Phil Hughes and the money

There was a taker for Phil Hughes' contract, or at least some of it, after all.

The Twins on Sunday traded Hughes to San Diego. On the face of it, it's pretty much all subtraction:

#mntwins have traded Phil Hughes, cash and 74th overall pick ($812,200 slot value) to #Padres for 21-year-old Venezuelan catcher
Janigson Villalobos. #mntwins now have $5,933,000 to spend in first 10 rounds of June draft (5th lowest total).

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) May 27, 2018

That pick was tradable because it's a competitive balance pick. And while the amount of cash the Twins are sending with Hughes wasn't announced, it's been reported to be quite a bit, with the Padres assuming only about $6 million to $7 million of the $20 million or so left on his contract.

Now that we've set the technical details, let's break this deal down to two component parts:

• Phil Hughes for (we'll say) $6 million
• A top-100 draft pick for Janigson Villalobos

I would like to be wrong on this, but the Padres overpaid on the first half of this trade. The current version of Phil Hughes is not worth $6 million. (San Diego is a pretty good landing spot for Hughes, and I hope he does well there.)

I would like to be wrong on the second part as well, but there's a better chance the 74th player in next month's draft will be a productive major leaguer than there is for Villalobos. Plus deleting more than $800,000 from the bonus pool figures to constrict the Twins' draft flexibility.

Villalobos is 21 and hasn't gotten out of Rookie ball in the San Diego organization. He's going to be on a short-season team again this year, presumably Elizabethton in the Appy League. You can look at his stats in the above link, but Rookie level numbers don't mean much. 

When the Twins DFA'd Hughes last week, Derek Falvey mentioned that principal owner Jim Pohlad signed off on the decision. I suspect that getting ownership's OK to write off $20 million required Falvey to agree to make minimizing that write off a priority. (I also suspect that the late signings of Lance Lynn and Logan Morrison put the Twins over budget on this year's payroll, which may be another reason to emphasize for the savings.)

It's not my money, and we have no idea what talent the Twins will lose out on for Villalobos. But I think the Twins would probably have been better off eating the full term of Hughes' contract and keeping the draft pick. 

Good bye, Hughes

The Twins designated Phil Hughes for assignment after Monday night's game. No immediate corresponding move was announced.

Baseball can be a harsh and humbling game. Respect to the Twins organization and fans for always treating me so incredibly well. Will miss you guys ❤️

— Phil Hughes (@PJHughes45) May 22, 2018

It's rather startling to realize that this was Hughes' fifth season with the Twins. His first was very good. The then-front office rewarded him with a lengthy contract extension, after which came a series of surgeries and rehab that he never seemed to fully recover from. The Twins still owe him more than $22 million for this year and next.

The track record of pitchers with thoracic outlet syndrome is spotty at best. Hughes is not the first to lose the effectiveness of his fastball with the surgery, and he never at any point in his career seemed to master the art of changing speeds. He always needed to be a power pitcher, and the power just wasn't there anymore. 

Presumably Hughes will clear waivers and be released, after which somebody will pick him up as a low-cost flier. And good luck to him. His 2014 season was one of the best things to happen to the Twins in the late Gardenhire years. For that one year, he was a good as anybody in the game. But pitching is a fragile endeavor, and it is not surprising that his time with the Twins has ended.

More roster moves (and another loss)

The Twins on Monday brought up John Curtiss to replace Tyler Duffey, who was demoted after Sunday's loss.

This is a level higher than most of the roster-shuffling transactions. While Duffey hasn't had a key bullpen role this year, he did last year -- and Curtiss has the velocity and talent to eventually emerge with a major late inning role. First he has to establish himself, though.

But there was another move of sorts Monday of immediate significance. The Twins are moving Phil Hughes to the bullpen and bringing up power-armed prospect Fernando Romero for Wednesday's start.

No roster move has been made yet; Romero is still, officially, a Rochester Red Wing. Something will be done today to make room for him.

Hughes' spot had been, in my mind, ticketed for Ervin Santana when he returns from his rehab work (finger surgery). I don't know that they have a specific timeline yet for him, however, and at this point they might well target Lance Lynn for replacement, assuming that Romero thrives in the major league rotation (which is not a given).

Lynn's ERA now stands at 8.37, which screams for replacement. He's walked 23 in 23.2 innings, including five on Monday. It has been an ugly, ugly April for the late-spring signing.

The Twins are sticking with him for now. But with their ambitions swirling around the drain a month into the season, the decision makers are being given reason to act sooner rather than later. 

Notes from the weekend

Ugly series all told against Tampa Bay for the Twins. They couldn't deal with the former Twins in the Rays outfield (Denard Span and Carlos Gomez) and the bullpen stuck so bad one assumes the trainer had to check the old guys for signs of decomposion.

Span went 5-for-14 with three runs and six RBIs. Gomez scored the winning run on Friday and hit a monster walk-off homer off the previously impregnable Addison Reed on Sunday.

Go-Go, by the way, is hitting third for Tampa Bay despite a .160 batting average. It's still early.

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Gabriel Moya, lefty reliever I really like even through his major league numbers to date aren't good, was optioned out Sunday to make room for Phil Hughes. Dick Bremer was claiming that Hughes showed improved velocity on his rehab assignment, but we certainly didn't see that in Sunday's start.

For the first time, I now consider it a genuine possibility that the Twins will give up on Hughes relatively soon. They're on the hook for not only this season but next on his contract, so that's a genuine consideration. But when Ervin Santana returns -- and my guess is end of May at the earliest for that -- there's no room for him in the rotation. And there may not be room for him in the bullpen either.

Gotta get outs. And Hughes needs to start getting them soon.

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Luke Bard, a hard-throwing relief prospect the Twins lost to the Angels in the Rule 5 draft, has now been designated for assignment. If he slips through waivers, I would assume the Twins will happily reclaim him.

Bard is said to have the highest spin rate on his four-seam fastball in the majors this year. That's nice. It obviously wasn't enough to keep him on the Angels roster.

If the Twins get him back, it may make it a bit easier for Minnesota to abandon the Tyler Kinley experiment. Kinley has pitched just three innings so far, and those innings haven't made Paul Molitor eager to increase his role. It's difficult for a contender to carry a Rule 5 guy.

Ryan LaMarre and the opening roster

The Twins played their final exhibition of 2018 on Tuesday, beating the Washington Nationals in D.C. Of more importance, they set -- presumably -- their roster for opening day on Thursday.

Phil Hughes went on the disabled list with his strained oblique. This allowed both Gabriel Moya and Rule 5 pick Tyler Kinley to make the roster. There seems to be some skepticism on Twins twitter about the validity of Hughes' injury, in no small part because he's sidelined for a period in which the Twins don't need a fifth starter. I'll deploy my skepticism for people who assume that an athlete is faking an injury.

Anyway, that was one of the final decisions. Another, as noted here Monday, wasn't much of a decision. Kennys Vargas was indeed put back of waivers as soon as the Twins reclaimed him. This time he cleared, and the Twins outrighted him to Triple A. This isn't good for Vargas, who would probably benefit from a new organization, but there are 30 big-league teams and none of them want to use a 25-man roster spot on him.

The final decision may not be fully decided. The Twins optioned out Zack Granite, which presumably means Ryan LaMarre will be on the 25-man roster as a reserve outfielder.

"Presumably" because

• the Twins haven't officially put him on the 40-man and 25-man rosters and
• they are presumably aware that the Los Angeles Dodgers designated Trayce Thompson for assignment on Tuesday, and there may well be other right-handed hitting outfielders available this week.

LaMarre, 29, had a great spring training; he hit .475/.500/.775 and looked good at all three outfield positions. There is nothing more he could have done in Florida to win a roster spot.

The problem for LaMarre is his track record. Not so much his .054 career major league batting average; that's only 40 plate appearances and is meaningless. Nobody's as good as his spring training stats, and nobody's as bad as his major league numbers.

It's what he's shown in the upper minors in a variety of organizations. LaMarre has more than 950 PA in Triple A and has compiled an OPS at that level of .723, which isn't that impressive.

LaMarre hits right-handed, and as I've been noting all spring, that fits the Twins' specific roster needs better than the lefty bat of Granite. But Granite is the better player; if the Twins should need somebody to play everyday for a couple weeks or more, Granite is a better choice. LaMarre makes the team for a specific role -- if he indeed makes the team. That has yet to fully play out.

The opening roster takes shape

Hardly had I gotten Thursday's post published than the Twins did other than predicted. Tyler Duffey was optioned out (as was Alan Busenitz), leaving the Twins with 13 pitchers for 12 spots. The final spot figures to go to either Gabriel Moya or Tyler Kinley, with Kinley favored.

This suggests that the decison makers are confident that the starters are prepared to give them some length when the season opens next week. That hasn't been the outlook in recent years. Keeping Duffey and Phil Hughes would have given the Twins a fifth starter and a long reliever (or two spot starters/long men). Instead, it's just the post-operative Hughes.

Duffey will be used in relief in Rochester but in a stretched-out way, akin to how he was used last season. And he'll be in Minnesota sooner than later. There will be a need for innings out of the bullpen.

More surprising to me, in truth, was the lopping of veteran non-roster infielder Erick Aybar. I had been resigned to the notion that the suspension of Jorge Polanco and the uncertainty over Miguel Sano meant that Aybar, who hit well early in camp and then faded, was going to be on the opening roster.

Instead, it appears that the Twins intend to have five outfielders open the season in the majors. This may be related to Eddie Rosario's multi-week issues with his throwing elbow.

The conventional wisdom has Robbie Grossman and Zack Granite as the extra outfielders. I wouldn't rule out Ryan LaMarre, but he does have the significant disadvantage of being a non-roster guy.

And Mitch Garver will be the backup catcher. Bobby Wilson and Willians Astudillo were both told they won't be on the opening roster.

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Kennys Vargas was claimed on waivers by the Cincinnati Reds, which is a bit puzzling. The Reds, as a National League team, have little need for a designated hitter, and Vargas should not be taking at-bats away from the great Joey Votto.

Best guess is that the Reds will quickly waive Vargas in hopes of stashing him at Triple A, which I think is what the Twins were hoping to do.

Spring training trip: A day off

The wife and I take one day of our biannual spring training trip to go to Sanibel, and Monday was the day for that.

Really, the Twins highlight for the day for me came in the evening, when my wife was checking out at the Publix on Six Mile Cypress and Tony Oliva strolled by.

While I was off on my island jaunt, the Twins were making the Lance Lynn signing official. On Sunday, with the deal not yet official, the Twins released Anibal Sanchez, which created room on the 40-man roster for Lynn.

Lynn will start today as the Twins try to ramp him up for the opening rotation.

Paul Molitor hasn't named his opening day starter, much less the rotation, but he has said that it's more important to have Jose Berrios lined up to pitch in the Puerto Rico series than in the opener. My guess, therefore, is that the rotation will go Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Berrios and Lynn. As I understand it, Berrios in game three sets him up not only to pitch in Puerto Rico but in the home opener. And pushing Lynn back to the fourth game will give him the opportunity to work in one more tune-up start in Florida.

Meanwhile, Phil Hughes had a pretty solid outing Monday night. He's probably Plan B for the rotation if -- let's make that when -- somebody gets hurt; in the meantime, he will be in the bullpen. Sanchez is already released.  The third member of what I called the Tier One candidates for the rotation, Aldaberto Mejia, will likely be sent to Triple A.

And that will probably have a domino effect on the prospect crew that made up Tiers Two and Three (Aaron Slegers, Stephen Gonsalves, Fernando Romero, Felix Jorge, Zack Littell, Dietrich Enns). At least one of those six was going to be in Double A; now it's likely two of them will.

One point Derek Falvey made about the Lynn signing is that adding him doesn't really block the prospects. Both Lynn and Ervin Santana will be free agents after 2018; Odorizzi, Gibson and Hughes after 2019. The Twins will be quite happy if the prospects get to spend this season marinating in Triple A, and wait to step into the rotation plans in 2019.

Which way the wind blows

Phil Hughes and Anibal Sanchez -- two of the three rotation candidates I recently grouped together as "Tier One" -- each gave up homers in their appearances during the weekend.

Hughes actually surrendered two, Sanchez one. But one big difference was that in Hughes's case, the wind was blowing out; for Sanchez, the wind was blowing in.

Many factors mess with spring training numbers, and this is one of less obvious ones. I've been to enough games at Fort Myers to know that it's windy. When the wind is blowing in at Hammond Stadium, it takes a lot to hit one out.

Judging from the radio descriptions, Hughes was pitching in the reverse situation. The wind was adding distance to fly balls.

It's far too early to reach a final evaluation on any of them anyway. But it's worth remembering that the stat sheet does not reveal everything worth considering.

One trip through

Trying to discern anything out of one baseball game is foolish. Trying to discern anything out of the first week of spring training games is just as foolish.

So I'm a fool, and what else is new?

Aaron Slegers and Stephen Gonsalves -- who are both more likely to open 2018 in the rotation of Triple A Rochester than in the Minnesota rotation -- on Wednesday became the first Twins hurlers to start twice this exhibition season.

Three observations from the first trip through the "rotation":

* Only Jose Berrios struggled. The Twins' most talented starter threw a scoreless inning but exhausted his 30-pitch allotment and didn't come out for a second frame.

* Anibal Sanchez didn't start, but he did work a pair of innings, throwing mostly offspeed stuff. The usual spring training pattern, especially for a veteran, is to spend the first outing testing fastball command. But the idea behind the Sanchez signing is to break his conventional pattern of pitching. He's on a non-guaranteed deal, and he needs to impress.

* Phil Hughes was not only effective in his start, he showed a bit more velocity than he did last season. Question: is there another velo uptick ahead as the spring moves on? Hughes is in a slightly different situation than Sanchez; his contract is guaranteed. But his role is not. If he's going to be in the rotation, he too needs to impress.

We are told that Paul Molitor plans to go with four starters to open the season, with the expectation/hope that Ervin Santana will be ready to roll when he needs to go deeper. We expect that the first three starters will be, in some order, Berrios, Jake Odorizzi and Kyle Gibson.

That leaves one slot, and a lot of candidates. "Tier One" candidates, as I see it, are Hughes, Sanchez and Aldaberto Mejia. "Tier Two" would include Slegers, Gonsalves and, apparently, Tyler Duffey, although I would prefer Duffey in a multi-inning bullpen role.

Nothing that happened the first time through hurt any of the Tier One candidates. The Tier Two guys haven't hurt themselves either, but they need not only to impress themselves but have the Tier One guys stumble.

From the Handbook: Pitcher repertoires

This is one of my favorite and most used portions of the annual Bill James Handbook. I have generally written something annually out of this section, and almost always about Phil Hughes -- in large part because his repertoire changes so much from year to year.

Tracking it backwards:

2017: 46 percent fastballs, 21 percent cutters, 20 percent curves, 13 percent change ups.

2016: 49 percent fastballs, 26 percent cutters, 23 percent curves, 3 percent change ups.

2015: 59 percent fastballs, 20 percent cutters, 16 percent curves, 5 percent change ups.

2014: 65 percent fastballs, 21 percent cutters, 14 percent curves, less than 1 percent changeups. (This was his first year with the Twins and the best season of his career.)

2013: 62 percent fastballs, 0 percent cutters, 17 percent curves, 16 percent sliders, 5 percent change ups, less than 1 percent splitters. (With the Yankees; note the use of the slider and the absence of the cutter.)

Obviously the thoratic outlet issues -- with surgery after the 2016 season and now again -- has had something to do with this, but the fastball useage keeps declining, and the percentage of changeups reached a new high last year.

I don't know what to expect from Hughes in 2018, other than that if he's sound he's going to be on the staff. The man's signed through 2019. He might be in the bullpen, he might be in the rotation. I don't think he's going to be effective if his velocity remains below 90 mph, as it was last season. 

And I don't think he's going to be effective throwing a lot of changes, either. I always thought that Neil Allen and his change up obsession was a poor fit for Hughes as pitching coach. It will be interesting to see if Hughes backs away from the change with Allen gone -- although if the velocity is gone for good, it probably doesn't matter.

Gee, Colon? Part 3 (and Hughes and Breslow)

Well, at least he threw strikes.

For four innings, the Bartolo Colon Experiment worked, He carved up the Yankee lineup with mediocre velocity coupled with location and movement, and with some good fielding plays behind him.

Then came the fifth, in which he got no outs, and in which Ryan Pressly did what Ryan Pressly has done pretty consistently all season: give up a homer. The 3-1 lead turned to a 6-3 deficit, and both bullpens put up zeros after that.

Yeah, the Twins had plenty of opportunities to score more runs, but you shouldn't hang your hat on allowing six runs.

Four earned runs in four innings won't do much for Big Sexy's already bloated ERA, but he'll get another start after throwing 53 strikes in 82 pitches. That will come against the Dodgers, who are doing unto the National League what the Astros are doing unto the American. He's not drawing cupcake assignments.

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Despite the report Monday that Dillon Gee has been waived, he remains on the 40-man roster as of early this morning. The 40-man (and 25-man) roster spot for Colon came from putting Phil Hughes on the 60-day disabled list. He's done for the season with a recurrence of his thoracic outlet syndrome with another round of surgery in his near future. This is a discouraging development for Hughes personally, but doesn't really damage the team's outlook for the rest of the season, as he hasn't been very effective as a reliever.

Kennys Vargas was indeed optioned out, and Craig Breslow was returned to the 25-man roster from the disabled list. He got one out on Tuesday. Replacing Hughes in the 'pen with Breslow doesn't do much for me.

The roster maneuvers left the Twins roster in this condition: The game ended with Chris Gimenez on-deck waiting to pinch-hit for Eddie Rosario against Aroldis Chapman. I'm not really sure what the point of that move would have been ... yeah, Gimenez would have the platoon advantage, but I would too. I'd rather have Rosario against Chapman.

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.

Notes, quotes and comment

Adalberto Mejia, five-and-fly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phil Hughes, reliever

Intriguing:

Phil Hughes heads to bullpen as he starts rehab:
"I certainly think I can provide quite a bit in that role."https://t.co/WuUn03CiD2

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) June 20, 2017

Hughes has been a reliever before -- he spent much of 2009 as a set-up man to Mariano Rivera as the Yankees won the World Series -- but he hasn't made more than a couple of relief apperances in any season since.

The idea is that shorter stints will avoid the tingling sensation in his fingers, an echo of the symptoms that led to last year's thoratic outlet syndrome surgery.

Hughes as a reliever isn't what Terry Ryan (or Hughes) had in mind when Hughes signed his contract extension after his outstanding 2014 season, but if he has the usual uptick in velocity in the bullpen role, Hughes as a reliever might solve one of the pitching staff's issues. A reliable right-handed short man would ease Paul Molitor's burden.

He (and the also rehabbing Hector Santiago) are to pitch today for Rochester. Per Berardino, the idea is that this weekend Hughes will try pitching in back-to-back games. Back-to-back outings in rehab assignments are typically a trigger to bring the pitcher off the disabled list, so it's possible that Hughes will be back next week. Santiago was reportedly reluctant to go on a rehab assignment at all, preferring to simply return to the rotation, so it's possible Santiago will be back next week. Getting both back on the mound can't hurt.

Meanwhile, the Twins have signed Dillon Gee to a minor league deal. Gee has had some success in a major league rotation, but not lately; the Rangers cut him loose earlier this year after he gave up four homers in 13 innings. I'm not counting on much, but he may be an upgrade on Adam Wilk.

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.

Notes, quotes and comment

Scratch Ryan O'Rourke from the 2017 Twins pitching plans. The lefty specialist is to have Tommy John surgery. That news came quickly after his consultation Tuesday with the Rangers team physician.

So that's two pitchers who injured their elbows during training camp and needed the ligament-replacement surgery. The first, Trevor May, is also with the team in Arlington, Texas, checking in with the same doctor (Keith Meister) on his rehab process.

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Eric Thames bounced around American ball during his early 20s, hitting 31 homers in 700 at-bats with Toronto and Seattle. Then he went to Korea and mashed for three seasons. Now he's 30 and back in the majors with Milwaukee and still mashing; he hit his 11th homer of the young season Tuesday night.

And as the Cubs, apparently startled that there might be a good player on another team, imply that he's obviously using, the "random" drug tests seem to land on him a lot all of a sudden.

Eric Thames was drug tested again tonight. "If people keep thinking I'm on stuff, I'll be here every day. I have a lot of blood and urine." pic.twitter.com/De1smFWVj7

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) April 26, 2017

Thames' numbers in Korea are impressive -- but not as impressive as those of Byung Ho Park. This is what Park was supposed to be doing. And still might, if he can get back on the field and get another shot. I still believe in him.

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Phil Hughes: Four starts, two solid, one a struggle, one just plain ineffective. Yes, he's 3-1, but his ERA is 4.71 and he's giving up more hits than innings pitched, while his strikeout rate is essentially flat with the past two seasons. It's fairly obvious that

• his fastball velocity isn't where it was before his surgery and
• reinventing his pitching approach, with a heavier diet of changeups, remains a work in progress.

Also fairly obvious: 50 percent quality starts is a better rate than we're seeing from Kyle Gibson.

Phil Hughes and the pursuit of a useable change

The Twins had a day off Tuesday. Phil Hughes did not. It was his turn to start, but with no exhibition game, he worked four innings, 59 pitchers, against Twins minor leaguers.

His fastball velocity sat, as it reportedly has in previous outings, around 90 mph. It's still fairly early in camp, and he's coming off surgery, so I don't know what to make of that. He might regain some velo. On the other hand, even in 2014 -- his career year to date -- he averaged a touch above 92 mph (according to the 2015 Bill James Handbook). When Hughes is right, he gets outs with movement and control, not with raw speed.

But the object of Tuesday's outing was the changeup. This has been a chronic thing since Neil Allen became the Twins pitching coach --- Hughes needs a changeup -- and almost half of Hughes' pitches Tuesday were changes.

I've argued before that for Hughes specifically, the pursuit of a changeup is fixing what ain't broke. He threw less than one changeup per game in 2014, and that was the best season a Twins right-hander has had at least since Brad Radke's heyday. It was also the season before Allen got the job. The next year, Hughes threw the change almost 10 percent of the time, and his results got worse. And last year the veteran's season was shortened by injury.

From Mike Bernadino's story on Tuesday's outing:

“He’s got to be a different guy, bring some different stuff to the table,” said Allen, who replaced longtime Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson after Hughes’ record-setting 2014 season. “Him throwing the change-up is going to be nothing but beneficial.”

...

"But we’ve got to make him change.”

 Allen has his blueprint for pitching success. Hughes' success in the past has been with a different style of pitching. The "we've got to make him change" line doesn't sit well with me.

In fairness to Allen, the thoratic outlet surgery may have added some urgency to the mission. It's possible that the missing 2 mph is gone for good, and that at age 30 Hughes does need to change who he is as a pitcher. I have my doubts about that, however.

Notes, quotes and comment

Scratch the notion of a September return for Phil Hughes. The veteran right-hander will have thoracic outlet syndrome surgery next week.

From the Pioneer Press' Mike Berardino:

Former Twins pitchers Deolis Guerra and Hector Carrasco also underwent the procedure, which involves the partial removal of a rib to relieve nerve and circulation issues in the throwing shoulder area.

The hope -- expectation? -- is that this will solve Hughes' shoulder fatigue issues. He was already out with a leg fracture, but now he won't be back until spring training 2017.

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Also from Berardino: Max Kepler got a fairly high-level rebuke last weekend from Reggie Jackson, who watched the rookie take aim at the right field seats during batting practice in Yankee Stadium and told him: "I'm 70 years old and I can do that. Let me see you go the other way."

I'll bet Kepler hears that from Tom Brunansky and Rudy Hernandez a lot. Hearing it from a 500-homer Hall of Famer apparently had some influence on the German.

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Only one Twins prospect named to the Futures Game rosters Tuesday, J.T. Chargois. I'm mildly surprised at one; there are a handful of others I would have thought worthy, such as Tyler Jay or Stephen Gonsalves.

Nobody gets more than two on the initial rosters, and there are a few teams that only get one. It's possible that the Twins declined to send one of the lower level prospects across the country to San Diego.

Gibson, Hughes and Milone

Kyle Gibson was supposed to come off the disabled list and start Thursday, but the right-hander reported sciatic issues. Phil Hughes, who was assigned to the bullpen after his last start but had yet to actually relieve, started. Four innings, nine hits, four runs, 63 pitches.

The Twins won, but that hardly earns him a reprieve from the bullpen assignment.

So ... Gibson remains on the disabled list indefinitely. The Twins have an off day Monday, and so they could skip this rotation slot the next time around, but eventually they'll need a fifth starter. If Gibson's back issues sideline him long enough, he'll need to redo the rehab assignment routine.

The three most likely non-Gibson rotation options:

• Keep Hughes in the rotation. (Problem: He continues to be ineffective.)
• Recall Jose Berrios. (Problem: He's given up 10 runs in 16 innings in the three starts since the Twins sent him back to Rochester.)
• Recall Tommy Milone. (2.22 ERA in four starts, 28.1 innings since his demotion. Problem: He's not on the 40-man roster anymore.)

There are, obviously, significant drawbacks to each. Milone would require cutting somebody from the 40-man roster, and the Twins have already lost three players on waivers this season (John Hicks, Casey Fien, J.R. Graham). But he's the one who seems the best bet to actually, you know, get people out as a starter.

The Twins don't have to make that decision now, but they probably have it in mind.

Buxton, Hughes and a coming pitching move

Some roster and role moves from the Twins on Monday.

Before the game, Paul Molitor announced that Phil Hughes is being bounced to the bullpen with Kyle Gibson coming off the disabled list this week. Hughes is 1-7 with a 5.74 ERA, and his strikeout rate has declined to barely more than 5 per nine innings, so we can't really say that he's been effective.

On the other hand, he's making $13 million, which is a lot of coin for a long man, which will presumably be his role, at least until somebody else loses his rotation spot. Which will happen, whether because Pat Dean returns to reality, because somebody gets hurt or somebody gets traded. It's just a matter of time.

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Danny Santana injured his left hamstring during Monday's loss to Oakland, and Byron Buxton is returning.

Buxton hit .333/.402/.605 in 28 games in Rochester, so it would appear Triple A wasn't holding many mysteries for the kid.

I'm glad to see Buxton return, and I have to imagine the Twins pitching staff is too. The outfield defense just upgraded markedly

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Gibson is slated to start Thursday against Tampa Bay. We know how the rotation slot is being opened for him. We don't know how the roster spot will be opened.

The Twins right now have 13 pitchers. I don't know what the option situation is for Buddy Boshers or Brandon Kintzler, but I doubt either has any options left. That probably makes Taylor Rogers the easiest to send to Rochester.