Perkins' non-playing future

Glen Perkins said publicly last week what was widely presumed at the end of the 2017 season: He's finished as a professional pitcher:

Let me address the 🐘 in the room. I won’t be playing baseball anymore. I’ll spend my time brewing beer, smoking meat woodworking and hanging with my family. Or, the same things I have been doing just without the baseball part.

— Glen Perkins (@glenperkins) January 24, 2018

LaVelle Neal of the Star Tribune reports that the three-time All-Star closer is talking with GM Thad Levine about a role in the mushrooming analytics department. This would make sense, as Perkins was pretty vocal over the years about how much he used the new era of knowledge. 

As a fan weary of the organization's insistence on broadcast "analysts" older than I am -- analysts dismissive and/or ignorant of concepts that postdate their long-ago playing days -- I'd like to see Perk in the booth. But as a sabermetric evangelist with clubhouse credibility, there's a real opportunity for Perkins to have an obvious front office role, which can't really be said of some of the "special assistants" the team has been naming under the new regime.

Goodbye, Perkins (maybe)

Dept. of non-news news:

The Twins informed Glen Perkins they will not pick up his option

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) October 18, 2017

We certainly knew necessary formality was coming.

Perkins will officially be a free agent this winter, but according to Bollinger, the Minnesota native and resident will either retire or return to the Twins on a minor league deal.

As said here frequently, I will never criticize a player for trying to play too long. Perkins will turn 35 during spring training; he has the rest of his life to brew beer and fish and do all the other things he does in his non-baseball time, but his baseball time is use or lose. I doubt Perkins' rebuilt shoulder is up to the task of pitching in the majors, and I'm pretty sure he's not really interested in spending next summer in Rochester, New York. On the other hand, Jacque Jones spent the summer of 2010 doing just that in hopes of returning to the Show.

In my view of these things, it up to management to make the call. And management may not wish to make that call yet. A minor-league deal for Perkins would be a very low-risk flier.

What I would prefer -- and I view it as unlikely -- is Perkins with a role in the broadcasts, radio or television, the more prominent the better. A recent player who buys into the metrics and analytics and can explain to the audience how teams and players employ the wealth of new information flowing into the game? Yes, yes, yes a thousand times yes.

Contemplating Glen Perkins

Perhaps the only thing keeping Chris Gimenez from his seventh pitching appearance of the season Monday was the calendar. It's September, which means expanded rosters, which means there is an excess of professional pitchers in the bullpen.

One of whom is Glen Perkins, who faced three batters Monday. Fifteen pitches, five strikes. Two walks and a groundout, and the groundout came on a fast ball that, had it been hammered as it probably should have been, would have been described by the broadcasters as "center cut." Two runs were charged to Perkins in one-third of an inning, elevating his ERA to 16.20.

This was Perkins' fifth appearance since his return from the disabled list. It is almost impossible now to imagine that he will get another, even in a "Gimenez game." (None of his appearances have come with a margin of less than four runs.)

Perkins labored mightily to get back to the majors after last year's extensive shoulder surgery. I applaud him for that, and I applaud his track record. I don't blame him for taking the ball when called upon. I question the usefulness of giving him the ball.

Don't expect Perkins to pull the plug on his season and, presumably, his career. That responsibility lies elsewhere.

One win, one loss, lots to talk about

Glen Perkins, in the first of Thursday's games, became the 32nd player to pitch for the Twins this year. Simply getting back onto a major league mound after essentially having his shoulder reconstructed is quite an accomplishment.

That said, his outing wasn't good. He hit two batters, walked another, threw more balls than strikes, got just one out.

He hit 93 at least once, but he didn't have command. He says he'll be better in future outings. We'll see. I'm pleased he's back; now I want to see him be effective enough to justify a role.

---

Aaron Slegers, in the second game, became pitcher 33. He was pretty impressive in his big league debut: 6.1 innings, two hits, two walks, three strikeouts. Paul Molitor pulled him after just 82 pitches, which struck me as a prematurely quick hook.

Slegers is being sent back to Rochester, as he was the 26th man for the doubleheader, the Twins are in the midst of a staff-straining seven-games-in-five-days stretch and he can't help further with that, and, well, numbers, man.  (Despite what Dick Bremer kept saying during the telecast, my understanding of the rules is that he could remain and somebody else removed from the 25-man roster, but all the somebodies who could be sent down in his stead might help in the next five days.)

But it's really difficult to concoct a baseball rationale for keeping Kyle Gibson in the rotation and Slegers in the minors. Plus there's an opening in the rotation with putative fifth starter Dietrich Enns going on the disabled list.

---

Enns went on the disabled list to make room on the 25 man roster for Perkins. Enns missed considerable time earlier in the year with a shoulder issue, but he was quoted as saying that this is in a different area of the shoulder.

Buddy Boshers gave up another homer in the first game and was demoted to Rochester between games, with Nik Turley activated. Bet you forgot Turley was still on the 40-man roster. (I knew only because I've been trying to figure out how to open enough space on the 40 to add all the Rule 5 eligible players I want the Twins to protect this winter.) Turley at least gives them another long man in the bullpen (and a potential starter). If he's still around a week from now, something went very wrong.

---

Robbie Grossman broke his left thumb bumping into Byron Buxton in the outfield. He's out probably three weeks or so; Molitor suggested he will be able to hit before he can throw again.

Mitch Garver, primary position catcher, was called up during the night to take his place on the 25-man roster. Garver has played a few innings in left field for Rochester, but I wouldn't advocate having him platoon in right field with Max Kepler, which was a significant portion of Grossman's playing time.

The move means the Twins don't have an true fourth outfielder. Presumably Zack Granite (left-handed hitter) will be back when rosters expand, if not sooner. Either way, with Grossman out, I'd just as soon see Kepler play even against lefties. He's too young and talented to condemn to a strict platoon role. He's not going to get better against southpaws facing them this infrequently.

---
My commentary on the major league team will be muted at best the next few days; I'm headed to Cedar Rapids for my annual look-see at the Kernels.

The Perkins question

Another shortish start Tuesday night -- Bartolo Colon went just five innings and was fortunate to escape with just three runs allowed -- and another game in which the "nonleverage" half of the Twins bullpen struggled to get outs. Specifically Buddy Boshers, who allowed three runs in one-third of an inning to turn a 3-1 deficit to 6-1.

Boshers, of course, is left-handed; so is Glen Perkins, who was in the Twins dugout Tuesday night after pitching Sunday and Monday for Double A Chattanooga. The back-to-back outings were, in theory, the final marker in his rehab schedule. The 30 days of his rehab assignment ends Saturday.

The former All-Star expects to be activated this week. Derek Falvey indicated last week that he would be. Paul Molitor's pre-game comments on Perkins seemed unenthusiastic about his return: “We’ll contemplate what the best move is moving forward, not only for him, but for our team.”

Bert Blyleven, back in the TV booth. suggested Tuesday that the Twins could just wait until the rosters expand to bring Perkins back. With the rehab period nearly expired, that's not really an option.

The realistic choices are:

• activate Perkins, which will require somebody to come off the 25-man active roster (there are open spots on the 40) or
• release him.

Releasing him won't save the team any money, and would be a pretty sour way to treat him at the end of a long recovery process.

For what it's worth -- and that isn't much -- Perkins put up a 6.14 ERA in 7.1 innings over three levels in eight games on the rehab assignment. More important than those results is the caliber of his pitches.

Perkins reportedly touched 93 with his fastball velocity in his final outings, but he apparently sits around 90. That's quite a bit lower than in his glory days, but pretty impressive considering how badly his shoulder was damaged.

Velocity is only part of the equation. Also to be factored in are his command (or lack of it) and the quality of his slider. (Perkins as been a a two-pitch pitcher since moving to the bullpen.) If he has limited command of a diminished fastball and an unreliable breaking ball, he can't help the big league team. If he has a usable slider and can locate the mediocre velocity, he can.

Boshers was optioned out at the start of the season, so he can be optioned out now. It's not like replacing him with Perkins for the last two weeks or so of August will cripple Molitor's bullpen strategies, and it's not like activating Perkins will require that he step back into the (vacant) closer's role, or even be used in game situations. (Twenty of Boshers' 26 appearances have come with the Twins behind, and three of the other six have come with a lead of four or more runs.)

I say activate Perkins. It may not help, but it won't hurt, and it's the right thing to do.

Getting some relief

The Twins on Sunday had their first save opp since the Brandon Kintzler trade -- really, the first time in more than a week that the bullpen was asked to protect a lead, as Ervin Santana and Bartolo Colon had complete games in their two wins last week.

The 'pen came through: Trevor Hildenberger threw two scoreless innings, Taylor Rogers got through the eighth and Matt Belisle worked a perfect ninth for his first save since 2012.

Not the way I would prefer, but it worked.

Dick Bremer at least twice, and maybe more, invoked Belisle's "senior status" Sunday as justification for giving him at least a share of the closer role. Bremer may be an imperfect conduit for the mind of Paul Molitor, but my working assumption is that the broadcasters for a team reflect the thinking of management. If Molitor genuinely prefers Belisle late in games because he's got more years in the pension plan than anybody else, that's a bad sign.

The veteran has been getting outs more consistently than anybody else in the bullpen for weeks now; Belisle hasn't been charged with a run, earned or unearned, since June. Rogers, meanwhile, had allowed at least one run in six straight appearances befors Sunday.

At least Hildenberger finally got to pitch with a narrow lead.

---

A couple other notes about the pitching staff:

Dillon Gee isn't, as I assumed when he was called up last week, filling the rotation spot vacated by the Jaime Garcia trade. He made his Twins debut in relief, and Kyle Gibson was returned for Saturday's start. It was SOG -- same old Gibson. He got 16 outs and allowed nine baserunners; this is not a good OBP allowed.

And the return of Glen Perkins to the major league bullpen is presumably imminent. Perkins was in the Twin Cities this weekend and will throw what is described as "an extended bullpen session" today, then report to Double-A Chattanooga to continue his rehab assignment. The plan is for him to pitch three times, including one set of back-to-back days.

His rehab assignment officially expires on the 20th. He apparently expects to be back before then. Even with the bullpen roles unsettled, I wouldn't expect Perkins to step back into the ninth inning immediately. But then, I didn't expect Belisle to get the ball in the ninth inning after the Kintzler deal.

Goodbye, Breslow (and injury updates)

Craig Breslow was designated for assignment after Sunday's game. The move was unsurprising, necessary and, for me at least, a bit depressing. I've always liked Breslow, or more accurately I liked what Breslow represented -- a top-of-the-charts intellect carving out a space for himself in baseball.

Breslow's been through this before. The veteran lefty is in his 12th major league season; he's pitched for seven teams in that time, but this is his second go-around with the Twins, and he had a pair with Boston as well. So he's been passed around like a dollar bill, and he's getting pretty worn -- he hasn't had a sub-4.00 ERA since 2013, when he helped the Red Sox win the World Series.

This might be it for Breslow as a pitcher, although Paul Molitor said he wants to continue his career and the Twins will try to place him with another major league team. He might even accept assignment to Rochester.

---

No corresponding move was announced Sunday, but the expectation is that Justin Haley -- remember him? -- will come off the disabled list. The Rule 5 pick was last seen almost two months ago, and his 30-day rehab assignment is to expire Tuesday.

He's tabbed for long relief, but he is stretched out -- he's been starting for Rochester --  and if there's no trade for a starter and if Bartolo Colon washes out, he might get a chance to start. Those are two "ifs," and I doubt the Twins are eager to go that route.

---

Speaking of 30-day rehab assignments, the clock started ticking during the weekend on Glen Perkins, who appeared in a Gulf Coast League game. He faced three hitters, striking out two and getting a comebacker to the mound.

The GCL being what it is -- the lowest rung on the organizational ladder -- the results are almost meaningless. More important:

• He was reportedly without pain,
• His velocity topped out at 90.

The first is good, the second less so. I doubt he can pitch effectively in the majors with a 90 mph fastball; changing speeds has never been his forte, and the lack of a usable changeup is part of what drove him to the bullpen.

The timeline is intriguing. If all goes well (that word if again) the Twins would have to bring him off the disabled list in late August, before the expansion of the active roster. Even if Perkins' return is somehow delayed until September, it will require opening a spot on the 40-man roster. There's a lot of time between now and then, to be sure.

---

No rehab assignment for Bryon Buxton, in part, it seems, because the Twins will be in Los Angeles today through Wednesday and the travel was deemed excessive. Buxton is eligible to come off the DL Tuesday.

Buxton, incidentally, ranks third on the team in WAR as calculated by Baseball Reference, behind Ervin Santana and Miguel Sano but ahead of Max Kepler and Brandon Kintzler.

---

The Twins traded pitcher Nick Tepesch to Toronto on Sunday for "cash considerations." This ranks as an exceedingly minor transaction; he's been on a minor league DL for a while and didn't appear to be in the Twins plans for the rest of the seasons. The "cash considerations" may wind up being dinner at the Winter Meetings.

Notes, quotes and comment

Baseball America over the weekend released Mock Draft 3.5. Why 3.5 rather than 4.0 I don't know. But they kept Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt right hander, as the first overall selection, as "the best combination of upside and modest risk." It's the first time they haven't had a different first pick for the Twins.

EPSN's Keith Law also issued a mock draft (behind a paywall) and had the Twins taking Wright:

I’ve heard that the Twins are in on at least four players at No. 1, including Brendan McKay (as a bat or a two-way guy but not just as a pitcher), Mackenzie Gore and Hunter Greene, but the current betting in the industry is that they will take Wright as the prospect with the best combination of floor and ceiling.

I haven't mentioned Gore in any of my draft posts; he's a high school lefty from North Carolina. My guess is that he would only be the pick if

• He agrees to a sharply below slot contract before the draft and
• The Twins have a plan to use the extra money on later picks.

That approach certainly worked for Houston when the Astros took Carlos Correa 1-1 over Byron Buxton.

Draft begins June 12.

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Nick Tepesch, who had one brief start with the major league club in early May, went on the Triple A disabled list with "elbow impingement." With an ERA at Rochester of 5.59 -- which if anything understates how poor his results have been (six homers in 29 innings) -- it's not like he was on the verge of coming back up, but it's another reason to expect the Twins to leave Kyle Gibson and Adalberto Mejia in the rotation for a while.

---

Glen Perkins threw to hitters on Tuesday at Target Field. He threw 23 pitches, all fastballs. Chris Gimenez, one of the hitters to face him, said the velocity was in the mid 80s but saw good movement.

Perkins now returns to Fort Myers to continue his rehab. According to the Mike Berardino piece linked to above, the plan calls for a few more live BP sessions at extended spring training followed by a rehab assignment with the Class A Miracle. That sounds like a timeline for a late July return if everything works perfectly.

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.

---

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.

Notes, quotes and comment

Kyle Glaser of Baseball America says Eddie Rosario is using the World Baseball Classic to emerge as a full-fledged regular.

Certainly the Twins outfielder -- playing right field for Puerto Rico rather than his accustomed left field -- is hitting a ton so far (6-for-11 with two doubles and a triple). It's worth noting, however, that most of Puerto Rico's games have been played at altitude.

Rosario is 25, and maybe he's ready to take the next step.

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I am truly enjoying a series of videos the Twins have been posting this week, "the Escobar Name Game," in which Eduardo Escobar attempts to identify his teammates. This is Wednesday's, the position players segment, which isn't quite as funny as the pitchers (posted Tuesday):

"Ah, my bad man. Sorry."

The @escobarmaracay Name Game, Position Players Edition pic.twitter.com/c9sccIFBO2

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) March 15, 2017

Speaking of which:

"Gonzal-idontknow."

The @escobarmaracay Name Game, Pitchers Edition pic.twitter.com/CRk79DcHJr

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) March 14, 2017

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Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press wrote about Glen Perkins.

The good news: He is throwing without pain.

The less good news: He is nowhere near major league velocity. Not yet, at least, and perhaps not ever.

Bottom line: He's destined to open 2017 on the disabled list.

Perkins pitches (kinda)

There were no official workouts in Twins camp Tuesday, reporting day for pitchers and catchers. But Glen Perkins had his first post-surgery bullpen session: Fifteen pitches off a mound at about 75 percent effort.

And the initial report was that all was well with his surgically reconnected left shoulder.

Fifteen pitches is about an innings worth. 75 percent is something short of maximum effort. But it was Feb. 14, and nobody expected -- or wanted -- Perkins to throw like he needs to get Mike Trout or Jason Kipnis out.

We may well pay too much attention to Perkins' bullpen sessions this month. He has been a stellar relief ace in the past, and a successful return to that status would be a significant boost to the team. But we should monitor Perkins patiently and realistically. He'll be ready when -- and if -- he's ready.

The shoulder apparently passed this test. There are many more ahead.

Notes, quotes and comment

Byung Ho Park cleared waivers and was outrighted Thursday to Rochester. He'll be in training camp as a non-roster invite.

I had thought that somebody (Tampa Bay came to mind) might see a chance to pick up some right-handed power on a long-term but reasonable contract. It didn't happen, and Chris Carter illustrates why I was wrong.

Carter led the National League in homers last year, but the Brewers cut him loose anyway, and it took months before he found a new team: the Yankees, at $3.5 million for one year. (I'm not really sure why the Yankees wanted him, but they apparently figured the price was right.)

I suspect that, assuming Park is recovered from his hand/wrist issues, that he's at least as good a hitter as Carter, and I'm confident that Park is a better defensive first baseman. But Carter has established that he's a genuine major league power hitter -- flawed but genuine -- and Park has not. And Carter isn't going to get paid much more than Park in 2017.

There has been no market for right-handed first base-DH types.

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Right handed reliever Pat Light, who like Park had been designated for assignment by the Twins, was sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Light was awful in his 14 innings with the Twins last year (15 walks), and there are probably a dozen arms in the minor league system I'd rather see in the majors this year than Light.

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Bad news on the Glen Perkins front: He felt something in his shoulder and has pushed back his first scheduled bullpen session. I never really expected his return to be glitch-free. Patience. If he's going to make it back, it won't be immediate.

On Perkins' surgery

I almost missed this one in Thursday's barrage of tweets about the NBA draft and Brexit:

JUST IN from @LaVelleNeal: Surgery reveals Glen Perkins needed labrum reattached to bone https://t.co/HZgXrCu04Y pic.twitter.com/YxEkigaDCD

— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) June 24, 2016

I can't recall hearing before of a specific pitcher whose labrum had to be reattached, but it probably has happened before.

Neal says this likely stretches out the timeline for Perkins' return. My expectations were already so low that I'm not sure this dampens them. Shoulder surgeries of whatever ilk -- labrum, rotator cuff -- have a pretty poor track record. I can think of a few relievers who have had them and eventually recovered their form (Jesse Crain and Grant Balfour being two, although Balfour also had Tommy John at the same time), but they are the minority.

That the damage found once the joint was opened is worse is doubtless a blow to Perkins' hopes. It also, I dare say, illustrates the basic foolishness of hiding injuries.

Perkins, Arcia and D. Santana

Oswaldo Arcia struck
out 46 times in 114
plate appearances this
year. 

Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia both made the major league roster coming out of spring training largely because they were both out of options.

Arcia was the first to run out of chances. He was designated for assignment Thursday night to make room on the roster for Santana, who is ready to be reactivated from the disabled list after his second hamstring injury of the season.

I saw this coming last winter and said so repeatedly. Arcia is just 25, and he has genuine power. That is the sum and total of his positives. On the other side of the ledger, he's an awful defensive outfielder, his strike zone issues are significant, he hasn't hit lefties much and he's not much of a base runner.  And he wasn't getting better at any of those things.

Santana is a flawed player also. But he has a wider set of tools. He can run. He can throw. He switch hits. He can play infield and outfield. There are, in short, more things the manager can put him in the lineup to do than there is with Arcia.

That makes him a better bench piece than Arcia. And neither could be projected as a regular at this point. Arcia does not deserve playing time over the likes of Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Robbie Grossman or Eddie Rosario.

Neither, for that matter, does Santana.

---

I surmised earlier that Glen Perkins' pending visit to noted orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache suggested that the three-time All-Star wasn't likely to pitch again this season, and so it is. ElAttrache is to attempt to repair Perkins' frayed labrum in the next seven to 10 days.

The hope is that Perkins will be back next year. But shoulder surgeries are tricky; as a general thing, shoulders are to be maintained and elbows repaired. It was, you may recall, a frayed labrum that drove Brad Radke into retirement at age 33. Perkins happens to be 33 now himself.

It would be unwise to count on Perkins as a key bullpen piece in the future. If it happens, great. But the Twins shouldn't plan on it.

Buddy Boshers and the failed bullpen

Buddy Boshers had
an ERA of 1.42 with
Rochester when he
was called up.

The Twins went back to an eight-man bullpen Wednesday, adding indy-ball refugee Buddy Boshers. To make room on the 25-man roster, Darin Mastroianni went on the 15-day disabled list; to make room on the 40-man roster, Glen Perkins went on the 60-day disabled list.

Boshers is a 28-year-old lefty who got 15.1 major league innings back in 2013 with the Angels and walked eight in those innings. He spent seven seasons in the Angels system and pitched last year in the Atlantic League. He was a non-roster invitee in training camp, one of the pack of guys I categorize as: If  he pitches in Target Field, something went wrong.

Something went wrong is an understatement this Twins season, of course. That Boshers and Brandon Kintzler are in the bullpen is a symptom; that Perkins is out until nobody-knows-when is part of the cause.

The Twins were counting on a late-inning trio (or foursome) of Perkins, Kevin Jepsen, Trevor May and maybe Casey Fien. Perkins was ineffective before being sidelined, and May and Jepsen have essentially matching ERAs of 5.56 and 5.59 respectively. Fien has been waived twice, first by the Twins and then by the Dodgers.

Minnesota's most effective bullpen arms have been Fernando Abad and Michael Tonkin, neither of whom were expected to carry much of the burden coming into the season. Neither has managed to creep into game situation use, although there really haven't been many late leads or ties to protect.

Boshers got the call over J.T. Chargois presumably because (a) he reportedly has a June 15 opt-out in his contract and (b) he's left-handed. There's speculation that Abad and his 0.51 ERA might be spun off relatively soon, which would make more sense than signing him to a mult-year deal.

But Chargois has a chance to be a genuinely useful piece. That cannot be honestly said of most of the current bullpen.

Perkins to the disabled list

Glen Perkins went on the disabled list Wednesday with what was described as a "strain" in the back of his throwing shoulder.

I wish this was a surprise, but one could see it coming pretty much all spring. Perkins never displayed his usual velocity during training camp, and everybody kept shrugging it off. Joe Nathan never had his velocity during spring training, and he was always fine once the season started.

And then the season started for Perkins, and the fastball stayed in the low 90s, and that's not enough for a two-pitch reliever.

I won't pretend to know what Perkins' outlook is now. Shoulders are tricky things, all these fragile little muscles that give the human arm such remarkable range of motion and make it possible for well-trained and talented hurlers to throw baseballs upwards of 100 mph. And when something gives way in the shoulder, surgery is seldom a useful option.

So much of the Twins bullpen plan was based on Perkins being Perkins once again as the endgame. Now presumably Kevin Jepsen and Trevor May and Casey Fien move up one notch apiece in the late inning corps, and none of them have been anying resembling useful so far this season.

The Twins are, of course, 0-8, and the obvious big issue is the hitting. The Twins have scored just 13 runs in those eight games. But the late inning guys in the bullpen have been a problem as well. It is, by definition, a small sample size, but it's difficult to be patient with anybody, even a short reliever, when you're 0-8.

Looking failure in the eye

Glen Perkins after yielding a two-run, go-ahead
home run in the eighth inning Saturday.

Baseball has been called a game of failure. More accurately, it is a zero-sum game: Every win is balanced by a loss. And in baseball, at least at the highest levels, even the best teams lose a lot. The best winning percentage in the American League so far belongs to Kansas City, and the Royals lose 4.2 games of every 10 they play.

So even those who succeed in the majors fail frequently. They strike out, sometimes, with men on base; they give up, sometimes, home runs in tied games.  The image of Kirby Puckett pumping his fist as he runs the bases in Game Six of the 1991 World Series is balanced by the image of Charlie Leibrandt walking off the field covering his mouth with the crook of his elbow.

I thought Friday night of Leibrandt as I watched Glen Perkins squatting next to the mound after giving up a two-run homer to Rajai Davis. I don't know how much, if any, discomfort Perkins has in his troublesome neck and back these days. He obviously believes he's sound enough to pitch. He also realizes that he's been part of the problem the past few months:

Glen Perkins: “It’s beyond frustrating. I’m at a loss of words. It’s disappointing. This whole second half for me has been torture.”

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) September 26, 2015

More Glen Perkins: "If I pitched the way I know that I can and the way I have, we probably would’ve clinched a playoff spot."

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) September 26, 2015

I can name pitchers  whose careers went downhill fast after high-profile failures. Connecting those dots may be overly simplistic. Maybe Byung-Hyun Kim and Calvin Schiraldi and Salomon Torres weren't ready emotionally for those moments and were stunted by their failure in the spotlight; maybe they were never destined for stardom.

Perkins, at least, has a base of success to fall back on. But it has to be a searing feeling to squat by the mound watching a game and a wild card berth slipping away.

Three P's in a post: Plouffe, Polanco, Perkins

Trevor Plouffe went on paternity leave after Tuesday's game; the baby, to be born today, will be the first for the infielder and and his wife Olivia. Jorge Polanco gets the brief callup.

Today was the first game since hurting his ankle that Sano didn't wrap it. Ran the bases better today, took infield before the game.

— Derek Wetmore (@DerekWetmore) July 29, 2015

If Miguel Sano's ankle is good to go, this presents an opportunity to give the rookie some time at third base. That would be ideal from a development standpoint. But the Twins very much need his bat in the lineup -- Mike Melancon, a quality closer, pitched around Sano in the ninth last night, which underlined how quickly Sano has gotten the reputation of being difficult to pitch to -- and they have other options for third base if the ankle is at risk.

As for Polanco: My normal take on this kind of thing is, if's he's gonna be in the majors, play him. The Twins now have four supposed shortstops on the roster (Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Nunez, Polanco and Danny Santana) and nobody they really feel comfortable with at the spot. Tuesday was Escobar's first start at shortstop in more than a week and only his second since July 3; he had a big double in the eighth-inning rally and made some good plays in the field. I would be fine with giving him sustained playing time there, even if that means Polanco sits during this callup.

Glen Perkins has had four appearances since the All-Star break. He has given up at least a run in three of those outings with two losses and two blown saves. He says he's fine, and we should take his word for that, but it's also worth remembering that he said the same thing late last year before finally admitting that there was a problem and the Twins shut him down for the final weeks.

Front office wanna bes

There are 30 teams in baseball and 30 general manager jobs. Well, some of the teams call the job something else -- Tampa Bay's org chart calls it "president of baseball operations" -- but each team has somebody at the top of the heap delegating, supervising, making the final call on moves (and getting the praise or heat on same).

Terry Ryan followed a essentially traditional route to the job: He pitched in the minor leagues, got hurt, went into scouting, moved up the ladder into the front office and eventually into the top job. But many organizations, maybe most, now have GMs -- and future GMs in the pipeline -- with no professional playing background whatsoever. Jed Hoyer (or if you prefer, Theo Epstein) of the Cubs. Jeff Ludnow of the Astros. Michael Silverman of the aforementioned Rays. Ben Cherington of the Red Sox. Sandy Alderson of the Mets, the man who built the Bash Brothers dynasty of the Oakland A's, was the pioneer of the type -- outsiders with academic acumen instead of athletic accomplishment.

Few men at the top of organizations today played in the majors. There are Billy Beane of Oakland, Ruben Amaro of Philadelphia and Dave Stewart of Arizona, and it's unclear to me how much authority Stewart actually has. I don't think there are any other former major leaguers now serving as general managers.

Beane is famous for his embrace of the sabermetric approach and Amaro notorious for his rejection of same -- from which we should draw afresh the caution that humans don't come out of cookie cutters. But in the main, front offices are becoming the domain of the non-athlete because the academics have the better grasp of the analytics.

Let us, with that background established, consider the front office ambitions put forth in recent days by a pair of Twins veterans, Glen Perkins and Torii Hunter. Perkins -- white and a college man who is, at least by player standards, knowledgeable about sabermetrics -- specifically talked about going into the player development side and merging traditional scouting with the new-age numbers. Hunter -- black and a high-school signee who this winter disparaged defensive metrics and those who consider them -- talks of wanting to someday be a general manager.

From USA Today:

"I really want to get into that front office, make some changes, and build a team that I want to build,'' Hunter says. "I'd love to learn everything from Terry. He'll be a mentor. One day, that's my goal, to be GM of the Twins.''

Watching this team from the outside, I see few signs that the front office takes the analytics seriously, even if Ryan insists he never makes a move without out consulting Jack Goin, the team's in-house numbers guy.

It is my hope that Ryan's successor, whoever it is and whenever that occurs, will be more attuned to to analytics than Ryan himself is. Off his commentary on the subject during the winter, that's not Hunter. Perkins has the more palatable mindset for a modern front office.

Notes, quotes and comment

Something you don't see every day: Ervin Santana is obliquely referred to in a corporate financial report.

The Atlanta Braves are owned by Liberty Media, which late last week (per the Atlanta Journal Consitution) filed a document with the Security and Exchange Commission blaming an unspecified profit decline on Santana and Dan Uggla

The AJC:

Liberty didn’t specifically name the players, but cited “increased player payroll due to season ending injuries at key positions which required additional players to be added to the roster” and the release of other players whose “full (remaining) contracts were recognized” during the year for accounting purposes.

Those explanations are clear references to Santana, signed for $14.1 million after injuries to other starting pitchers last spring, and Uggla, released in July with about 1 ½ seasons remaining on a multi-year contract.

Santana, of course, is now with the Twins.

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When the pitchers started throwing bullpens, I cited Glen Perkins as one arm to watch. Did the winter's rest-n-rehab suffice to fix the problems that ended his 2014 season prematurely?

So far, the answer is yes. Perkins, according to Mike Berardino, is throwing not only fastballs but sliders during live batting practice and getting swings and misses even when the hitters know the slider's coming.

Perkins will get an inning Wednesday in a game between the Twins and his (and my) alma mater, the University of Minnesota. Yes, the games are starting.

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I spent much of the past week fighting a virus, so I can sympathize: There's a bug of some sort (reports are calling it the flu) going through the Twins clubhouse. Among the players who've missed workouts: Trevor Plouffe, Byron Buxton, Oswaldo Arcia, Kurt Suzuki and Trevor May. That's far from a complete accounting. It's probably not over yet, either.