Goodbye, Jepsen (and Hu)

Kevin Jepsen: Walks
up, strikeouts down,
ERA bloated.

The Twins designated Kevin Jepsen for assignment Sunday. We've been through this routine recently with Oswaldo Arcia; the DFA'd player comes off both the 25-man and 40-man rosters immediately but the Twins have 10 days to dispose of the contract.

I have nothing good to say about Jepsen's pitching this season. He was every bit as bad as his 6.16 ERA suggests.  Of course, he was very good last season when the Twins really needed somebody to step up in the late innings.

The Twins twitterverse the past week or so had a number of people bemoaning and second-guessing last year's trade in which the Twins surrendered Chih-Wei Hu and another minor leaguer for Jepsen. At the time I pronounced myself lukewarm about the trade, and by the offseason deemed it the right thing to have done even though the Twins missed the playoffs.

Today it's more difficult to defend the trade. Hu is having a fine season at Double A and is to pitch for the World Game in the Futures Game on Sunday. And Jepsen ... well, the Twins are going to pay him more than $2 million not to pitch for them the rest of the year.

But had the Twins not made that trade, the same people complaining today about giving up Hu would have been complaining last year about the lack of a move. The Twins took a risk in hopes of making the playoffs. Jepsen did what they needed him to do in 2015, and they still missed.