Pic of the Week

Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles gets an ovation
from the Boston crowd on Tuesday, the day after the
outfielder was subjected to racial slurs.

You either

• already know the Adam Jones-racist fans story or
• don't care about it.

So I won't spend my time or yours trying to recap it here.

I just have one thought to share. After Jones made his complaint public, and other African American players chimed in with their stories, the ownership of the Red Sox met with their black players, who told them: Yeah, it happens to us here too.

It seems to have taken the Red Sox management by surprise, this notion that their beloved Fenway Park harbors vocally racist fans. Presumably the owners are cocooned in their suites and well-removed from the trolls of the grandstands, bleachers and box seats.

But as common as the slurs apparently are in the Fens, somebody in stadium ops had to know. At the very least the ushers knew. And at some level in the organization, somebody decided that this battle wasn't worth fighting. It might have been at the bottom of the pyramid, it might have been higher up the chain.

After Monday's embarrassment, the Sox ownership is engaged with this issue, so the underlings will be expected to respond accordingly. And it appears that the message is being heard in other stadiums.

Roster moves and Mauer in the ninth

You probably have heard that Joe Mauer hit a walk-off homer Friday night, his first such four-bagger in his illustrious career.

I checked his career splits on Baseball Reference. It was his 14th ninth-inning homer. He sported coming into the game a .290/.377/.447 slash line in the ninth (a total of 520 plate appearances) with an OPS in the innings slightly below his career figure.

It hasn't been a particuarly productive season so far for Mauer, although, as Mike Bernardino noted earlier in the week in an exhaustive examination, luck ran against him in April. He's hit a pair of homers this week; maybe things are turning around for him.

---

The Twins made some roster moves earlier Friday.

Drew Rucinski had
an impressive K/9
rate for Rochester
before his callup.

Replacing Kyle Gibson on the pitching staff is Drew Rucinski, a right-hander who has 14.1 major league innings on his resume, all with the Angels The Twins signed him as a minor-league free agent after he spent 2016 getting pounded with the Cubs' Triple A affiliate (5.92 ERA). He's been pitching most relief in Rochester. I don't expect much.

They also activated Ehire Adrianza off the disabled list. And they DFA'd Danny Santana, a move that both opened a 40-man roster spot for Rucinski and an active roster spot for Adrianza.

Santana's departure comes immediately after one of his better games; he homered and had a bunt single on Thursday. "What have you done for me lately?" apparently wasn't prominent in the front office's decision making.

Adrianza played a handful of games in the outfield in Rochester, which was a sign the Twins were eyeing Santana's roster spot and limited role for him. Adrianza is by reputation a superior gloveman in the infield but a light hitter -- not that Santana, despite Thursday's long ball, is a particularly good batsman.

Meanwhile, Bryon Buxton sat Friday with headaches after three collisions with the outfield fence drove him from the game on Thursday. The Twins report that he has otherwise cleared the concussion protocol, but we should remember that Buxton had a signficant concussion a few years ago in the minors. I suspect a trip to the concussion DL is in his future.

And Brian Dozier twisted an ankle Friday. He stayed in the game but was pinch-hit for just before Mauer's homer. Upshot: there may be more roster moves ahead.

Down goes Gibson

Kyle Gibson looked good in spring
training but hasn't had a quality start
since the season opened.

Kyle Gibson had another rough start Thursday: Four innings, eight hits, four runs. His ERA rose to an unsightly 8.20.

The bullpen gave up another four runs, but it was Gibson who took the loss and the fall, getting optioned out to Triple A Rochester after the game.

I expect him back sooner or later; he's getting paid $2.9 million whether he's pitching in Minneapolis or Rochester. And the Twins are not exactly blessed with a surplus of starters.

But the new regime isn't necessarily committed to Gibson. I wondered early in the offseason if he would be kept around. The answer was yes -- but with a leash shorter than I anticipated.

Nick Tepsech, nominally the fifth starter, is now the fourth starter and he hasn't even appeared in a major league game this year.

The Twins apparently won't need to add a starter -- assuming they're satisfied with Tepesch after he starts on Saturday -- for more than a week. Earlier this week I laid out a theory on why the front office is in no hurry to bring up Jose Berrios, and as far as I can tell that theory stands.

The most likely next fifth starter, I suspect, will be the old fifth starter, Aldaberto Mejia. But things can change.

True service time

The secretary of defense ended a year-old policy that allowed military academy athletes to immediately play pro ball https://t.co/2OxytHVssz

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) May 3, 2017

Last June the Twins used their third-round pick on a pitcher from the Air Force Academy, Griffin Jax, who pitched that summer in Elizabethton before returning to the academy in Colorado Springs for his senior year. The idea was that he would be allowed to meet his service requirement

The edict from Defense Secretary James Mattis means Jax will have to serve at least two years in the active Air Force (he'll be commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation) before he can resume his baseball career.

I'm fine with that, as I said last year in this post:

My take on the service academies is: The nation has a deal with these students. We the people provide a no-charge, high-level college education, and we get well-trained military officers. I object to the notion that they can/should be encouraged/allowed to walk away from that bargain three years in, with a heavy public investment in that bargain.

The Twins, and Jax, may not be thrilled with this decision, but he's not the first academy grad to find himself in this situation. Roger Staubach (football) and David Robinson (basketball) each had to put in their two years with the Navy before launching their Hall-of-Fame careers in their respective sports.

Jax is not the only athlete affected by Mattis' ruling. According to The Gazette (Colorado Springs), an Air Force receiver named Jalen Robinette was expected to be a fourth or fifth round pick in last week's NFL draft. Academy officials notified Robinette on Thursday that he would not be permitted to petition out of his active service requirement, and he was not drafted.

Ex-Twins watch: Trevor Plouffe

Little tidbit at the end of a Susan Slusser notes item for the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday:

Secret weapon: Former Twins infielder Trevor Plouffe is returning to Minnesota for the first time since signing with Oakland in January. “It’ll be nice to see everyone again, but I want to beat up on them for sure,” he said. “I’m definitely going to relay some information.”

One doesn't often hear that kind of talk from a player, even though getting released by one's first (and only) organization doubtless carries a unique sting.

Plouffe went 1-for-4 in the series opener, an infield single that lifted his batting average to .209, on Tuesday.  He's playing third base pretty much everyday for Oakland, which is a mild surprise given his typical platoon differential and the fact that Oakland manager Bob Melvin may be the current major league skipper most inclined to formal platoons,

The Twins cut Plouffe loose early in the offseason, presumably having quickly ascertained that there was little trade interest in him, and it took him a while to find his one-year deal with the Athletics. While there remains plenty of time for him to turn his stat line around, he's probably not creating a lot of interest in his services in future seasons.

Plouffe was typically handled in Minnesota as a cornerstone piece of the roster, locked the past few years into the cleanup or No 5 slots in the order. (In Oakland he's hitting eighth.) Part of the rationale behind trying to make Miguel Sano a right fielder was to accomodate Plouffe at third base. Plouffe was never, however, good enough in Minnesota to justify that status, and he hasn't been productive enough in Oakland to make the Twins wish they'd kept him.

The Berrios Question and the Berrios Protocol

Minor league news item:

Jose Berrios named IL Pitcher of Week for 2nd time in 4 weeks and 3rd time overall. Season: 2-0, 1.09 in 5 starts. 33 IP, 35 K, 8 BB, 18 H.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) May 1, 2017

The Twins current 25-man roster has just three starters: Ervin Santana, Kyle Gibson and Phil Hughes. Hector Santiago, who was expected back from his grandmother's funeral for a bullpen session on Monday, remains officially on the bereavement list; he figures to be activated for Wednesday's start, with (probably) Buddy Boshers returned to Triple A. That's four. The Twins will need a fifth starter on Saturday (unless they have another rainout before that).

So Berrios, right? Well ,,, not necessarily.

Early in the offseason, before pitching coach Neil Allen knew he would still be the pitching coach this year, Allen laid out a new protocol for side sessions. Every pitcher would open with three fastballs to one corner followed by three fastballs to the other corner. They have to hit those spots at least two of three times before proceeding to other pitches. And, Allen said, the ability to demonstate that command was going to be a factor in promotions.

That stipulation caught my attention. It was part of why I figured all spring that Berrios was not prominent among their rotation options. It may be unfair to call this the Berrios Protocol -- fastball command was an issue for other pitchers as well in 2016 -- but it certainly provides a formal internal reason to overlook Berrios' dominance in the minors.

Berrios is dominating Triple A. That's nice. The question is: How is he dominating Truple A? If he isn't locating his (rather straight) fastball to both side of the plate, he's not coming up.

There's only one way

As discussed in the Monday print column, the two most likely candidates for the Twins to take with the first pick next month are two-way players. Hunter Greene and Brendan McKay are legitimate prospects both as pitchers and hitters.

But when they enter pro ball, they will drop one. It may not be their idea or their choice -- indeed, both have reportedly indicated an interest in being two-way players in the pros -- but no organization is going to invest $7 million and such a premium draft pick in a player on the supposition that he can do both. It's both a health issue and a developmental one.

Consider Greene, who plays shortstop for his high school team in the San Diego area when he is not on the mound. Teens with his extreme velocity -- he's been clocked at 102 mph this spring -- are rare, but they also come with high injury risk. Letting him pitch one day and play shortstop the next -- making throws off balance and from the hole -- only figures to add to the risk.

McKay's injury risk is somewhat less than Greene's. He's older, he has less velocity, and his non-pitching position, first base, is the spot on the diamond that requires the least from the throwing arm. But the risk is there anyway, because pitchers get hurt, period.

The other concern is developmental. Do not underestimate the amount of work even top prospects face in advancing their abilities to succeed in the majors. Again, the risk here is higher with the younger, less polished Greene, but it is genuine for McKay as well. Splitting their development between pitching and hitting may mean not succeeding at either.

Casey Kelly was drafted in the first round of the 2008 draft by the Red Sox out of high school as a pitcher/shortstop. He split his first two years in the minors between pitching and short before dropping the position for the 2010 season. He's a pitcher now -- but at age 27 in his fourth organization (Boston, San Diego, Atlanta and now the Cubs), and while he has reached the majors he certainly hasn't succeeded. I can't prove that the indecision in his teens undermined him, but it probably didn't help.

There are occasional two-way guys in the majors -- Christian Bethancourt made the Padres out of spring training this year as a pitcher/catcher but has since been sent down, and Brooks Kieschnick milked a couple of partial seasons in the majors as a reliever/pinch hitter a bit more than a decade ago -- but they are essentially fringe players. Teams certainly expect more than that out of players taken at the top of the draft.