Yet another veteran reliever signs elsewhere

Ron Mahay, who spent most of 2010 and a chuck of 2009 in the Twins bullpen, reached a minor-league deal with the Dodgers on Thursday.

Judging from the L.A. Times piece linked to above, it's a good fit for Mahay, who is the very definition of a second LOOGY.

Mahay did a good job for the Twins, and, unlike the Matt Guerrier-Jesse Crain-Brian Fuentes-Jon Rauch combo, he was never likely to command seven figures or multiple years. But there's no reason to believe that the Twins made any effort to retain him.

Which fits my core theory about this Twins offseason: They're consciously seeking long-term roster pieces, not short-term patches. That applies even to the fringes of the roster, to the lefty specialists and the utility infielders, not just to the starting lineup.

Figuring that Brian Duensing is a starter and Jose Mijares the top lefty in the pen, the Twins have three candidates on their 40-man roster for the second LOOGY role: Glen Perkins, Dusty Hughes and Scott Diamond. (If Duensing is in the 'pen, he's more likely to be used as a late-inning man than as a second LOOGY.) Perkins, Hughes and Diamond are all more than a decade younger than Mahay; Hughes and Diamond are minimum salary serfs, and the arbitration-eligible Perkins is to be paid less than Mahay will be if Mahay makes the Dodgers roster.

Mahay is probably the safest bet of the bunch for 2011, but he has the lowest ceiling as well. The Twins only have to hit on one of their three to make the decision to pass on him the right move -- not just for 2011, but in following years as well.

Sunday morning: Pitchers goin' down

A number of pitching injuries from Saturday to discuss today.

The big one nationally is Stephen Strasburg (pictured), but being a Twins parochial I'll save the budding superstar for later.

A week ago today Ron Gardenhire pulled Kevin Slowey from a no-hitter in an attempt to avoid an arm injury. Saturday Slowey struggled to get outs — or even to keep the ball in the park — and reported a problem in his right triceps.

The prognosis isn't in, but he's out: 15-day DL for Slowey, and Nick Blackburn is back to the rotation.

Blackburn is not as talented as Slowey, but he does have a track record, and the reports on him in Triple A have been positive. He's rediscovered his sinker, we are told. Maybe so.

I regard Blackburn as a downgrade from Slowey, but not necessarily a massive one.

Ron Mahay is a less important piece of the puzzle, but a less-easily replaced one. With the earlier injury to Jose Mijares, the veteran LOOGY had become the Twins' top left-handed bullpen option.

But on Saturday Mahay injured his right shoulder when he fell while pursuing a ground ball. He's also already on the 15-day DL, with Anthony Slama recalled to fill his roster space. But Slama's right-handed. So is everybody else in the Minnesota bullpen, with the exception of Glen Perkins. And Perkins has not, in the past, demonstrated the skill set of a lefty-killer.

At least Mahay's injury is to his non-pitching arm.

OK, on to Strasburg. He threw one of those otherworldly pitches of his Saturday -- a 90-mph changeup? Really? -- grimaced and looked at his elbow. Out of the game he went, and let the speculation begin.

As with Slowey and Mahay, the specifics of the injury are unclear.

What I do know: It's not just amateur analysts (such as moi) suspicious of Strasburg's delivery. Don Cooper, the White Sox pitching coach -- who knows a thing or two about keeping pitchers healthy -- said a month ago he sees trouble ahead for the Washington pitcher.

I don't wish injuries on anybody, so I hope I'm wrong. But if he's having arm miseries when being babied along, this is not going to end well.

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Poll stuff: Last week's question was about pulling Slowey from his no-hit bid. We had 57 responses, which I believe is the record for this blog. (Feel free to be either impressed or unimpressed.)

Fifty (87 percent) agreed with pulling him. Seven (13 percent) did not.

New poll up.

Contemplating Ron Mahay

Ron Mahay may (hey!) be the very definition of a fringe player. He's:

• 39 years old;
• A LOOGY who has never pitched more than 67 major-league innings in a season;
• Has a career record of 26-13, 3 saves in 14 years;
• Not even a member of the players union. (He's persona non grata because he was a replacement player in the 1994 spring training during the players strike. Sixteen years ago —when he was an outfielder.)
• In his 15 major league seasons — 14 as a pitcher, one as an outfielder — he's had (according to Baseball Reference) 11 uniform numbers.

Fifteen years is a long time to hang around the fringes of major league rosters. Fifteen-year players are usually guys who were regulars, if not stars, at some point. Mahay never has been, never will be.

He just keeps on hanging on.

The Twins have a 12-man pitching staff. Mahay is either the 11th or 12 guy — him or Anthony Slama — and while there are followers who speculate that Mahay could be sacrificed for bring up Glen Perkins or if a pitcher is brought in on a waiver claim, my belief is that he's staying.

The stat line is sound enough: 36 games, 32 IP, 3.38 ERA, 6 BB, 24 K. More important — perhaps — left-handed hitters are .237/.246/.305 against him so far this season.

He hasn't been deployed in high-leverage situations, to be sure. But he's been charged with all of three earned runs in his last 21 outings, a total of 18.1 innings, and at some point the Greg McMichael Rule — if you get outs, they'll find a role for you — has to kick in.

Late night: Mariners 7, Twins 1

Box score here. Game story here.

Before I get into Brendan Harris (above), a couple pitching notes.

This was the fourth time this season that Nick Blackburn failed to record even one strikeout in a start. He had one good outing doing that (May 9, seven shutout innings against Baltimore) and now three lousy ones. All told, in his zero-strikeout starts, he has allowed 15 runs in 22.6 innings — ERA of 5.96. I'm going to guess that's actually a pretty low ERA for games cherry-picked for a compete lack of domination.

Then there's Ron Mahay, who was broken out of his LOOGY role and asked to pitch a full inning. It didn't go well— two runs allowed — and his ERA in his last four outings has gone from perfection (0.00) to 6.73. That reflects nine earned runs in 3.3 IP.

He's still dominating lefties (.390 OPS) but the righties are killing him. He's definitely fallen behind both Brian Duensing and Jose Mijares in the bullpen pecking order.

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As I surmised Tuesday morning, Harris got the start against Jason Vargas. The result was another 0-fer. He's now hitting .163. He can't be that bad, but he didn't have a well-struck ball, even with all four at-bats coming against lefties. I wonder if he'll start against Cliff Lee tonight, or if Matt Tolbert will get the call.

But what really struck me came before the game, when the lineup had Nick Punto playing second and Harris third.

Remember: Ron Gardenhire doesn't like moving his regulars from one position to another. He has resisted moving Punto off third base this year; when J.J. Hardy was out, Gardenhire played other infielders at short — Harris, Alexi Castilla, Trevor Plouffe— but not Punto. On Monday, he put Michael Cuddyer at second and left Punto at third, even though second base is the more important defensive spot and even though Cuddyer has spent more time in his career at third base than at second.

But on Tuesday, there was Punto at second and Harris at third. Which tells me a lot about how Gardenhire rates Harris as a second baseman. He'd rather play an outfielder there.

Harris did make a couple of nice plays at third base.

The dirt flying off the ball in the above photo reminds me of the stories told of Honus Wagner, the greatest shortstop ever, who had huge hands and was said to scoop up infield dirt along with the ball and fling the whole mess at the first baseman. This might be the only time Harris is compared to Wagner.

Notes, quotes and comments

Twins win Thursday, raising their record to 7-3.

Seven and three against the Angels, White Sox and Red Sox. Man, I'd take 7-3 against the Royals.

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Ron Mahay, who is in the running to be the last "replacement player" from the 1993-94 strike, is back, with Alex Burnett returning to the minors.

This gives the Twins three lefties in the pen. Mahay is clearly a LOOGY. Jose Mijares is talented enough to be more than a LOOGY, but Ron Gardenhire seems more comfortable spotting him against lefties, and so far this spring Mijares hasn't even done that well. And Brian Duensing is nominally the long man, but has done some LOOGY duty as well.

I assume that when Clay Condrey is deemed ready to be activated, he'll assume Duensing's long-man role, with Duensing going back to Triple A to stretch his arm out and be ready to step into the rotation if (when) needed.

For now, at least, Gardenhire has options while pitching coach Rick Anderson tries to get Mijares straightened out.

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Jayson Stark of ESPN.com had some Twins items worthy of contemplation in Thursday's Rumblings and Grumblings:

• Jon Rauch hasn't convinced scouts that he's a top-grade closer
• Catching prospect Wilson Ramos is unlikely to be traded
• Rauch, Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain are all to be free agents after this season, suggesting that the Twins will have to rebuild their bullpen for 2011.

I agree with the first evaluation, which leads me to question the wisdom of the second one. Not that I'm saying they should trade Ramos for another B-grade closer. But he shouldn't be in the way of getting a high-end guy for the bullpen.

The return of Ron Mahay

Quick note: The Twins re-signed Ron Mahay today.

You may remember him as a LOOGY addition late last season.

This is not particularly good news for Glen Perkins, Brian Duensing or Anthony Slama, who are currently duking it out for the final bullpen slot. Neither of the two southpaws (Perkins and Duensing) are notably tough on left-handed hitters, and Slama is another right-hander.

If the Twins are going to open with a "bullpen by committee," they probably needed another lefty to use in matchups besides Mijares. Or if they expect to make Mijares the closer, then they need a LOOGY to fill that role in the seventh and eighth innings.

Reshaping the pitching staff

It's a rather un-Twinslike flurry of activity.

First it was Jon Rauch, acquired from Arizona Friday.

Then it was Ron Mahay, whose signing is to be announced today. Armando Gabino has already been returned to Triple A Rochester to make room for the veteran lefty reliever.

And in the next day or so, the Twins will find out if they landed Brad Penny or Rich Harden.

Harden (above) is the biggest name and the biggest risk. I'm surprised he cleared waivers in the National League, but the most recent informed speculation has the Twins winning the claim on him.

If so — waiver claims are supposed to be confidential, and there's generally a lot more smoke than visible flame — now comes a day or two of high-stakes poker. Harden figures to be a Type-A free agent, meaning that the Cubs would argue that they can hang on to him and get two high draft picks should he sign elsewhere this winter.

But that assumes that (a) they're willing to offer arbitration to the brittle but talented right-handed starter and (b) that Cubs don't suffer the same fate that befell the Toronto Blue Jays last winter. They lost Type-A free agent A.J. Burnett to the Yankees and only got a third-round pick in compensation, because the Yankees' first-rounder went to Anaheim for Mark Teixiera and their second-rounder to Milwaukee for CC Sabathia.

So there are risks involved for the Cubs in holding on to Harden, although in his case arbitration is probably less risky than a multi-year deal, and the odds of such a triple-strike signing of Type A's recurring are rather slim.

For their part, the Twins are unlikely to be willing to surrender somebody like Ben Revere for a five-week rental, and his lengthy injury history argues against a multi-year deal.

My guess is that nothing will happen on this front. One Internet piece of speculation says the Twins have already dropped their interest in Harden because Friday's Scott Kazmir deal set the prospect price too high. Which may be true, or may be imaginary. It may be imaginary now and be true by the time Monday's deadline arrives.

Meanwhile, Brian Duensing is making the need for another starter a bit less acute. That's three starts, totalling 17 innings, with a 2.65 ERA. Of course, there's really no reason to believe he's actually that good.