Phil Hughes seemed to think he was getting the start on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s starter was officially listed as TBA as of Monday afternoon, but it was his turn in the rotation. And although he had struggled in his first two starts — 7.0 innings pitched, 7.71 against the Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds — he is signed through 2019 as part of a five-year, $58 million deal signed under the Terry Ryan regime. It wasn’t far-fetched to think he’d be given another shot of holding down the fifth starter job.
“We’ve scuffled a little bit, but that happens and you’ve seen the trickle down to our pen and how that affects those guys,” Hughes said when asked about the starting rotation’s struggles this season.
“I think over these next few days it’s really important that we just give ourselves some length and pick up the pen and help guys like Rogers and those guys, get a little bit of a breather from pitching all the time. You’re not going to have your best stuff if you have to run out there five of seven days.”
Asked directly if the team had talked to him about a bullpen role, he said: “Not at this time. Not at this time.” Asked if he was preparing to throw against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Twins’ opponent this season, he said: “Yeah, yeah. Correct.”
About 20 minutes later Twins manager Paul Molitor announced that Fernando Romero will be making his major league debut on Wednesday.
“We’re going to get Phil out to the bullpen here in the short term and Fernando Romero is going to come up,” said Molitor.
It turns out Hughes will be giving the bullpen some length, just not in the way he expected to.
“He’s been pretty good,” Molitor said of Romero. “He’s had some command issues down there as well. We know that he’s got high-end stuff. It’s fun to watch him pitch. Not lacking in confidence.
“The flip side is that given the fact we’ve had a lot of these short starts, with Phil’s couple of starts, we feel we need to get him in a better place to be able to help us. Throwing him out there right now doesn’t seem like the best interest for him or for the team.”
While the Twins’ farm system has some interesting prospects in it, Stephen Gonsalves and Nick Gordon immediately come to mind, and many of the most exciting young players are in the lower levels, like Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff, are in the lower levels. The rest of the big-name guys — namely Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Jose Berrios, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario — are already in the majors. And unfortunately they’re going through struggles of their own.
Buxton has a hairline fracture in his foot and has suffered from migraine headaches so bad that they have kept him out of the lineup. “Whatever they tell me I can do and how much my progress goes,” he said, adding that it still hurts to push off of it. “But hopefully sometime this week I’ll be able to run.”
Miguel Sano had a rod inserted in his leg that supports his left tibia, has battled weight issues recently and is currently battling a hamstring injury. “He’s not making a lot of progress,” Molitor said bluntly. “Got out and ran today a little bit and it didn’t go particularly well. So, I was hoping by day three we’d be seeing a little bit better, being in a better position to get him back in the lineup.”
Berrios certainly has major league stuff and has been lights-out at times, but got shelled in his past two starts against the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds (7.0 innings pitched, 11.57 ERA). Rosario is an exciting player, but still swings at pitches that are well outside the zone and can have the occasional adventure in the outfield.
Kepler’s improvements this season, to be fair, have been encouraging. He’s taken over in center field for Buxton, and he’s hitting .316/.350/.632 with some power (one homer, three doubles) in 20 plate appearances against lefties. He’s a career .186/.249/.304 hitter against southpaws, a flaw that appeared to be hampering his potential as an everyday starter in the majors entering this season.
Romero is the next most exciting player to join the Twins. Molitor, of course, was quick to downplay expectations, but even he seemed upbeat about the prospect of yet another prospect making his major league debut.
“Geez, we had the chance to see a lot of them last year,” he said with a wry smile on his face. “This kid, I think we’ve all been impressed by him.
“You’re not sure if he’s going to take it and run with it right away. Your expectations, you’ve got to be careful, just think the guy’s got electric stuff and he’s going to come out here and start dealing. There’s more to pitching successfully up here. It will be a little bit different than some of the other guys that have come up here and had that chance.”
On Wednesday, we’ll see how prepared Romero is. For a team that’s not very far removed from an eight-game losing streak, and is expected to compete for a playoff spot again this year, the excitement of a top prospect making his first start in the majors could be just what they need to rally while Buxton and Sano convalesce.
