Holiday movement

There was some action involving the Twins on the eve of Thanksgiving, all of it outgoing:

• Kyle Gibson signed with the Texas Rangers
• Derek Shelton was named manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates
• Jeremy Hefner will be pitching coach of the New York Mets

To the degree that any of these moves are a surprise, it would be Gibson's destination. Texas has not been a friendly environment for pitchers, but that's not necessarily relevant now, since the new stadium is to open next season.

Aaron Gleeman noted on Twitter that Gibson made as many starts in the past decade for the Twins as the next two guys (Jose Berrios and Ervin Santana) combined, so it's a bit odd to contemplate a Minnesota rotation without him. He was, early in his career, frequently frustrating to watch, but he developed into a good middle of the rotation arm, at least until he developed his intestinal issues that wrecked his 2019 season.

I bumped into a reader at a supermarket this week who asked: What happened to sinkerballers?  The short answer is: The sinker -- the two-seam fastball -- has fallen out of favor because of the "launch angle" revolution. The flight path of that pitch and the swing patch of hitters looking to lift are simply too similar.

And that's relevant to Gibson because he was a classic "sinker-slider" pitcher. a type that populated pitching staffs for years and now has fallen from favor. He had to reinvent himself a few years ago, and did so. I can imagine him, some time down the road, as a pitching coach. (He may prefer a post-playing career in broadcast, however.)

An off-field aspect to Gibson's departure: He was, I believe, the Twins union rep. With storm clouds massing on the labor front, that could be a significant role in the Twins clubhouse over the next two years. 

Shelton was reportedly the runner-up to Rocco Baldelli during last winter's managerial search, and he was viewed as a hot commodity this winter. The Pittsburgh job, now that Ben Cherington is the general manager, is a better one than it was when the Pirates started looking for a new dugout boss. Shelton should get a genuine multi-season opportunity.

But the Pirates' chaotic offseason rippled onto the Twins. Had they been more decisive early in the process -- they didn't fire Neal Huntington as general manager until well into the process to replace Clint Hurdle -- the Twins might have been able to retain James Rowson. But Rowson took the bench coach job in Miami, and now the Twins have to find a new bench coach to fill Shelton's spot.

And they need a new assistant pitching coach too. Hefner seemed, from this outsider perspective, a wonderful complement to Wes Johnson. Johnson's rep is as a guru of delivery and mechanics. Hefner's strength was in video review and forming plans of attack for pitchers against specific hitters. That, I'm sure, oversimplifies things, but I fully expect the Twins to fill Hafner's post with somebody with his own chops in breaking down at-bats.

Thoughts from the weekend

And quite the weekend it was for the Twins, who enter Labor Day with a 5.5 game lead on the Cleveland Indians. One more game in Detroit today, and then ... well, then the schedule turns a little difficult again -- Boston on the road, home for series against the Tribe and Washington, back on the road to Cleveland.

And then it's back to playing the bad teams of the division for the remainder of the month.

OK, the big stuff:

Kyle Gibson to the injured list: This move may not have been necessary. I am not, to be clear, questioning the illness or its severity. But the Twins put Gibson on the injured list after rosters expanded. That usually doesn't happen.

Two possible reasons for it: First, to publicly acknowledge Gibson's physical problem. The team has known of his intestional tract issues all season, but the fans have been kept in the dark. And Gibson is going into free agency after the season.

I want to call Gibson's season somewhat disappointing. His ERA is a slightly worse than his career mark and is almost a run higher than in 2018. But his underlying numbers are actually better than last season. Put in the context of his e. Coli infection at the start of the year and his current weight-sapping  ulcerative colitis, it has been a very solid season.

The other reasons for putting Gibson on the injured list when there is no obvious roster issue involved may be to create a paper trail. Followers of LaVelle E Neal III on Twitter know that the Star Tribune beat writer has been patiently explaining that the postseason roster rules permit the Twins to add players already in the organization but not on the 40 at the end of August if they are replacing a 40-man player not able to perform.

That may -- or may not -- be useful in the case of ...

Brusdar Graterol. The organization's top pitching prospect was added to the 40-man roster and to the active roster on Sunday and made his major league debut in the ninth inning, showing off his high-velocity arm.

As matters stand, Graterol isn't eligible for the postseason roster. It's possible the Twins won't want him on it after pitching him in September. But they very well might -- and there are avenues to make him eligible, even if Gibson is deemed ready to roll after a more intensive treatment for his colitis.

268. The Twins on Saturday blew past the existing record for home runs in a season, and did so with the month of September still to go.

Saturday's six-homer outburst was almost a parody of my oft-stated offseason concern that the Twins power-focused revamp of the lineup would result in a lot of solo homers. The Twins scored seven runs on six dingers -- and lost.

Seven runs ought to be enough to win. They didn't lose that game to the lowly Tigers for lack of runs. They lost it on sloppy starting and sloppy fielding, and those are different issues. On Sunday they didn't hit any homers, but still scored eight runs. And won.

The Twins entered September having scored more than 800 runs already. The team record is 877, set in 1996. They've already passed the previous team record for extra base hits in a season.

It really is an impressive offense.

Bomba. bomba, bomba

Thursday night was a rather stereotypical 2019 Twins win: Three homers, a sneaky good start, and two innings from Taylor Rogers.

Kyle Gibson went seven innings against Oakland -- six hits, no walks, seven strikeouts and 73 strikes out of 106 pitches. The three runs allowed were the least impressive part of his stat line. Sneaky good.

I made this point. or tried to, earlier this week during a segment on KMSU radio: The Twins interest in a trade for a starting pitcher should be limited to a starter capable of moving Gibson down a rung in the playoff rotation. I'm not sure that starter is going to be on the market, and if he is, at a price the Twins will be willing to pay.

The Twins don't need the kind of starter who has moved so far (Andrew Cashner and Homer Bailey). Those are back-of-the-rotation guys, and the Twins have Martin Perez and Michael Pineda. And Gibson is now 9-4, 4.02 with more strikeouts than innings pitched. That ain't shabby.

Another point I made Monday that probably bears repeating: I said the Twins were likely to see their lead, then 6.5 games, shrink a bit in July. The Twins have a rougher schedule than Cleveland the rest of this month. But that reverses in August.

The emergence of Kyle Gibson

Considering the quality of the opponent and the venue, Thursday might well be the best game Kyle Gibson has ever pitched.

That is not damning with faint praise, for while Gibson's career record -- 49-55, 4.50 ERA  -- does not signal a future Cooperstown inductee, his history is one of inconsistency. All pitchers have better ERA in their wins than in their losses, but Gibson has over the years taken that concept to an extreme.

• Career ERA in his wins: 1.91
• Career ERA in his losses: 8.00
• Career ERA in his no-decisions: 4.07

But the horrid outings have been much more rare in the past 12 months.

Over the last calendar year in 32 starts, Kyle Gibson has posted a 3.46 ERA with 185 strikeouts and 21 homers allowed in 192 1/3 innings. #MNTwins

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) July 27, 2018

The change, as Bollinger implies, started almost exactly a year ago. Gibson started on July 16 last year against Houston; after allowing four runs in six innings, his ERA for the year was 6.29. By season's end, it was 5.07. Over his final 12 starts of 2017, his ERA was 3.57, which is pretty much a match for his 2018 ERA.

He is a different pitcher now than he once was. For years he was essentially a match for Mike Pelfrey, relying heavily on a two-seam fastball with which he had uncertain command. This gave him a dismal strikeout rate. Now he has a four-pitch mix -- four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, change -- and he is much less hittable.

He remains under team control for next season. While there are trade rumors swirling around him, I would be loathe to deal him for anything less than a truly top-shelf prospect.

A return of "SOG" (one day only, we hope)

Kyle Gibson allowed five earned runs in 5.1 innings on eight hits and four walks Friday night. Last year at this time I referred to such outings from him as "SOG" -- Same Old Gibson. This year, such outings have been rare indeed.

Last season he learned to incorporate a four-seam fastball into his mix of pitches and use it in the upper levels of the strike zone. He pitched quite well down the stretch in 2017 after his second brief demotion to Triple A, and for the most part has done so this season as well, Friday's clunker notwithstanding. His new approach has, among other benefits, sharply boosted his strikeout rate.

Gibson is no longer a "sinker-slider guy." He has a broader range of pitches now -- and they are usable pitches, pitches he can actually get outs with, not just throw out of the strike zone.

The high fastball is emerging in pitching theory as a means to combat the hitters who are focused on "launch angle," or hitting the ball in the air. Jake Odorizzi has deployed that approach for some time, and Gibson has clearly embraced it as well.

With any luck, this trend will prompt Bert Blyleven to stop mindlessly declaring that any hard-hit ball was "up in the zone" regardless of its actual location. Ot maybe that's too much to ask for.

Notes, quotes and comment

A warm thought on a frigid weekend: FSN will telecast 11 spring training games this year.


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I’m told there have been no talks of a multiyear deal for #mntwins RHP Kyle Gibson. Former 1st-rounder, now 30, is entering his 10th season in the organization.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 12, 2018

No kidding.

Gibson is the only arbitration-eligible Twin who didn't reach a contract agreement before Friday's deadline to exchange figures, and there is an sense that he'll be the first Twin to go to an actual hearing since Kyle Lohse more than a decade ago. He's not a great starter, but his track record says he can be expected to give you 30 starts and a bit below league average ERA, and there is legitimate value in that. 

As the roster now stands, he'd be the No. 3 starter -- Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios, Gibson, probably Aldaberto Mejia as the fourth starter and, realistically, a rotating grab bag of prospects and rehab guys for the fifth slot.

But the slow pace of offseason moves not withstanding, I don't expect that to be the rotation by the time pitchers and catchers report in a bit more than a month. And this may be my tendency to be fascinated by the new shiny things, but there are unproven guys (including Mejia) who I'd rather see in the rotation.

But I've observed before, regarding the bullpen, that the Twins are minimizing their risk. Gibson isn't going to be great, but he's not likely to be a complete disaster either. High floor, low ceiling isn't a bad approach for the fifth starter, should the Twins be fortunate enough to land two guys to slot ahead of him.

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As one who aims to make at least one visit to the Midwest League (specifically Cedar Rapids) each summer, this was interesting news:

Former Minnesota Twins infielder Denny Hocking will be manager of Clinton LumberKings this coming season. Cool! #MWL

— Jeff Johnson (@jeje66) January 11, 2018

Clinton is on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, not far from Cedar Rapids. The LumberKings are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners.

From the Handbook: Holding Runners

This is actually from a section entitled "Pitcher hitting, fielding and holding runners, and hitters pitching." And since we all already know Chris Gimenez pitched in six games last season, we'll narrow it down to something else a bit off beat -- holding runners.

Kyle Gibson pitched 158 innings for the Twins in 2017. Six runners attempted to steal off him; only one was successful.

There there's Jose Berrios -- 145 innings, nine attempts, six steals. Ervin Santana: 211 innings, 13 attempts. 11 successes.

To be sure, there isn't as much basestealing today as there was when I was young and artificial turf was in vogue. Managers wisely are less interested in one base in an era when there are twice as many homers hit and higher strikeout rates make "manufactured runs" less likely. And more precise data on "pop times" -- the time between the pitch hitting the catcher's glove and the catcher's throw to second hitting the infielder's glove -- and base runner speed gives managers a better handle on the real chance of a specific runner stealing a base successfully.

The result is that while basestealing attempts are down, success rates are up.

Unless you're running on Gibson. In which case, not only are attempts rather infrequent, success is even more rare.

Tender thoughts on Kyle Gibson

Friday was the deadline for "tendering" contracts to arbitration-eligible players. The Twins have six such players -- infielders Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza, outfielder Robbie Grossman and pitchers Kyle Gibson, Ryan Pressley and Trevor May. Each was tendered.

This was expected, although at the start of August I figured Gibson was a non-tender candidate. Bt he was much better in August and September, and even if he gets $6 million out of the arbiration process, that's still cheaper than the cost of a 160-inning pitcher in free agency.

Still, I wouldn't feel overly secure were I in his position. My sense is that the Twins are serious about signing one free agent starter -- Thad Levine, the general manager, has explictly named two big names, Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani -- and trading for another.

The offseason goal, in short, is to make Jose Berrios the fourth starter and Ervin Santana either the second or third best starter in the rotation. If that happens, Gibson -- and Aldaberto Mejia and surgical recovery projects May and Phil Hughes, among others -- are left to scrap it out for the fifth starter spot. Of those four, Gibson may have highest floor and the lowest ceiling.

I've seen Gerrit Cole and Jake Odorizzi linked to the Twins in trade rumors, although I doubt the Twins have the upper-level minor league talent to pry Cole away from the Pirates. Odorizzi may be more obtainable -- the Rays are said to be ready to reboot -- and I can see the Twins building a package around shortstop prospect Nick Gordon for the right-hander. And I can imagine, in that scenario, Gibson being part of the package, with the Rays getting him to plug into their rotation for a year.

From the Handbook: Starting pitcher rankings

Another new item in the Handbook this winter (and it suddenly feels like winter in southern Minnesota) is a system of ranking starting pitchers.

By their methodology -- complex enough that the book refers readers to the subscription Bill James Online site for a complete explaination -- Ervin Santana is currently the 14th best starter in baseball. (The Top 5: Corey Kluber, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and Justin Verlander, a perfectly acceptable quintent and ranking.)

Santana is squeezed between Jose Quintana and Robbie Ray, two lefties considerably younger than Santana.

Kyle Gibson is 63rd (the system heavily favor the most recent starts, and he had a very strong September). Jose Berrios is 88th and Bartolo Colon is 99th. Aldaberto Mejia comes in at 129.

Those would be the five-most used starters of the 2017 Twins. I'm confident that most of us would rank Berrios higher than Gibson, and I would put Mejia above Colon but we're anticipating the future when we do that.

Notes, quotes and comment

During my truncated biweekly appearance on KMSU Thursday, I volunteered the notion that Kyle Gibson was the key figure in the Twins push for the wild card.

He gave us reason to beleive that Sunday, both pro and con.

His first two innings were SOG -- Same Old Gibson. Four walks and four runs in the first inning, five runs -- including two homers -- in the first two innings. And then, four innings practically without blemish, the good Gibson of his previous five starts.

Gibson has had remarkable run support all year, and particularly of late. Five runs allowed in six innings is not a great start, but with 13 runs of support, it was good enough.

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Last week the Twins designated Engelb Vielma for assignment. The San Francisco Giants claimed him on waivers.

Last winter, the Giants waived Ehire Adrianza, who was initially claimed by the Milwaukee Brewers, to tried to get him through waivers themselves only to see the Twins claim him. Adrianza has stuck all year, starting games at five different positions. He's been the gloveman I expected (easily the best defensive shortstop on the roster) and a more productive hitter than anticipated.

In a very real sense, the Twins traded Vielma for Adrianza, just about seven months apart. They;re rather similar players -- switch-hitters, shortstops, some speed, glove-first. Vielma has options left, and Adrianza does not, and Adrianza has more pop in his bat, but in the main, they're the same guy.

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Adrianza has picked up a good bit of playing time in left field since Robbie Grossman's thumb injury in a platoon with Max Kepler, who has struggled at the plate against lefties. (Eddie Rosario shifts to right when Adrianza is in left.)

It's only 53 plate appearances, but Adrianza has slashed .298/.340/447 against southpaws. And he hasn't embarrassed himself in the outfield despite little previous experience out there. (There have been too few innings for the metrics to be definitive, but they show him as a very good defensive outfielder.)

Grossman, whose splits last year showed more power right handed, has been the opposite this year. He's slugging just .355 as a right-handed hitter, .412 from the left side -- but his on-base percentage as a right handed hitter is a stellar .406, markedly better than his still-useful .355 as a lefty.

I know there are those who want to see more Kennys Vargas as DH and less Grossman, but one long ball a week really doesn't make up for the all the extra outs Vargas would make.

Paul Molitor has this month largely limited his lineup juggling to the outfield corners and DH. I certainly didn't expect Adrianza to emerge as a viable outfielder, and I do believe that platooning Kepler now is detrimental to his future, but Molitor has gotten immediate benefits from this approach.

Contempating Kyle Gibson

Do I believe in Kyle Gibson?

Not in his existence, but that he truly belongs in the starting rotation of a postseason team.

On Thursday Gibson made his seventh start since returning to the rotation after the trade of Jaime Garcia. He allowed two runs in seven innings; while he didn't get the decision, it was a quality start. His stat line for those seven starts is pretty good: 3.10 ERA in 40.2 innings.

A month ago I figured Gibson was slated to be nontendered this offseason (he has one more year of arbitration eligibility). Now I'm not so sure he should be discarded.

His numbers for the year are still ugly., even with his Augst-September improvement. His ERA is still well above 5 (5.19); his walk and strikeout rates remain subpar. But even with two demotions to Triple A Rochester, he's second on the team in starts and innings; unlike fellow members of the season-opening rotation Phil Hughes, Hector Santiago and Adalberto Mejia, Gibson's been able to take the ball.

He has long been a frustrating pitcher to watch. He has a quality two-seamer, and he chronically appears unwilling or unable to trust it for strikes. That has changed since the end of July. On Thursday he threw 95 pitches, 58 of them strikes. That is certainly a workable ratio.

One is tempted to speculate that watching Bartolo Colon, possessor of a much less imposing two-seamer, thrive by pounding the edges of the zone with that pitch has rubbed off on Gibson. Whatever the reason, he's surged. And the Twins certainly needed that, and certainly need it to continue.

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.

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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.

More parallels with the 1987 Twins

A few weeks ago I milked a Monday print column out of the notion that there are parallels between this year's Twins team and the World Series champs of 30 years ago.

As the survivors of the 1987 Twins were feted at Target Field last weekend I thought of a few more pitching parallels. Realizing that we can take this comparison too far:

Adalberto Mejia is this year's Les Straker, only left-handed. Rookie who emerged as the team's third-best starter, not enough innings to qualify for the ERA title (Straker threw 154 in '87, Mejia is one out shy of 75 innings right now). Straker posted an ERA+ of 104 in '87; Mejia's is currently 109.

Kyle Gibson equates to Mike Smithson. Tall right-hander who relies on a sinking fastball. Gibson led the 2015 Twins, who were in the playoff chase until the final weekend, in innings pitched, and Smithson threw more than 250 innings for the 1984 Twins, who were in the playoff chase until the final weekend. Smithson opened the '87 season as the third starter but was in and out of the rotation; the same has been true of Gibson this year.

Bartolo Colon is ... well, there are actually two realistic possibilities. Joe Niekro was, in 1987, a 42-year-old one-pitch pitcher in his 21st year in the majors; the Twins, his seventh club, acquired him in June. Niekro won 221 games in his career, five of them for Minnesota (four in '87, one in '1988). Colon is a 44-year-old one-pitch guy on his 10th club in 20 years and is credited with 235 wins.

The other possible comp is Steve Carlton, more for his status as a legend. Carlton was in 1987 already a 300-game winner. Like Niekro, he was 42; the Twins were his sixth team. Like Colon, he arrived in Minnesota in July. He didn't pitch a lot.

Carlton was a no-doubter Hall of Famer; Niekro, despite a distinguished career, never had a shot at the Hall. Colon is somewhere in the middle, and Niekro is the better 1987 comp if Colon remains in the rotation for the rest of the year, or even through August.

Lots of moves, lots of criticism

The Jaime Garcia trade finally went down Monday. The trade itself is OK, with one curious aspect. The roster ramifications of adding the veteran lefty starter have, in my opinion, been mishandled.

I discussed in the Monday print column why such a trade was a logical move. Two (to three) months of Garcia will cost the Twins Huascar Ynoa, a 19-year-old Dominican signed in 2015 for a $800,000 bonus. He has to this point put up a 5.26 ERA at Elizabethton (25.2 innings), not that Appy League stats matter. Ynoa is a strong armed project who might make it and might not, a genuine lottery ticket. The major league team has a chance at a playoff spot and it desperately needs competence in the back of the rotation. Giving up Ynoa for Garcia is sensible.

Plus it probably saves me from having to learn to spell Huascar Ynoa.

Less obvious is the addition of "Quadruple A" catcher Anthony Recker. He's 33, he has accumulated 630 major league plate appearances over seven seasons, he landed on the 40-man roster via the trade and I don't really see the point. I would not only rather have Chris Gimenez than Recker, I'd rather have Mitch Garver. (At this point, I might rather have Garver than Gimenez, but that's another matter.) The Twins now have five catchers on their 40-man roster, which seems excessive (Jason Castro, Gimenez, Garver, Recker and John Ryan Murphy).

The Twins, as noted in Monday's post, pushed Craig Breslow off both the active roster and the 40-man roster after Sunday's game. I had expected that they would fill the 25-man spot by bringing back Rule 5 pick Justin Haley from the disabled list. Instead they recalled Alan Busenitz and returned Haley to Boston. Nothing against Busenitz, but I don't care for abandoning the Haley project at this point, even though they almost certainly would have to carry his Rule 5 restrictions over to next season.

Dumping Haley does open a second 40-man roster spot, and they needed that to accommodate the addition of Recker -- assuming that they needed to add Recker. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that last winter the Twins exposed catcher Stuart Turner to the Rule 5 draft and lost him to Cincinnati; in a very real sense, this series of roster moves amounted to trading Turner for Recker. Turner hasn't done much for the Reds, but he's still there, and he's about eight years younger than Recker.

Recker, at least for now, is assigned to Rochester. Garcia, obviously, needs to be on the 25-man roster. And the Twins got there by optioning Kyle Gibson to Rochester for the second time this season. They're going to stick with Bartolo Colon in the rotation.

I've little good to say about Gibson's pitching this season. He remains a highly frustrating pitcher. But if it's a binary choice -- I have to start either Gibson or Colon -- I'd go with the guy with the 6.08 ERA on the season (94 innings) over the guy with the 8.00 ERA (72 innings).

Pedro Martinez, who knows more about pitching than I ever will, backs his countryman Colon:

I saw Bartolo's stuff, and I think he is getting back on track. He can use this start to build up for the next.

— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) July 25, 2017

I will say this for Colon: He made his first two starts against some stiff lineups, the Yankees and the Dodgers. Those were not cupcake assignments. Gibson's seven shutout innings in his most recent start came against a much softer lineup (Detroit).

I would go with Gibson over Colon, which is not claiming that either is an optimal choice.

On Gibson, Hughes and Jorge

SOG -- Same old Gibson.

Paul Molitor, speaking about Kyle Gibson's start after the game, called Thursday "one of his better nights," and perhaps it was in some ways. But Gibson walked the leadoff hitter in the fatal fifth inning, surrendered a pair of crucial extra-base hits after falling behind in the count and messed up a key defensive play when he failed to remember that the "wheel play" was on.

It wasn't all his fault. Jorge Polanco was charged with an error, and the Red Sox turned a couple of jam shots to their advantage. Still, it was another example of how damage control is not Gibson's forte. Big innings seem to find him, in no small part because he sends the invitation.

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Phil Hughes made his relief debut Thursday night: 1.2 innings, two strikeouts, one hit and two inherited runners stranded.

Velocity in the low 90s, which is about as hard as he's thrown this year. I'll call it an encouraging start to this bullpen experience.

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Source: #mntwins to call up RHP Felix Jorge from Double-A @ChattLookouts to start Saturday vs. #Royals.  https://t.co/GUHlHk9XKA

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) June 29, 2017

I published this post on Jorge almost two years ago. This year, pitching in Double A, he's put up a 8-1 record with a 3.26 ERA, which looks pretty good, but he's also allowed more hits than innings pitched, his home run rate has elevated and his walk and strikeout rates are both among the worst of his minor league career. (His stat lines are here.)

It will be a one-day callup. He's not ready for a major league rotation role even if the Twins are inclined to open one up.

Draft, Day two: Going over and under (slot)

On the first day of the 2017 draft, the Twins selected frugally with their three picks. All are expected to sign for figures significantly "under slot".

That changed on Tuesday's second day with the first pick of the third round.

Source: #MNTwins third-round pick RHP Blayne Enlow to sign an above-slot deal worth roughly $2 million: https://t.co/p0TlZsEp9S

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) June 14, 2017

Enlow, as Bollinger writes, was ranked No. 29 in the draft class by MLB.com, which would have put him at the bottom of the first round. The 18-year-old from Louisiana was signed to LSU. It took late first-round money to land him, and the underslot picks ahead of him helped make that possible.

The Twins also took three college seniors with their last three selections. With no remaining eligibility and thus a lack of negotiating leverage, they are likely to sign for a fraction of their allotment of the bonus pool, although the savings won't be as great as they were from Monday.

Here's Bollinger's recap of the Twins' Day Two selections. They are heavy on college pitchers, with far less of the power-arm reliever type that the organization has been picking in recent years, although one of the seniors is a bullpen arm.

One more day lies ahead, with picks outside the bonus pool. I don't know if the Twins have enough saved to make another splash in these lower rounds, but we can figure they have a good idea.

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I deemed Monday's Twins game a "the less said the better" affair, so I'll apply the same to Tuesday's 20-6 thrashing of Seattle. Nice days for the Eds of the roster, with Eddie Rosario hitting three homers and Eduardo Escobar going 5-for-6. A lot of batting averages got fattened up in that one.

But Kyle Gibson's ERA is now 6.79 after 11 starts. He's 4-0 in five starts since his return from the minors, but his ERA in that span is 5.46. and he has only one quality start. He's certainly not fixed yet.

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.

Down goes Gibson

Kyle Gibson looked good in spring
training but hasn't had a quality start
since the season opened.

Kyle Gibson had another rough start Thursday: Four innings, eight hits, four runs. His ERA rose to an unsightly 8.20.

The bullpen gave up another four runs, but it was Gibson who took the loss and the fall, getting optioned out to Triple A Rochester after the game.

I expect him back sooner or later; he's getting paid $2.9 million whether he's pitching in Minneapolis or Rochester. And the Twins are not exactly blessed with a surplus of starters.

But the new regime isn't necessarily committed to Gibson. I wondered early in the offseason if he would be kept around. The answer was yes -- but with a leash shorter than I anticipated.

Nick Tepsech, nominally the fifth starter, is now the fourth starter and he hasn't even appeared in a major league game this year.

The Twins apparently won't need to add a starter -- assuming they're satisfied with Tepesch after he starts on Saturday -- for more than a week. Earlier this week I laid out a theory on why the front office is in no hurry to bring up Jose Berrios, and as far as I can tell that theory stands.

The most likely next fifth starter, I suspect, will be the old fifth starter, Aldaberto Mejia. But things can change.

Three thoughts

Three thoughts from Wednesday's Twins loss:

* Same Old Gibby. I may turn this into a standard acronym, SOG.

Kyle Gibson was really impressive during spring training, and I started to have hope that his revised mechanics would unlock finally make him a pitcher worthy of the 14th overall pick.

He was excellent for three innings Wednesday. In the fourth his command just vanished, and it was only a matter of time. SOG. Five runs allowed in the fourth, and he didn't come out for the fifth.

* It was Byron Buxton's turn to sit Wednesday -- Paul Molitor has used eight different batting orders in eight games -- and it was noteworthy that Eddie Rosario played center field, with Danny Santana in left.

In previous seasons, Santana would have been in center. This suggests that Molitor has concluded (or realized) that Santana is a lesser defensive outfielder than Rosario,

* In a somewhat related note, Robbie Grossman has yet to play even an inning in the field.

Contemplating Kyle Gibson

Kyle Gibson sits between Jorge Polanco and Brian Dozier
between innings Tuesday in Detroit. He allowed one
run in eight innings Tuesday, one of his best outings of 2016.

When a team is apparently headed to 100 losses, there is generally no shortage of reasons for the failure. For the 2016 Minnesota Twins, one of the biggest reasons is Kyle Gibson.

Gibson in 2015 led the team in starts, innings pitched, quality starts and strikeouts. He tied for the team lead in both wins and losses. And, notably, the big right-hander led the entire team, pitchers and position players, in WAR (wins above replacement) as calculated by Baseball Reference. He was the one constant in a constantly shuffled rotation.

This year he has regressed. Tuesday's strong start was only his second quality start since July and his eighth of the season (he had 17 last year). His strikeout rate, which had improved rather sharply in 2015 as he made better use of a changeup, has receded.

Gibson has always impressed the old-school scouts more than he has the sabermetricians, and there is a very good chance that the incoming management will be more inclined to rely on his track record than on his potential. Since he turns 29 next month, that would be sensible. When we hear talk of a pending pitching staff shakeup, Gibson is probably prominent among those to be shaken.