Addison Reed -- who I believe is the highest-paid pitcher the Twins have -- threw a hitless inning in his first rehab assignment outing for Rochester. The righty reliever has been on the injured list with sprained left thumb since spring training.
One of my chronic topics here has been the search for a fifth reliable reliever. An Addison Reed pitching to his pre-Twins track record -- and, really, what he did last season before June 10 -- is certainly that.
He was pretty bad after June 10 last year, and I spent the offseason expecting the Twins to discard him. They didn't. He is presumably nearly ready to be reactivated. To how prominent a role in the Twins bullpen, I don't know. I'm not really inclined to trust him over Ryne Harper in moments that matter, but the Twins haven't been eager to step up Harper's role, either. Reed has the track record that Harper lacks.
The Twins currently have eight relievers. With four starters stifling lineups regularly, eight relievers is too many; Dick Bremer was talking last night about how seldom Blake Parker has pitched the past couple of weeks. It's plausible right now that the Twins could return to 12 pitchers when Miguel Sano returns, but that makes fitting Reed on the active roster all the more complicated.
Work this out: We can assume that the Big Four -- Parker, Taylor Rogers, Trevor May and Trevor Hildenberger -- are safe. Harper's certainly done nothing to put a target on his back. That leaves Fernando Romero, Mike Magill (fresh off the injured list himself) and Mike Morin.
Morin seems like a fairly obvious name to swap out for either Sano or Reed. It gets tougher after that. Romero has the highest ceiling -- and the lowest floor. Magill strikes me as rather Reed-like but without the resume.
Neither Sano or Reed is quite ready for activation yet, of course, and things have a way of working themselves out. These aren't decisions that have to be made today. But they are coming up, perhaps as soon as next week.
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