Two of the homers came from Jason Castro. I had been looking at his numbers earlier in the day and thinking that he was a little light on the homers. I expected him to get into double digits this year. Now he's at nine with more than two weeks to go, so he's not far off the 11 he hit each of the last two years -- and he's got his best batting average and on-base percentage since his All-Star year, 2013.
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A few weeks ago I posted about Amaurys Minier's floundering career. Cedar Rapids' season ended Monday night when Quad Cities eliminated the Kernels in the Midwest League playoffs.
On Tuesday morning, from a Baseball America scribe:
#Twins release 21-year-old switch-hitting Dominican 1B Amaurys Minier, who signed for $1.4MM in 2012. Topped out at Low A this year.— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) September 12, 2017
Message: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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The Twins did indeed add Gabriel Moya to the 40-man roster and the bullpen Tuesday. To make room they designated shortstop Engelb Vielma for release or assignment.
The Pioneer Press' Mike Berardino called that a surprise on Twitter. I'm not sure why. There's always been a question about Vielma's bat, and he hit .206/.233/.260 in more than 300 plate appearances at Triple A.
He had Jorge Polanco, Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza ahead of him and Nick Gordon on his heels -- plus some interesting shortstop prospects in at the A and Rookie levels.
Moya threw a scoreless ninth inning under essentially no pressure, so he got his feet wet.
Whether he'll see any leverage situtations is uncertain, My guess is not; Paul Molitor needed a month or so to start trusting Trevor Hildenberger, and we'll run out of time before Moya gets there. Even if he does earn a prominent role in the bullpen by season's end, Moya's ineligible for the postseason as he wasn't on the 40 before September.
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