The Minnesota Twins have gone to their youth to fill in the rotation with Kyle Gibson and Ervin Santana on the disabled list and Tommy Milone struggling.
Paul Molitor announced Milone would be moving to the bullpen this afternoon, and Terry Ryan said that while there is a lot of hype surrounding the team’s young pitchers — specifically Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios — the moves were made out of necessity more than anything.
“That’s kinda out of necessity, because we lost two of the five on there. You gotta adjust,” he said.
“We were fortunate enough to have a couple guys with pretty good talent — all three, actually: Duffey, Meyer and Berrios down there.
“It’s gonna happen; it just happened all at once.”
“And Berrios, Meyer and Duffey are all throwing the ball well enough to get an opportunity if there was an opening, and we’ve got openings, so they’re gonna get the ball.”
In an ideal world Ryan says the Twins would not have called up all three players at once. He likes his veteran starters, especially Gibson, who was drafted 22nd overall in 2009 and was once a top prospect in the Twins system, and Santana, who is in the second year of a four-year, $55 million deal.
“It’s not ideal, there’s no question. You don’t expect to have that many injuries this soon in the season. But they’re getting an opportunity here, we’ll see what they can respond like,” he said.
“It’s gonna happen; it just happened all at once. It’s inevitable that you’re gonna have to use closer to 10 starting pitchers through the course of the year. Not just us, but almost everybody.”
Jose Berrios made his highly-anticipated debut Wednesday night, and while the numbers aren’t pretty — 11.25 ERA in 4.0 innings pitched — he passed the eyeball test for a rookie pitcher.
“The other day with Berrios, he wasn’t sharp, we could all see that,” said Ryan. “I’m hoping he’ll build on that outing, and see if we can get him settled in and get his pitches a little bit more command — first-pitch strikes, all that stuff.”
Ryan’s focus was on how Berrios handled damage control, which, all told, he did a decent job with. He also displayed some of his high-end stuff.
“Maybe damage control early, because the first hitter each inning got on. He got through it a couple of innings and then it got away,” said Ryan.
“I don’t know, you could see the raw stuff — that’s a good thing. He didn’t let anything get to him, he just had a little trouble commanding his pitches.”
“The one thing that was evident in that game was the Cleveland Indians fouled off many, many pitches. And it was … I’m sure he was wondering what he has to do to get a ball by some of those guys, and that’s what happens when you bring them up from the minor leagues to here. It’s a whole different story when you have to go through a lineup three times or four times.
“They fouled off an unbelievable amount of pitches.”
“They fouled off an unbelievable amount of pitches. It didn’t matter if it was a curveball, a fastball or changeup. I think the best thing I can tell you about that outing is he wasn’t afraid to use his stuff. He mixed in a ton of changeups, he threw a lot of breaking balls, and his fastball probably didn’t have the kind of command that I had seen in four days previous.
“I just got done seeing the guy. Some of those things that he was throwing up there, players in Triple-A swung through.”
Duffey is a fifth-rounder out of Rice from the 2012 draft. He went 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA (134 ERA+) in 10 starts, surprising many outside of the Twins organization.
He has a unique contract with Fantex Inc. where he is part of a five-player grouping that has signed brand contracts in exchange for a portion of their future earnings on and off the field, according to the Pioneer Press.
Duffey, 25, will be paid $2.23 million in exchange for 10 percent of his future earnings. The grouping includes third baseman Maikel Franco (Philadelphia Phillies), right-hander Collin McHugh (Houston Astros), second baseman Jonathan Schoop (Baltimore Orioles) and third baseman Yangervis Solarte (San Diego Padres).
The biggest concern for Meyer, who will replace Milone in the rotation, is his changeup. Meyer arrived via the trade that sent Denard Span to the Washington Nationals. He was drafted No. 23 overall in 2011 and expected to fast-track to the majors.
“He’s got, certainly, a feel for it. And it’s a usable pitch,” said Ryan. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that his fastball, his curveball are impressive, and now he’s trying to get that changeup up to par with the other two.”
He is 26 now, and only pitched 2.2 innings last season, finishing with a 16.88 ERA (28 ERA+). It’s a small sample size, of course, and Keith Law named him the top relief prospect in the Twins system.
“I probably have the same interest as a devout fan does of this organization.”
The fact that he made two strong starts in Triple-A and is in the rotation for now should be encouraging for the team and fans alike.
“I probably have the same interest as a devout fan does of this organization,” said Ryan.
“Hey, we finally got a look at Berrios. We finally got a look at Sano. We finally got a look at Buxton. They’ve been reading about them for about four years, and when they come up, you’d like to see everything fall into place for them. It doesn’t happen that way many times, but sometimes it does.”
