Wimmers and Melotakis

As noted in Friday morning's post, the Twins needed to clear room that day on their 40-man roster to make room of Dillon Gee and Trevor Hildenberger. They did so by designating for assignment two minor leaguers who were high draft picks.

Alex Wimmers (first round, 2010) wasn't a great shock. He's bounced up and down between the big league club and Triple A the past two seasons. He was viewed when the Twins took him with the 21st overall pick out of Ohio State as a prototypical Twins strikethrower, but he's been anything but as a pro. He had enough trauma early in his minor league career that simply making it to the majors was an accomplishment, but that he was a failed first-round pick was evident years ago.

Mason Melotakis (second round, 2012), was a surprise. He's left-handed, for one thing; for another, his stats are superior to Wimmers'. He had a 2.42 ERA at Double A Chattanooga (26 innings, 31 strikeouts); then he was promoted to Triple A and had two scoreless outings.

And now he's bounced from the 40-man roster? What gives?

Dip in LHP Mason Melotakis' velocity may have caused DFA along w/RHP Alex Wimmers. Hildenberger, Gee added to 40.https://t.co/59SBGSqUPF

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) June 23, 2017

From Berardino's story:

.... Melotakis saw his velocity sit in the 89-90 mph range at Triple-A Rochester, where he recorded five outs without allowing a run. In the past, Melotakis had consistently run his fastball into the mid-90s ...

This is one of those times when I remind myself that the front office knows more about these guys than I do. A few weeks ago I was mildly surprised when the Twins chose to promote Randy Rosario, another lefty relief prospect, to the majors instead of Melotakis. That may have been an indication that Melotakis' stock had declined.

It will be interesting to see what happens regarding Melotakis in the next few days. The stat line says there should be other organizations eager to pick him up. The scouting reports may give a different recommendation.

A reliever with upside

Another game against the Houston Astros, another bullpen meltdown, and another round of musical chairs on the roster.

But there's a subtle difference in the moves this time.

Gone are Ryan Pressly (optioned) and Jason Wheeler (designated for assignment). Pressly's struggles -- he carries a 9.50 ERA to Rochester -- probably deserve a deeper examination than I care to attempt this morning. He was expected to be a key piece of the bullpen this year, and he undoubtably failed, and yet there are some markers in his 2017 stats that are actually positive.

Randy Rosario has
a 2.66 ERA in
Double A Chattanooga
this season.

As for Wheeler -- I doubt anybody's going to claim him on waivers. But he's been outrighted before, and as I understand the rules, he'll have the right to take free agency rather than report to Rochester if he clears waivers. I doubt the Twins are worried about losing him.

Added to the battered bullpen corps are Alex Wimmers and Randy Rosario. Wimmers we saw last year;  he is, like Drew Rucinski and Matt Belisle and Buddy Boshers and Wheeler and seemingly everybody the Twins have cycled through their bullpen this season, a replacement level arm best suited to mop-up duties. He's not a solution.

Randy Rosario (no relation to outfielder Eddie Rosario)  is different. R. Rosario is -- finally --  one of the higher octane arms the Twins have been hoarding in their farm system. Left-handed, turned 23 about two weeks ago, survivor of Tommy John surgery. I saw him pitch in Cedar Rapids in 2015 and posted this report. The Twins moved him to the bullpen late last summer after trying to develop him as a started.

He has all of 14 games above A ball on his resume, and I presume that the Twins were reluctant to expose him to the majors with so little experience. But unlike Wimmers -- or Rucinski and the rest of the recycles -- there's an obvious out pitch in Rosario, there's some velocity, there's the makings of swing-and-miss stuff.

I won't guarantee it will work any better with Rosario than with the others, but it might. And at least it's something different. I would have expected Mason Melotakis over Rosario on the basis of experience, but I'm not complaining.

Roster not set yet

The Twins didn't set their opening roster Wednesday, They did trim two more pitchers, Alex Wimmers and Nick Tepesch, both non-roster invitees.

Twins bullpen will be Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Pressly, Taylor Rogers, Matt Belisle, Craig Breslow, Michael Tonkin and Justin Haley.

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) March 29, 2017

I'm not impressed, but all bullpens are in a state of flux. There will be changes. 

Molitor has told relievers not to expect roles that will be "overly definitive ... we've got some idea how it's going to play out."

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) March 29, 2017

Not really sure what that means. It's a lot easier to determine the roles with this collection than it was last year, when Tonkin was jammed into a long-relief role that never fit his skill set. Rule-5 pick Haley fits that role. 

Anyway ...

There remain a few "battles" to be decided: DH (it will be ByungHo Park, not Kennys Vargas), backup catcher (it will be Chris Gimenez, not John Ryan Murphy) and fifth starter (where the conventional wisdom has Tyler Duffey beating out Aldaberto Mejia, although I'm not so sure about that). Supposedly those announcements will come today.

I suspect one holdup is how to clear spots on the 40 man roster for Park and Gimenez. One can be gotten by putting Glen Perkins on the 60-day disabled list. The other will require releasing or waiving somebody, and which somebody may be a point of internal disputation.

A bad sign for the bullpen.

J.T. Chargois had
a 8.64 ERA in 8.2
innings this spring.

 

The Twins optioned out J.T. Chargois Friday, deleting from the roster -- at least for the beginning of the season -- the bullpen arm with the most upside.

Later Friday Michael Tonkin, who may be the beneficiary of Chargois' rough spring, fed his gopher again. Dick-n-Bert, broadcasting the game from Fort Myers, preferred to dwell on Tonkin's K-rate last season, and certainly there's nothing wrong with 80 strikeouts in 71 innings. There is with 13 homers in that same span.

I opined in an earlier post that if the Twins demote Chargois to avoid putting Tonkin on waivers, they were making a mistake. That opinion still stands.

But it may well be that Alex Wimmers -- removed at the start of the offseason from the 40-man roster and thus a non-roster invitee -- is ahead of Tonkin. He pitched before Tonkin did Friday. I may be even less enthused about Wimmers than I am Tonkin.

The Twins seem, again, headed in the direction of a bullpen of mediocre stuff. Bullpens are always a work in progress, and I can't claim that Chargois has pitched well this spring, but this is a bad sign.

Rotation merry-go-round

Tyler Duffey had a poor start Wednesday night. Jose Berrios had a poor start Thursday afternoon.

And now both are back in the minors, with Andrew Albers and Alex Wimmers recalled.

Berrios has now made nine starts in the majors, and his ERA is just south of 9. His command is obviously not there. He clearly has stuff to work on. And Duffey has been effective in just two of his last seven starts. It's hard for Paul Molitor to keep trotting them out every fifth game.

That said, these two are a lot more likely to be important pitchers in the majors than Albers or Wimmers.

Berrios is the most talented pitcher Twins have, and the team is just throwing up its hands and saying "we have no idea how to handle him."

— Matthew Pouliot (@matthewpouliot) August 25, 2016

I don't know that that's exactly fair, but ... Mike Berardino had a piece recently describing Berrios' side session. There was the pitching coach, the bullpen coach, the number one starter and the Hall of Fame pitcher/broadcaster all there offering the rookie advice. Nothing like overwhelming the kid, huh?

---

Wimmers' callup isn't official, but it's been widely reported on the interwebs. His has been a torturous trip to the bigs: First round pick out of Ohio State in 2010, a rapid fall from grace the next year when he lost the strike zone, Tommy John surgery, seven seasons of grinding in the minors without ever having a true breakthrough season.

The Twins have twice exposed him to the Rule 5 draft. Nobody's taken him. Even this season hasn't been all that good -- ERA 4.04 at two levels. 

Wimmers was described leading into the 2010 draft as a polished strike-throwing machine who likely wouldn't take long to make it to the majors. It sure hasn't worked out that way.

---

I'm not sure what the starting rotation is now. Ervin Santana and Kyle Gibson, sure. Supposedly Hector Santiago was going to be held back because of a sore thumb, and now Berrios and Duffey are out of the picture at least until sometime in September. So there are at least two, maybe three, immediate vacancies.

I'm guessing Albers and Pat Dean will fill two of those slots. The Twins don't have an off day again until Sept. 8, so if Santiago has to be skipped somebody else has to fill in. Wimmers hasn't started a game all season, but considering that Jorge Polanco didn't play shortstop at all in the minors and has been pretty much a fixture there for the past three weeks, maybe Molitor intends to do the same with Wimmers.

The missing names

Ryan Eades pitched collegiately for LSU.

Baseball America's ranking of the Top 30 -- really, 32 -- Twins prospects is notable in a sense for the names not there.

Ryan Eades, for example. He was the Twins second-round draft pick last June. The third-round pick, catcher Stuart Turner, is in the book at No. 30. The fourth round pick, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, is in the book at No. 13. But Eades isn't.

With J.T. Chargois listed as the 31st prospect in the bonus supplement and Sean Gilmartin ranked among the Atlanta Braves prospects, there are at least 17 pitching prospects Baseball America ranks above Eades, including a half dozen age 20 or younger.

When it comes to pitching prospects, the more the merrier; they have a frighteningly high attrition rate. It's just .. odd ... to see a second-rounder not listed in the Top 32. But this hardly means Eades is not a prospect after fewer than 16 professional innings.

I'm not sure the same can be said for a pair of first round picks whose careers have floundered.

Right-handed pitcher Alex Wimmers, who the Twins took with the 21st overall pick in 2010, threw just 15 innings last year. Infielder Levi Michael, another collegian (30th overall in 2011) has hit just .239 in 211 games in High A and played himself from shortstop to second base.

Neither is in the Handbook. Neither should be. It's not certain (yet) that these were busted picks, but it sure looks that way.

In case anybody thinks I should be mentioning Kyle Gibson in this context, Gibson "graduated" from prospect status last year with 51 major league innings. Gibson is in that awkward space somewhere between "prospect" and "established big leaguer." He's got a better chance than Wimmers or Michael to justify his first-round pick, but he'll never be good enough to justify (in retrospect) being drafted ahead of Mike Trout.

Injuries, rehab and releases

Rafael Perez pitched
four innings for
Triple A Rochester
before being released.

The Rafael Perez era ended Friday when the Twins released the veteran left-hander.

He had shoulder surgery in 2012, and Cleveland let him go during the offseason. The Twins took a flier on him as spring training camps opened on the strength of a bullpen session, but once he was actually in camp their assessment of his current ability clearly diminished. He never threw a pitch in a spring training game and hadn't even joined a minor league team until this month.

It's hardly worth criticizing the Twins for this episode; it was a minor league deal, a small investment that didn't pan out. This is unlike the Tsuyoshi Nishioka signing, which gave reason to wonder if there's a disconnect between the scouts and the major league staff.

Still, it was a curious sequence of events. When the Twins signed Perez, they talked about stretching him out as a rotation candidate. As it turned out, he couldn't stretch out sufficiently to claim the lefty specialist role he was accustomed to with the Indians. The scouts saw something the coaching staff didn't see. Or maybe they were just throwing something against the wall to see if it stuck.

Perez wound up pitching four innings in Triple A — four innings in which he walked three men, struck out two and allowed one run, on a homer.

He had an out clause in his deal — if not on the major league roster by May 1 he could elect free agency — and he waived that clause at the start of the month, but perhaps he and/or his agent think there's an opportunity elsewhere.

---

A more significant investment gone sour — Alex Wimmers, the Twins' first-round draft pick in 2010 —took a step forward Friday with his first mound work since his ligament replacement surgery last summer.

Wimmers threw all of five innings last season, and it remains to be seen if he sees any action in the minors in 2013.

He was seen at draft time in 2010 as a high-floor, low-ceiling prospect; one of the attractions with him was the sense that he was nearly major-league ready. But nothing as worked out for him so far, and the floor has proven to be far lower than anticipated.

Wimmers has thrown 62 minor league innings since signing. The Twins have enough invested in him to keep trying, but he's not the pitcher they drafted out of Ohio State, and he may never be that pitcher again.

Tim Wood threw
eight innings for
Rochester before
being shut down.

---

Bullpen candidate Tim Wood, who is on the 40-man roster, was shut down a few days before his rehab assignment was to expire early this week. An MRI on his balky shoulder was reportedly clean, but there's still clearly an issue of some sort and he's seeking a second opinion.

Not long ago I was wondering how, or if, the Twins would find room for him in the major league bullpen. He didn't make it that far.

Another example of the truth behind the claim that you never have enough pitchers.

Minor league health matters

Four Twins prospects of some prominence are either in or out ...

RHP Alex Wimmers, first round pick in the 2010 draft, had Tommy John surgery on Thursday. He'd been sidelined for much of the season with what had been described as an elbow strain, and had thrown just five innings all year.

This is essentially the second straight wasted season in his development, and next season now promises to be a third. When the Twins drafted him (21st overall), he was reasonably expected to be a quick rise to the majors. For a team in need of starting pitching, his problems have really hurt.

Wimmers' case may have reverberations beyond the pitching staff. General manager Terry Ryan was widely described last week as irritated by the lengthy delay in reaching a diagnosis. I continue to expect, at some point, a shakeup in the organization's medical and/or training staffs.

Lester Oliveros had
a brief major league
call-up this season.

RHP Lester Oliveros, acquired almost a year ago when the Twins sent Delmon Young to Detroit, is out of the remainder of the season to having bone chips removed from his elbow. This is not as significant a surgery as Wimmers', and I would expect Oliveros to be a contender for a bullpen job in 2013.

When the Twins tabbed Luis Perdomo to fill a bullpen spot last month, a commenter wondered what the move implied for a handful of pitchers who, unlike Perdomo, were already on the 40-man roster. In Oliveros' case, the answer is now obvious: He was hurt.

Oliveros was having a good season, split between Double A and Triple A.

In better news ...

RHP Kyle Gibson, having made seven appearances for the complex team at  Fort Myers, is going to start moving up the ladder. Gibson had his Tommy John surgery almost a year ago and is described as throwing better than he has at any time in the Twins system.

Gibson was the Twins first-round pick in 2009 (22nd overall), and, as with Wimmers, his health problems have mattered on the big-league level..

2B/OF Eddie Rosario, sidelined earlier this summer when a line drive hit him in the face during batting practice, is back with Low A Beloit.

I wonder if, absent the injury, he would have gotten a promotion to High A Fort Myers. The hitting numbers -- .307/.371/.496 -- on their own merit a promotion. But my guess is that the organization would have kept him at Beloit on the basis that staying at one level would ease his transition from outfielder to second base.

More from BA on Twins prospects

The move to the
bullpen agreed with
Deolis Guerra.

Baseball America followed up its Top 10 Twins prospects list with a chat on Friday for subscribers.

A few highlights from John Manuel, the BA co-editor who does the Twins list:

• Alex Wimmers' control problems last spring were rooted in a lack of conditioning. Another high draft pick whose conditioning is an issue is Hudson Boyd, who weighed nearly 280 pounds when he arrived at instructionals. He's supposedly back under 250 now.
• Manuel last year thought the Twins should give up on Deolis Guerra. Now he sees Guerra as just shy of Top 10 status and expects Guerra to pitch in the Twins bullpen this year. 
• If Guerra's stock is up, Jorge Polanco and Angel Morales are down.
• Manuel defends the Twins on their shortage of power arms. The Twins have drafted power arms, he notes, but they've gotten hurt or haven't developed. 
• Manuel is much higher on Joe Benson than on Ben Revere. 
• David Bromberg is not in BA's Top 30 Twins prospects.
• Travis Harrison, drafted as a third baseman, is likely to wind up at first base. Manuel thinks Miguel Sano can stick at third.
• Manuel expects shortstop Niko Goodrum to repeat in the Appy League. 

The Hoffmann watch and other notes

Jamie Hoffmann was
with the Yankees during
spring training in 2010
as a rule V pick but
was returned to the
Dodgers.

The NUN – New Ulm  native Jamie Hoffmann – is back in the majors, having been brought up on Monday by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The outfielder was last in the majors in 2009. He didn't play Tuesday. The LA roster is crammed with outfielders (six on the 25-man roster), so there's hardly a guarantee of playing time, or even that he'll stick.

He had 20 at-bats during spring training with the Dodgers, hitting .350/.409/450.

---

A sour development for the Twins in their minor league system: Alex Wimmers, last year's first round pick, a pitcher who was expected to rise quickly through the system in part because of his outstanding command, had a disastrous first outing for High A Fort Myers.

Six batters, six walks, three wild pitches. He threw just four strikes in 28 pitches and hit the backstop on the fly with that many.

He's been put on the disabled list with "flu-like symptoms," but even if he really does have a virus, he appears to have a more serious malady, known in some circles as "Steve Blass disease." Few pitchers recover.

---

I ridiculed the Royals front office a few weeks ago for discarding Dusty Hughes, and nothing that happened Tuesday night suggests I was wrong.

Hughes threw a shutout inning Tuesday against his old team and collected his first "W" in a TC cap.  The Royals, who are carrying just one lefty reliever, could have used another against the heavily left-handed Twins.

But just as Hughes is no better than the No. 2 southpaw in the Minnesota pen (and might be the No. 3 lefty), he'd be below Tim Collins in the K.C. depth chart.

Collins is an interesting pitcher — listed at 5-foot-7 but probably considerably shorter than that, he has a mid-90s fastball and an impressive curve. He's racked up silly strikeout rates in the minors — more than 13 K/9 over four minor league seasons, and doing the same so far in the majors — but been traded twice.

Evaluators have a hard time getting past the diminutive stature and judging him strictly on the talent. But he's a good one.

Twins sign Wimmers and local minor league notes

The deadline isn't particularly close, but Alex Wimmers signed Friday and is to report to Fort Myers to pitch for the Miracle, the Twins High-A team.

The right-hander out of Ohio State is viewed as a prototypical Twins pitcher — a strike-throwing machine, albeit with better stuff than a Nick Blackburn. (The better stuff is why he went 21st overall.)

According to Baseball America, the Twins have now signed their first 10 picks.

* The Twins' 16th-rounder, former MoonDog Clint Dempster, threw six shutout innings the other day Beloit (Low-A). The lefty is 2-2 for the Snappers with 4.00 era — and 14 walks in 18 innings.

I'm going to guess that fastball command is a priority for him.

* Mark Dolenc, a former MSU standout, is hitting .259/.305/.350 for New Britain, the Twins Double A affiliate. The Twins have a number of well-regarded outfield prospects there, including Ben Revere and Joe Benson, but Dolenc's getting plenty of playing time.

*The NUN, New Ulm Native Jamie Hoffmann, has spent the season at Albuquerque, the Dodgers' Triple A affiliate, and has a deceptively good .318/.377/.435 line. (It's a notoriously good place to hit.) He remains off the 40-man roster.

Wimmers, Radke and the Twins philosophy

Alex Wimmers it is.

From the Baseball America scouting report on the Twins' first round pick (subscription only):

...Few pitchers in this draft can match the depth of his repertoire. He has the best changeup in the 2010 draft crop, and one area scout said it's the best he has ever seen from an amateur. His fastball sits at 90-92 mph and touches 94, and he could add a little more velocity if he builds arm strength by using it more in pro ball. His third pitch is a curveball that he easily throws for strikes. He's an athletic, 6-foot-2, 195-pounder who holds the record for career batting average (.457) at Cincinnati's storied Moeller High--the alma mater of Buddy Bell, Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin.

Brad Radke is the quick comp for Wimmers, and that seems almost too easy. Really, Radke is the mold for the organization's starters, at least the right-handers; at one point or another, I've cited Radke as the comp for Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn as they made their way to the Minnesota rotation, and Carl Pavano is probably more Radke-like than any of the other three.

Radke is the personification of the strengths and limitations of the Twins pitching philosophy: Throw strikes, change speeds, keep it simple. I linked this spring to a New York Times piece in which career backup catcher Chad Moeller talked about what he's learned from handling various pitchers, and this is him on Radke:

Wouldn’t walk anybody, never had a concern that he was going to. Didn’t try to throw balls by guys, and he just caught on at an earlier age than most guys do about what pitching actually is. Everything went away from the plate. Guys have watched Greg Maddux; they all want their ball to look like it’s going at them and come this way, over the plate. He just wanted to have everything going away from the middle of the plate. I’d say, ‘Brad, what do you want to do today?’ He’d say: “Get outs. Just put it down, I’ll throw it.” That was it. I was a rookie. All right, let’s go.

I mentioned a few days ago a Jerry Crasnick piece in Baseball America about the Twins pitching approach, and he has Rick Anderson hitting the same point:

Twins pitchers focus on on keeping the ball low and down the middle, with the understanding that natural movement and variations in deliveries will carry it away from the heart of the plate.

Crasnick goes on to suggest that the lack of true power arms works against the Twins in October. If that's a concern for the organization, it's a chance they're willing to take.