With Hector Santiago slated to go on the bereavement list after the passing of his grandmother, the Twins have reportedly made the move to get Buddy Boshers back up with the big club in the short term, according to Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
According to MLB rules, Santiago will miss between three and seven games while tending to family matters, while Boshers will give the Twins a nine-man bullpen over the weekend against Kansas City. To say the Royals are struggling offensively would be putting it nicely; they’re hitting just .203/.266/.320 as a team, and rank in the following places among MLB’s 30 teams:
- Average – .203 (30th)
- On Base Percentage – .266 (30th)
- Slugging Percentage – .320 (30th)
- wOBA (weighted on-base average) – .260 (30th)
- wRC+ (weighted runs created-plus) – 61 (30th)
While a nine-man bullpen is most likely unprecedented in Twins history — September notwithstanding — the maneuvering makes sense as the team doesn’t need a fifth starter until May 6 due to off days, and Santiago will be back in time to make his next scheduled start sometime early on the next homestand.
The Twins are off next Monday, and for the next three Mondays heading into May.
Adding Boshers comes at a good time, as the Twins are eighth in bullpen ERA but do have some important pitchers sagging a bit. Matt Belisle got rocked in the eighth inning of Thursday night’s blowout loss, and his season ERA is sitting at 7.00. Ryan Pressly has allowed as many earned runs (eight) as innings pitched so far, and both Taylor Rogers and Michael Tonkin have scuffled to varying degrees in recent action as well.
Boshers pitched 2.1 innings for the Twins in a mop-up role on April 23 after the most recent short Kyle Gibson start — Gibson is slated to pitch Friday in Kansas City — before being sent down immediately after the game. In all, he spent less than a day in the big leagues.
Ordinarily, Boshers would be unable to rejoin the Twins due to a 10-day rule between demotions and the subsequent promotion, but that is waived in the case of disabled list stints and bereavement leaves. Boshers has not pitched at Rochester since being sent back, and for the season has a 7.36 ERA with the Red Wings in 3.2 innings. That ERA is tinged by a bad first appearance (three earned runs in 1.2 innings) followed by four straight scoreless outings afterward.
Boshers pitched well out of the bullpen for the Twins in 2016, posting a 4.25 ERA (2.84 FIP) with more than a strikeout per inning, 1.8 walks per nine and a 46.7 percent groundball rate.
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