Starting the roster trimming

Yohan Pino made
11 major league starts
for the Twins, fifth
most on the team.

Terry Ryan and the rest of the Twins brain trust are in Fort Myers this week holding the organizational meetings.

Even without a manager, even without a coaching staff, some decisions have to be made.

The first made public was the removal of infielder Doug Bernier and pitcher Yohan Pino from the 40-man roster.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins re-signed either or both to minor league deals. Nor would I be surprised if the 34-year-old Bernier wound up with a minor league managing or coaching gig.

The Twins now have 37 players on the 40. Mike Pelfrey is still on the 60-day disabled list, which means he's off the 40; at some point he'll be reinstated to the 40, so it's effectively at 38. 

The Twins will need to clear more space to protect the likes of Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Alex Meyer. Those three are obvious must-protects, and there are other Rule-5 eligible players they probably will want to protect as well, such as Sean Gilmartin, a left-handed starter and former first-round pick. So there are more cuts to come. 

Contemplating Yohan Pino

Yohan Pino got the results Thursday in
Target Field that he had all season in
Triple A, including seven strikeouts in
seven innings.

That was a nice major league debut Thursday for Yohan Pino: Seven innings of five-hit ball, two runs allowed.

But before we get too excited about the 30-year-old's performance, let us remember how Andrew Albers opened his brief major league career. And how quickly that dissolved.

Pino has the Greg McMichael Rule working in his favor now: If you get outs, they'll find a role for you. There's precedent for pitchers of Pino's profile succeeding in the majors, of course. There's also plenty of precedent for them failing. He'll get some more starts out of this one, chances to demonstrate that he's more Carl Pavano than P.J. Walters. Or vice versa.

Here's something that truly works in Pino's favor: He got swings and misses Thursday. Yes, he struck out seven White Sox hitters in seven innings. He also got 13 swinging strikes in 94 pitches, just under 14 percent.

Having evoked Albers as a cautionary tale, I should acknowledge that that "process" stat indicates a significant difference between Pino and Albers. That's about double Albers' rate of swinging strikes in his major league season (10 starts).  It's only one start for Pino, but I'm confident Albers never got 13 swings-and-misses in a game.

---

The roster issue got resolved in a non-decisive manner. Mike Pelfrey went on the 60-day disabled list, which opened a slot on the 40-man roster, and Eduardo Nunez went on the 15-day disabled list, which opened a spot on the 25-man roster.

So the Twins (for now) avoided having to cut somebody loose. They also are now carrying 13 pitchers, which is not optimal.

Pino up, Deduno shifted, unknown move to come

Yohan Pino is to
start Thursday against
the White Sox.

It starts with Sam Deduno's string of poor starts. In his last four starts, he went a total of 16 innings, allowing 18 runs -- an ERA of 10.13. Since he's pretty much a marginal rotation guy anyway, there was no reason to stay the course with him. And the Twins announced Monday that he's returning to the bullpen.

What's interesting is who the Twins will pluck from Triple A to take his place: Minor-league journeyman Yohan Pino. I wrote about this earlier this month: The Twins have a flock of pitchers at Triple A who would make sense for a call up. A quick update:

• Alex Meyer, their top pitching prospect, is 4-3, 3.62 in 64.2 innings while striking out more than 10 men per nine innings.
• Trevor May is 7-4, 2.77 in 77.2 innings, striking out more than nine men per nine innings.
• Logan Darnell has a 2.75 ERA in 11 starts with an 8.6/9 K rate.
• Kris Johnson is 6-2, 2.60.

May, Darnell and Johnson are all on the 40-man roster. Meyer is not, and the Twins are probably going to limit his innings after an injury-shortened 2013. Darnell's rotation turn is Thursday, so he lined up with the first start Deduno isn't going to make. He would have been my choice to supplant Deduno.

Instead, the Twins selected Yohan Pino, a 30-year-old with more than 1,200 minor league innings and a fast ball that tops out in the upper 80s. Pino is best known, if known at all, as the guy the Twins sent to the Cleveland Indians in 2009 in the trade for Carl Pavano.

My issue with this choice is not that Pino is pitching poorly for Rochester. He's 9-1, 1.92, with 61 strikeouts in 61 innings and a wonderful 3.81 strikeouts for every walk he's surrendered.

It's that there is no future here. Meyer is an important piece of the future. May and Darnell might be. Pino is not.

But there's another aspect to this: How the Twins open the necessary roster spots for Pino. They need a spot on both the 40-man roster and the 25-man roster. They could get the first by moving Mike Pelfrey to the 60-day disabled list, but not the second.

The two most likely possibilities in my mind:

• Designate Matt Guerrier for assignment and clear out the last of the Nostalgia Boys. Guerrier has a solid 2.81 ERA, but his supporting stats are considerably weaker. 
• Designate Chris Parmelee for assignment and go with a 13-man pitching staff. Parmelee cleared waivers at the end of spring training, mashed at Triple A, got a new chance in the majors and ... is hitting .174. 

My guess is Guerrier gets the ax. But my guess would have been Darnell for the open rotation slot.

The future of the rotation

Phil Hughes collects himself Sunday before his first start
in Yankee Stadium as a member of a visiting team.

The Twins starters fared pretty well over the weekend in Yankee Stadium. Working it backwards:

• Sunday: Phil Hughes went eight innings, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks. 
• Saturday: Kevin Correia, my least favored of the starters, went six innings and allowed just one run. 
• Friday: Ricky Nolasco also had six innings of one-run ball.

Nolasco did walk four with just three strikeouts and allowed seven hits, 11 baserunners in 18 outs; Correia had nine hits and one walk, 10 baserunners. So the one-run outcomes seem a bit deceptive. They didn't pitch THAT well.

Still, three quality starts in the tater haven that is the newest rendition of Yankee Stadium isn't bad at all.

Meanwhile, a few noteworthy developments regarding Twins starters past and future in the minors:

Mike Pelfrey interrupted his rehab assignment to have his arm checked out, and what is described as minor nerve irritation was found. He is to have a second exam done by the noted Dr. James Andrews. So he's not close to returning, which is probably for the better. I'm in no hurry to see him pitch again.

Prospect Trevor May, pitching for Triple A Rochester, blew away Gwinnett (Atlanta) with seven shutout innings in his most recent start. He's now 5-3 with a 2.62 ERA and a batting average allowed under .200 for the Red Wings. He's also sporting his lowest walk rate since A ball.

May isn't the only Red Wings starter impressing. Kris Johnson, who came up to start the second game of a doubleheader, has a 1.83 ERA. Logan Darnell, who also had a brief call-up, has a 2.54 ERA with more strikeouts than innings. And Alex Meyer, generally regarded as the best pitching prospect in the organization, has a 3.31 ERA while fanning 10.8 hitters per nine innings. (He's also got a high walk rate).

May, Darnell and Johnson are on the 40-man roster, while Yohan Pino is not. Poor Pino, who has picked up a handful of starts, only has a 1.73 ERA.

The Red Wings have a team ERA of 3.14, and I can only imagine how low it would be without old friend Scott Diamond's 7.51. I don't see Diamond returning to Minneapolis anytime soon. A lot of guys ahead of him.

Here's the thing: One can make a case for bringing up any of the May-Meyer-Darnell-Johnson quartet for the Twins rotation. (I'm arbitrarily leaving Pino out on the basis that the other four are younger and better prospects for the future). But for whom?

Certainly not for Hughes, who has been superb. The Twins have too much invested in Nolasco to change course on him after two months. Kyle Gibson has been up and down, but the Twins really do need to give him a clean shot.

That leaves Correia and Sam Deduno. Correia is in the final year of the two-year contract he signed before 2013, and I think he's a possible piece of trade bait in July. Or even sooner if some teams with postseason ambitions start getting squeezed by injuries. (Or if the Twins can find somebody with a spare center fielder.)

Deduno ... well, his injury history suggests he's not likely to finish the year in the rotation. I'd say keep him in the rotation until he gets hurt.

The Twins will have rotation openings this summer. But they need not be in a hurry to create them.

Twins add Jon Rauch

The Twins on Friday afternoon traded the ever-popular player to be named later to Arizona for Jon Rauch, a right-handed reliever who is the tallest player in major league history (he's 6-foot-11) and a decent middle man. 

That's something the Twins have needed for the past two years. It's not that we should expect him to take over eighth inning duties from Matt Guerrier and Jose Mijares, but that he'll keep them out of the seventh or sixth innings.  

The Twins also shipped minor-leaguer Yohan Pino to Cleveland as the PNL in the Carl Pavano trade. He had a pretty decent season this year, split between Double A and Triple A, pitching mostly in relief, but he was repeating Double A and is said to have a mediocre fast ball. Lack of velocity didn't keep him from boosting his K rate this year. 

 I like Pino's stats, but the Twins really needed an established starter, and Pino isn't a really prime prospect.