M-M-M sold

Three relievers. all with the last initial M, sold to other major league teams: Adalberto Mejia to the Angels. Mike Morin to the Phillies. Matt Magill to the Mariners.

Mejia was a waiver claim, Morin and Magill traded for "cash considerations." All had been DFA'd. What is really going on: the Twins decided the roster spots were more valuable than the pitchers.

Another "M," Trevor May, threw 49 pitches Sunday. He was not particularly good either -- 49 pitches, the most since he became a reliever, of which only 25 were strikes -- and he has now allowed six runs in his last 3.2 innings.

Bottom line: The Minnesota bullpen, which spent much of the first half of the seasons bending but not breaking, has cracked.

As of this morning -- with Zach Littell optioned out after Sunday's game but no corresponding move announced -- the Twins have the following relievers:

• Taylor Rogers
• Blake Parker
• Trevor May (who, I guarantee, is not available today or tomorrow)
• Tyler Duffey
• Ryne Harper
• Kohl Stewart

The word on Twitter late Sunday was that Cody Stashak, 25-year-old righty, was getting the call. Adding him to the 40 is clearly no issue after three DFA's. He has a string of solid strikeout rates in the minors since the Twins drafted him in 2015 (13th round) and this season has been no exception.

I'm not counting on him as a savior. 

Back at it

Time to end the blog vacation. Some comments about the past week:

* The Twins, needing a spot on the 25-man roster to restore Jake Odorizzi from the injured list, designated Adalberto Mejia for assignment.

This not only took Mejia off the active roster but off the 40-man roster as well. The Twins are down to 38, so they now have room for two newcomers in (a) prospect(s)-for-veteran(s) trade(s).

Before I took my break, I suggested that Mejia was on thin ice. That wasn't any great insight. Mejia has, in the three years since the Twins got him from the Giants in a July trade, pitched his way out of the rotation plans and now out of the bullpen, with 12 walks in 15.1 innings this year.

It's certainly possible that he'll clear waivers and remain in the Minnesota organization. I don't hold out much hope that the Twins will get anything out of him or for him.

* The Twins got what they needed, if not what they wanted, out of the Cleveland series coming out of the break, taking two of three from the Tribe and adding a game to their divisional lead.

A sweep would have been nice, and I suspect Trevor May has been kicking himself for the lousy curve he threw Carlos Santana for the go-ahead homer Sunday, but two-of-three in a series of close contests is acecptable -- and a dent in Cleveland's lingering divisional aspirations.

* Of note in that series: The Minnesota bullpen, widely considered weaker than the rotation, pitched better. The Twins deployed their top three starters in Cleveland (Kyle Gibson, Odorizzi and Jose Berrios), and none of them got into the sixth inning. The Twins bullpen combined for two runs allowed in more than 12 innings over the three games.

* To that end, manager Rocco Baldelli continued his aggressive use of Taylor Rogers. The lefty bullpen ace threw two innings on Friday for the save, then worked another inning Saturday to protect a four-run lead (no save there).

I doubt Rogers was available Sunday. He certainly did his part earlier in the weekend. Friday's two-inning save was his seventh outing of six or more outs this season. Joe Nathan had 14 such outings in his entire Twins career.

Baldelli, in this limited regard, reminds me a bit of Leo Durocher, Hall of Fame manager, who said something like: "Don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain." When Baldelli sees a chance to win today's game, he'll go for it, and deal with any bullpen shortages the next day.

Thoughts from the weekend

I considered late Sunday afternoon revising the Monday print column to put more emphasis on strengthening the bullpen, and to excoriate Adalberto Mejia in particular. I decided to keep the focus on the rotation in general and the notion of a Madison Bumgarner trade in particular.

But Mejia's outing, while certainly not the only reason the Twins lost Sunday, was damaging to his own future. He made the team out of spring training largely because he's out of options. But he has pitched, when not on the injured list, horribly. Sunday gave him 12 walks allowed in 15.1 innings, and that's not tolerable.

The Twins have largely been without a second left-hander in the bullpen. That's supposed to be Mejia's role. They have already dropped Gabriel Moya and Andrew Vasquez from the 40-man roster. The only other left-handed pitchers on the 40 are bullpen ace Taylor Rogers and starters Martin Perez, Lewis Thorpe, Delvin Smeltzer and Stephen Gonsalves. So if there's going to be a second lefty in the bullpen, it will be via trade.

Vasquez was outrighted during the weekend without a corresponding addition to the 40, presumably to open space for a trade for a veteran. If they need two spaces, Mejia is in jeopardy. He may be regardless.

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Sunday's game turned, in a very real sense, on a play in which Byron Buxton was thrown out trying for third base on a fly to center. His out came before Jonathan Schoop reached the plate and ended the inning.

I was listening to the radio broadcast at that point, Tim Laudner being unlistenable as the TV analyst, and Dan Gladden declined to criticize Buxton's try for third.

I'm not so hesitant. Yes, Joey Gallo had to make a Grade A throw to get him, and yes, Joey Gallo had not played a good center field in the series. But even if there's only a 15 percent chance that Gallo makes a good-enough throw, the gain from advancing Buxton to third with two outs wasn't worth the risk.

If Buxton sticks to second, Schoop's run gives the Twins the lead. Theoretically, that would have been enough to win.

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The Futures Game on Sunday evening featured two Twins prospects. Royce Lewis went 1-for-2 (and committed an error in the field as a substitute (Wander Franco of the Rays system was, deservedly, the starter at short for the American League team), and Jordan Balazovic threw a hitless inning.

I love the Futures Game, even shortened as it was to seven innings (eight with extras; it ended in a tie). It's a niche product, I know, but I rather prefer it to the All-Star Game itself.

---

Unless the Twins make a trade during the break, I'll probably go silent here until the season resumes.

Delving into the bullpen depth

I intended to make today's post about something other than bullpen usage, which has been a pretty steady topic here.

But then Monday's game happened, and guess what? Bullpen usage played a pretty significant role.

And it starts with the starting pitcher. Jake Odorizzi couldn't get through the sixth. This is who he is as a pitcher. This is his sixth role in a major league rotation, and he not only has zero complete games, he's only completed seven innings 10 times. When he starts, the bullpen is going to pitch a substantial portion of the game. So the Twins had to piece together 10 outs, and ideally do so without using Trevor Hildenberger or Taylor Rogers, who were used hard during the weekend.

* Trevor May got the last out of the sixth. He was wild -- eight pitches, just three strikes. And since he threw 27 pitches on Sunday, he was just in to get the one out. Rocco Baldelli would probably have preferred skipping him too.

* Ryne Harper got the seventh inning with a five-run lead and the meat of the Astros lineup coming up. Carlos Correa hit a three-run homer. Harper's ERA rose from zero to 2.89. Harper, who got ten outs in his previous outing and had therefore been idle in the Baltimore series, threw 24 pitches to get through the seventh, so he didn't come out for the eighth.

*Adalberto Mejia got the eighth after the Twins kicked the lead back up to four. He didn't pitch in the Baltimore series either, but not because of heavy useage. I don't think Baldelli is eager to give Mejia high leverage innings, but the alternatives weren't attractive, and it was the bottom of the Houston lineup. Mejia got though the eighth unscathed, but it took him 20 pitches.

* With just three outs to go, Blake Parker, after a weekend off with a virus, got the call for the ninth. He gave up a hit but needed just 14 pitches to close it out. Not an official save, but he probably would have pitched with a 10-run lead.

I don't know that Monday really changed anything I believe about this team, or at least this bullpen.

The Twins still need more from May than he's provided. The three relievers not in Baldelli's "big four" of Hildenberger, May, Parker and Rogers are still prioritized Harper, Mejia and Tyler Duffey. I didn't expect Harper to put up zeros all season, and at least this crooked number didn't cost him the game, but it didn't encourage Baldelli to increase his role, either.

The bottom line on Monday: The hitters got enough runs for the weaker half of the bullpen to get late outs.

Trip to Cedar Rapids: Off day

The Twins had expected to have Michael Pineda ready to step into the starting rotation next month. They wanted to spend the rest of the season looking at Adalberto Mejia.

Neither will happen.

Pineda, as you may remember, was signed to a two-year deal with an eye to 2019; he was to (and did) spend the season rehabbing his right elbow after Tommy John surgery. That went well enough that for the past month or so it was assumed that he would pitch in September. Instead, he has a meniscus tear. He might pitch winter ball. 

This, really, changes nothing about Pineda and 2019. He was expected to fill one of the rotation slots next year, and he's still expected to fill a rotation slot.

The same cannot be said of Mejia's injury, described as nerve irritation. The lefty is out of options after this season, so he's either on the active roster in 2019 or waived.

He's had a good season: 3.27 ERA in Triple A, 2.01 in five appearances in the majors. Hidden by the sparkling major league ERA: he's had just one appearance of more than 15 outs, his walk-to-strikeout ratio isn't good, and his strikeout rate is low.

But that's just 22.1 innings. The walk and strikeout rates in Triple A were strong. The innings per outing, not so much.

So Mejia really needed this opportunity. The Twins called him up in mid July to give him a chance to show, if not the Twins then somebody else, that he's capable of being a useful rotation piece. Instead, he's going to hit the offseason not only without that opportunity, but with a possibly significant health question.

Contemplating Aldaberto Mejia

Adalberto Mejia did not have a "quality start" Monday night in Toronto. He allowed just one run (thanks in no small part to an effective outing from Matt Belisle, who entered with the bases loaded and one out and stranded all three runners), but he only pitched 5.1 innings, not the six required by the unofficial stat.

Short starts, as I've noted before, are not unusual for Mejia. Last season he made 21 starts for the Twins but pitched just 98 innings, less than five innings a start. This is part of why I think he makes a really good candidate to be used as the innings eater in a Tampa Bay-style "opener" game.

Mondy's game, if disected, does little to support that notion. Mejia  faced 26 batters, almost three full trips through the order. It was the bottom half of the order that forced him from the game in the sixth. He got through the more dangerous part of the Toronto order without serious danger his third time through.

Thad Levine, in the same radio segment in which he discussed the organization's testing of the opener tactic in the minors, said Mejia got the call for Monday's game in part because he's out of options after this year and the organization needs to decide what they have in him.

What we've seen in the majors doesn't match his minor league numbers. Mejia has very solid walk rates in the minors (2.9 walks per nine innings this season for Rochester), but he has not replicated those strike-throwing ways in the bigs. He threw first pitch strikes Monday to fewer than half the hitters he faced.

There was no move announced after the Monday game, but the Twins have already said that Ervin Santana is to start Wednesday. Presumably Mejia will be demoted as part of that.

Applying the "opener" to the Twins

The Monday print column examined the Rays' innovative use of veteran short reliever Sergio Romo, who has been deployed four times in two weeks to pitch the first inning against righty-heavy lineups.

The Rays all told have done this five times in that span, using another righty bullpen arm for the first inning and then turning to another pticher for length.

The column got about as long as I care to submit for print without getting into the applicability of this strategy for the Twins. And without a specific transaction to comment on today, here goes.

Against the Twins

I don't see the Rays trotting Romo out for the first inning when they come to Minnesota in July. Romo, who throws about 60 percent sliders, is a right-handed specialist, and the Twins are heavy with left-handed hitters and switch hitters. It's a rare lineup from Paul Molitor that doesn't have at least one left-handed hitter in the top two lineup spots.

Remember, a big part of what Kevin Cash is doing here is getting a favorable matchup at the start of the game. He's not eager to have Romo face Joe Mauer, Eddie Rosario or Max Kepler at any time that matters.

By the Twins

Unlike the Rays, the Twins don't have any lefties in their rotation, marginal or otherwise, and won't even after Ervin Santana returns from his surgery rehab. And there's really nobody in the current rotation Molitor would necessarily want to protect.

But last year was another matter. Adlaberto Mejia made 21 starts for the Twins and threw all of 98 innings -- less than five innings per start. The hefty lefty was their fourth-used starter but didn't provide the bulk innings one wants from a middle of the rotation piece.

It might have helped to use somebody like Alan Busenitz or Ryan Pressly against a righty-heavy top of a lineup to open Mejia's outings and then turn to Mejia. One or two more wins out of those games would have been valued.

Mejia not only didn't make the team this year, he isn't giving the Twins reason to bring him up. If the opener concept is going to spread out of Tampa Bay, it won't do so in Minnesota.

Adalberto Mejia vs. Bartolo Colon

A left-hand toast to Adalberto Mejia who gave the Twins a great start.  Their wildcard lead is now 2 1/2 games with 9 to play.

— Dick Bremer (@dbremer_pxp) September 22, 2017

"Great start"? When did 4.2 innings become a great start?

Mejia's line score is pretty good other than just getting 14 outs. But he committed a balk and got the hook after -- yet again -- not getting to first base in time on a ground ball.

I have never seen a major league pitcher have as much difficulty covering first base as Mejia, and I don't think it's simply a chronic brain cramp. He's big and slow, and he falls off the mound toward third base after delivering a pitch, and he just doesn't get to first base. That might seem like a minor detail, but it comes up start after start -- and if it means one extra hit a game, that matters.

Let's assume that the Twins not only land the second wild card game but advance to the ALDS. Who do you want as the fourth starter in the playoff rotation? We can expect Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson are 1-2-3. But I don't see the Twins trying to go with just three starters, if only to protect Berrios, who has already hit a career high in innings pitched.

Do you go with Bartolo Colon? He's had his moments since joining the Twins, but he has a 5.33 ERA in 13 starts with Minnesota, and 16 homers in 72.2 innings is a really bad ratio.

Or Mejia? The hefty lefty (you knew that was coming, didn't you) a markedly better ERA than Colon but has a walk rate twice as high -- and his fielding should be a concern. A playoff team that doesn't make him get off the mound and make some plays isn't really trying.

Some questions don't have a wrong answer. This one doesn't have a right answer.

In the world of Big Sexy

Twins Twitter, always in need of a distraction, got caught up Wednesday in the revelation that Joe Mauer, given the opportunity to put a nickname on the back of his jersey for a weekend, went with "Mauer."

There are a handful of guys on every team who decided not to play along. It's easy for me to imagine Mauer saying to himself when given the paperwork: What name do I want on the back of my jersey? My name. 

In truth, if MLB's marketers could unilaterally assign a nickname to a member of the Twins -- and the whole Players Weekend thing is about selling jerseys -- it wouldn't be Mauer. It would be Bartolo Colon, who will have "Morales" on his Players Weekend jersey rather than the far more lucrative "Big Sexy."

Colon threw seven scoreless innings Wednesday night at Milwaukee, which is pretty lucrative itself. I didn't give this Colon experiment any real chance of success; I was wrong. Five starts into his Twins tenure, the 44-year-old has a 4.02 ERA in 31.1 innings. He's pitching deeper into games on average than Adalberto Mejia, and with a lower ERA.

Meanwhile, the roster games continue. The injured Mejia -- no structural damage found in his MRI, so he'll likely be back in September if not sooner -- was replaced on the roster Wednesday not by Hector Santiago, as I expected, but by Kennys Vargas. And immediately after the game Vargas was returned to Rochester for Dietrich Enns, one of the pitchers acquired from the Yankees last month when the Twins flipped Jaime Garcia.

Enns is to start today against the Brewers, which will make him Twins pitcher No. 31 on the season. Will he stick? My track record at roster prediction this year is pretty poor, but my guess is one-and-done. He'll shuffle back to Rochester after making his major league debut for a fresh arm.

Which won't be Santiago. He started Tuesday for the Redwings and walked six men in 4.1 innings, which isn't going to make the Twins hasten to bring him off his rehab assignment. (It expires in two weeks anyway.)

Win one (game), lose one (pitcher)

Adalberto Mejia left Tuesday's game in the fourth inning with what was described as soreness in the biceps/triceps area. I guess that means the upper arm. He went on the disabled list immediately after the game, with a corresponding move to be announced today.

A good guess is that Hector Santiago's rehab assignment will be cut short, with the veteran lefty returned to the roster. He might either step into the rotation spot vacated by Mejia or into the long relief role now occupied by Dillon Gee, who threw four scoreless innings for the save Tuesday, 55 pitches.

With the Twins now 1.5 games out of a playoff spot, this is a potentially important decision. My thinking, which may not be shared by management, is:

• If the primary purpose is to try to snag one of the wild card berths, they should put Gee in the rotation.
• If the primary purpose is to get something in an August waiver deal, they should put Santiago in the rotation.

Paul Molitor sounded in his postgame comments like he was leaning toward the first.

There are other possibilities, including putting both in the rotation and putting Kyle Gibson in the bullpen.

As for Mejia: The hefty lefty is to have an MRI today. (I like the sound of "the hefty lefty" and expect to run that description into the ground.) His ERA is 4.47, which is exactly league average by ERA+. He's been their third-best starter for much of the season, but has seldom worked deep into games. Mejia has pitched 86.2 innings across 18 starts, less than five innings per start, and has finished six innings only four times.

I've had Mejia penciled into the 2018 rotation whenever I look to the near future. We'll see if this injury forces that to change.

Contemplating Adalberto Mejia

Adalberto Mejia has been credited with the win in each of his last three starts, posting a 1.53 ERA in those outings and lowering his ERA for the season by more than a run in the process.

That would seem to suggest that the hefty lefty, a rookie who turned 24 a little more than two weeks ago, is emerging as a third effective starter in the Minnesota rotation.

On the other hand, he also averaged less than six innings a start and posted a mediocre 7/12 walk/strikeout ratio in that stretch. In 17.2 innings, he allowed 24 baserunners (16 hits, seven walks and one hit batter).

Mejia's gotten better results in the past couple weeks than even Ervin Santana and Jose Berrios, the big two of the Twins rotation. Still, even as one who prefered Mejia for the rotation over the spring training competion for the one open spot, I can't say I see this success as sustainable given the underlying numbers.

He's not truly pitching well enough for a 1.53 ERA. And for the season, he's not truly pitching well enough for a 4.32 ERA, which is his mark after 12 starts. He's not the biggest problem in the rotation, but he's not yet fully convinced me, as Berrios has, that he's part of the solution.

More innings and fewer baserunners, please.

Notes, quotes and comment

Adalberto Mejia, five-and-fly.

The hefty lefty has made two starts on this road trip and hasn't allowed a run. He also hasn't had a quality start; five innings against Cleveland on June 23, 5.2 Wednesday night in Boston. Mejia has now made 11 major-league starts; he's pitched into the seventh just twice.

That'll work if the bullpen is deep and/or rested, as it was Wednesday (as I commented in my previous post, Paul Molitor was able to shield his key relievers in the Tuesday debacle). It would sure be a lot better if Mejia could get 21 outs with some consistency, not just 15.

---

Craig Breslow went on the disabled list Wednesday and Phil Hughes came off a bit earlier than anticipated. Breslow hasn't had a high leverage role, but his recent struggles have strained the 'pen.

Hughes represents a potential upgrade to the bullpen, and a potential risk as well. I doubt Molitor will be as reluctant to use him for key outs as he is such rookies as Adam Businitz and Trevor Hildenberger. But we really don't know how his stuff is going to play out of the bullpen or how well his post-surgical arm will hold up under more frequent use.

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I don't know that much about the umpiring work of John Tumpane.  He became a full-time MLB umpire less than a year ago, he's worked a no-hitter, and I can't recall ever noticing him at a Twins game, which is probably a good sign.

I do know that he's a freakin' hero. This harrowing story of how he intervened to keep a despondent woman from leaping off the Roberto Clemente Bridge outside PNC Park in Pittsburgh (and then umped home plate) on Tuesday makes me an admirer for life.

"I'll never forget you." Indeed not.

Roster moves and injuries

Adalberto Mejia was indeed called up after Friday's game to make today's start. Adam Wilk, the lefty claimed off waivers from the Mets on May 10, was designated for assignment.

Wilk made two long relief appearances in some 16 days on the roster, working seven innings total. It was relatively easy to forget that he was on the roster, and I suspect that he's one of those guys who, when I look at the Baseball Reference page for this team five years from now, I'll think: Who was that?

Maybe he'll clear waivers and accept an outright to Rochester. Maybe he'll be claimed. I doubt anybody in the front office is overly concerned either way.

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A worse loss for the Twins was announced Friday: Nick Burdi needs Tommy John surgery.

I saw his second professional game, working for Cedar Rapids in a game in Clinton, Iowa in July 2014, and wrote about him (and Kohl Stewart) here. I am fairly certain that if on that muggy, buggy night I were told that the major league team would be in first place entering Memorial Day weekend in 2017, I would have expected that one or both of those pitchers would be part of that.

But Burdi, who was overwhelming the Southern League this year, can't seem to stay healthy, and Stewart is struggling in Double A (22 walks in 24 innings).

Anyway: scratch Burdi for 2017 and probably 2018, at least in terms of getting to Target Field. He was supposed to be a fast mover, but ... pitching at around 100 mph is a cruel occupation.

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Some injury news regarding established major leaguers:

Phil Hughes is seeking a second opinion on his arm issues. Glen Perkins is apparently going to pitch to hitters (what they call live batting practice) on Tuesday.

My lukewarm takes: Hughes isn't so sure his current issues aren't related to the thoratic outlet syndrome for which he had surgery last year. And I'm glad to see some progress for Perkins, but I'm not counting on him for 2017.

Add one pitcher, subtract one pitcher

A bit more than a week ago, in discussing the dominance of Jose Berrios in his first major league start of 2017, I noted in the Monday print column that the Twins had two veteran starters who were pitching quite well (Erivin Santana  and Hector Santiago) and one pitching acceptably (Phil Hughes). Berrios, optimistically, deepens the rotation:

That's the optimistic take, and it assumes not only that Berrios is suddenly a solid major league starter but that none of the Santana-Santiago-Berrios-Hughes combo gets hurt. That's ... unlikely.

Berrios was even better the second time out. But Hughes has since spluttered and gone on the disabled list.

Aldaberto Mejia, who opened the season as the fifth starter but didn't fare well with inconsistent work, returned for the second game of Sunday's doubleheader and got the job done: Seven innings, three runs. Do that every start, you're gonna make a lot of money, kid. He was immediately shipped back out as the Twns gamed their roster, but he figures to be back real soon.

Kyle Gibson started Monday and was SOG -- Same Old Gibson. He managed to both worsen a horrid ERA on the season (from 8.20 to 8.62)  and get the credit for the win. Twelve runs of support can cover a multitude of sins, and Gibson had a multitude to cover. Eighty-six pitches and just 48 for strikes?

Not that he's the sterotypical Twins strike-thrower;

415 pitchers have 500+ innings since 2000 and Kyle Gibson (38%) is the only one to throw fewer than 40% of his pitches in the strike zone.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 23, 2017

Santana-Santiago-Berrios does not add up to a five-man rotation. I'm not sure at this point that inserting Gibson brings them to four, but that appears to be the short-term intent for lack of a better idea.

Asked Molitor whether Kyle Gibson gets another start. "We don't have a lot of options right now. He's on the roster," & no moves planned.

— Phil Miller (@MillerStrib) May 23, 2017

We don't know how badly Hughes is injured or even what the injury is. No matter what, he's out of the picture for at least eight more days. Presumably Mejia will get called up again for Saturday's start, although it's possible that they might try to get through with a bullpen game if they don't have to take innings from Adam Wilk and Justin Haley between now and then. If couse, if they do that, the 'pen is vulnerable going into another Gibson start on Sunday.

Bottom line:

• Gibson may be at a career crossroads
• Berrios' emergence hasn't really deepened the rotation after all
• We're gonna see a lot of roster juggling this summer.

Rosario, Santiago and Mejia

Eddie Rosario watches his
game-ending sac fly head out to
center field at Dodger Stadium.

Paul Molitor claims that Eddie Rosario gets better in big moments -- "he likes the bright lights," the manager says of the player -- and while I am dubious about that kind of evaluation, Rosario did provide the game-winning RBI Monday night in the 11th inning to put Puerto Rico in the WBC championship game.

He also had a marvelous throw from right field in the bizarre top of the first, in which the Netherlands lost two baserunners before Wladimir Balentien homered. Rosario didn't nail a runner himself, but his throw held a Dutch runner at third and was followed by a Yadi Molina throw to first that caught a celebrating Jurrickson Profar off the base.

Rosario has a better throwing arm than Max Kepler does, which makes it odd that Kepler is the one playing right field for Molitor with Rosario in left. That may be balanced a bit by the fact that left field is a bit more spacious in Target Field (and in most other parks, for that matter).

I noted a few days ago that a Baseball America writer said Rosario was having a breakout WBC. He is having a good one, certainly.

---

Also having a good tournament is Hector Santiago, who threw 3.1 innings of relief Monday, allowing one run. In true Santiago fashion, he walked three in his outing. But he was also pumping his fastball at 93-95. a good bit better than his usual velocity as a starter.

Hector's ERA for WBC: 2.08.

8.2 IP
2 ER
9 H
5 BB
9 K

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 21, 2017

All those innings came in relief, I'm a bit baffled that Edwin Rodriguez chose to start less experienced pitchers in this tournment, but it's worked so far; Puerto Rico is not only in the finals, it's undefeated. I'm not sure where this use pattern puts Santiago in terms of being ready for the regular season.

The WBC's pitch count rules make Satinago ineligible for Wednesday's championship game. Jose Berrios is a strong candidate to start against either Team USA or Japan. If he does, it will be the biggest game of his life so far.

---

In the humdrum of Twins camp. Tyler Duffey and Adlaberto Mejia split Monday's exhibition game at the Blue Jays camp. Duffey threw five shutout innings, easily his best performance of the spring, and Mejia threw the final four, allowing back-to-back solo homers but continuing to show impressive stuff. I still like Mejia for the final rotation spot.

Mejia's 4 IP:

66 pitches
45 strikes
9/16 FPS
3 sw/miss
17 fouls
No 2-0 counts#mntwins

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 20, 2017

Berardino went so far as to compare Mejia to the young C.C. Sabathia. Other than that they are both left-handed, large and too dark to have played in the pre-Jackie Robinson era, I ain't buying it. Sabathia was a more highly-regarded prospect 16 years ago than Mejia is. But if he has half the career Sabathia has, I'd sure take that.

Notes, quotes and comment

A few news items and links that piled up last week while I did my silly "Guess Who" series:

* Alex Kirilloff, the Twins' first-round draftee last June and their No. 3 prospect in the Baseball America rankings, will have Tommy John surgery this week and is out for the season.

Comment: Kirilloff is no longer incentive to get to Cedar Rapids before Memorial Day. I had figured that he might, as Byron Buxton did, spend only a half season or so in the Midwest League, and I wanted to see the kid hit before he moved on. Wait until next year.

* Fangraphs issued its "all KATOH" team -- minor leaguers whose stats impress but who are not, for various reasons, beloved by scouts. Three Twins farmhands make this imaginary roster: second baseman Luis Arraez, outfielder Zack Granite, and pitcher Adalberto Mejia.

Comment: Accurately judging prospects requires more than "scouting the stat line," but production matters too. If they keep producing, they'll get their chance despite the scouts' reservations about their physical limitations.

* This is set to publish less than a half-hour before the first game of the World Baseball Classic, with Pool A and Pool B opening play in South Korea and Japan.

Comment: The WBC isn't a big deal here in the States -- Noah Syndergaard turned down Team USA and said something like: Nobody goes to the Hall of Fame or wins the World Series by playing in the WBC -- but it is to a lot of the non-Amercian players, and the Twins have a goodly number slated to play in this tournament.

* And, finally, I recommend this Jeff Passan piece on Statcast and MLB Advanced Media's efforts to make advanced stats accessible and digestible.

A trade tree

Follow the bouncing roster spot:

In 1999 the Twins drafted right handed pitcher Travis Bowyer in the 20th round. In 2001 they drafted Scott Tyler, also a right-handed pitcher, in the second round. Tyler never got above Double A, but Bowyer reached the majors for eight appearances in 2005.

The Twins traded the two after the 2005 season to the then-Florida Marlins for veteran second baseman Luis Castillo. Castillo was one of the "Piranhas" in 2006; in 2007, with the team out of contention and Castillo approaching free agency, the Twins shipped him to the New York Mets for two minor leaguers, outfielder Dustin Martin and catcher Drew Butera.

Martin is still active, playing this year in the Mexican League, but he has not reached the majors. Butera caught for the Twins 2010-13, then was traded to the Dodgers in a deadline deal for Miguel Sulbaran, a left-handed minor league pitcher.

The following spring, 2014, acting general manager Rob Antony (filling in while Terry Ryan recovered from his cancer treatment) traded Sulbaran to the Yankees for Eduardo Nunez. Sulbaran reached Triple A last year but has not appeared in a game at any level for any team this season.

Nunez, as we know, was a reserve player for the Twins in 2014 and 2015 before emerging as a superutility regular this year, starting games at shortstop, third base and second base and gaining the Twins' All-Star roster spot. As we also know, he was traded Thursday night to the Giants (Antony again) for Adalberto Mejia, a left-handed minor league pitcher.

And the future will tell what Mejia will do -- or be turned into.

This has not been a highly productive trade tree. The Twins have gotten a little more than two seasons of leadoff hitting (Castillo in 2006 and more than half of 2007 plus Nunez this year) and a handful of bench seasons (Butera and Nunez). But it's been more than 17 years since the Twins drafted Bowyer, and that move is still faintly echoing in the system.

The Nunez trade

Eduardo Nunez just gained
20.5 games in the standings
going from the Twins to
the first-place Giants.

Rob Antony pulled the trigger on a trade Thursday night, shipping the Twins' token All Star, Eduardo Nunez, to the San Francisco Giants for Triple A lefty Adalberto Mejia.

Mejia is 23. Baseball America lists him as No. 91 in its midseason prospect ranking, No. 5 in the Giants organization. That's a pretty decent return for a 30-year-old whose breakthrough season seemed to be decaying even as the Twins shopped him around.

Mejia is, right now, rotation depth. He projects, apparently, as a back-of-the-rotation guy, and there's genuine value in that. He may or may not be in the majors by September (he opened 2016 in Double A), but he might be. If nothing else, he further frees up Antony to deal one or more of the current major league starters. 

Meanwhile, Jorge Polanco is getting called up to take Nunez' roster spot. I'd like to see him get regular playing time, but ... he's been playing second base in Rochester, and that makes sense because that's his best position, and that's Brian Dozier's spot. The only game Polanco's played at short in 2016, it appears, was with the Twins. We'll see what the Twins have in mind for Polanco, but I suspect that trading Nunez mainly opens up playing time for Eduardo Escobar.

The Giants, whose lead over the Dodgers in the NL West has slid to two games, just brought second baseman Joe Panik off the disabled list, but third baseman Matt Duffy is still on the shelf. The plan is for Nunez to fill in for Duffy until his return, then be a utility man.