, they’ll probably gonna walk up here. If they strike out in the minor leagues, they’re gonna strike out up here.”
As far as his current lineup, he said he’s happy with it, even though some players are off to slow starts.
“Now, we’ve got a number of guys that aren’t doing what you’d hope,” Ryan admitted. “Well, we’ve got a little bit of balance, we’ve got a little bit of power, we’ve got a little bit of speed. And some of them are starting to swing the bat and taking better at-bats. We’re putting the ball in play more, which is good. In fact, our lineup is pretty nice.”
“They just didn’t make enough contact for sure. And when you start seeing the strikeout numbers that are accumulating in this lineup, that ain’t gonna work,” he added. “You’ve gotta start adjusting, and making at least a pass at a strike. Swinging at balls, you’re not gonna do much swinging at balls.”
Finally, the Twins signed #OldFriend Andrew Albers
Albers, a Canadian who went 2-5 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 starts in 2013 and last pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 (2.2 innings), has been signed by the Twins out of Lancaster of the Atlantic League.
“He was pitching in independent ball, and we knew where he was,” said Ryan. “He’s a good human being. He’s always been a good worker. He throws strikes. He works quick, and finds ways to get hitters out. Just all the stuff we saw here a couple of years ago.”
