Minnesota Twins

Twins fans were thrilled when they signed Addison Reed this offseason on a two year deal worth approximately $16 million. Given the nature of the free agent relief pitching market in recent years, the Reed signing seemed not only to be a great get for the Twins, but a significant bargain given the deals that Rockies handed out to Bryan Shaw, Greg Holland and Jake McGee. The Twins, it seemed, had obtained a reliable reliever with a proven track record who could take on a high workload of high leverage innings and support Fernando Rodney at the back end of the bullpen.

One year ago, Miguel Sano was named to his first All Star Game.

Today, Miguel Sano was optioned to High-A Ft. Myers in an attempt to jump-start his career.

Lance Lynn did his job, but things went poorly when he was asked to put in overtime. Lynn held the Tigers scoreless over his first six innings, giving up just three hits in the process. He went back out for the seventh and gave up three runs on a triple, a sac fly, a hit by pitch and a home run. The homer was from JaCoby Jones, who had a career .586 OPS heading into today, and it came on Lynn’s 114th pitch of the afternoon.

On the mound for the Twins on Wednesday night, was phenom Jose Berrios. Heading into the game he got quite the compliment from a Hall of Fame pitcher.

Berrios did his best to live up to that comparison, also reminding Tiger’s manager Ron Gardenhire of a Twins Hall of Famer he used to coach all night.

Unfortunately, something may not be right with Addison Reed. He would be charged with his fourth blown save in his last seven appearances, making Berrios’ best effort at an impersonation all for naught.

Twins Daily Roundtable is a new weekly series. As part of this series, a question will be posed to the site’s writers and they will respond in 200 words or less (Some writers don’t like to stick to this limit). This will give readers an opportunity to see multiple points of view and then add their own point of view in the comments section.

Baseball has certainly changed over the years. Gone are the days of starting pitchers throwing 220+ innings on a regular basis. In fact during the 2017 season, only 15 MLB pitchers tossed 200 inning or more. Go back 20 years and there were 40 pitchers during the 1997 season to throw 200 innings or more.

Young pitchers like Fernando Romero are another story. No one is expecting Romero to throw 200 innings (at least not yet). In his first big league season, there are questions about how much use the Twins will be able to get out of their rising star.

This week’s roundtable discussion question is: “Should Fernando Romero be on an innings limit, and if so, what should it be? If not, why not?”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins announced that reliever Matt Belisle had signed with the Twins after being released a day earlier by Cleveland. Infielder Gregorio Petit was Designated for Assignment to make room on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. It was a minor transaction, in the big picture, but it certainly created a ton of discussion. What does this signing mean for the Twins? Let’s try to figure it out.

Earlier today, the Twins brought back Matt Belisle, which appeared to be an indication the front office isn’t ready to trust the younger relievers. Well, there’re two sides to every transaction.

To make room for Belisle, the Twins designated Gregorio Petit for assignment, leaving the bench without an infielder. That's a pretty big show of trust in Ehire Adrianza.

In a situation he may usually have been lifted for a pinch hitter, Adrianza hit his first career grand slam tonight, lifting the Twins to a come-from-behind victory.

A little over a month ago, I posed this question: How good is Cleveland, really?

At the time, they were dragging their feet with a .500 record and several laggards in the lineup. But over the past four weeks, the Indians have shown that they are, in fact, pretty damn good.

Unfortunately, the Twins have made the opposite statement.

'Pretty much status quo,' was Paul Molitor's response Saturday when asked for an update on Joe Mauer. That's also a pretty apt description of his team, which turned in another uninspiring week that saw them further fade in a division race that represents their only real shot at reaching the postseason.

On Sunday we learned that Mauer is headed for a rehab assignment. Things are hopefully headed in the right direction for him.

Tougher to feel that way about the Twins in general.

Injuries create opportunity. Unfortunately for the Twins, there hasn’t really been anyone who’s jumped out and seized those opportunities, until now … maybe?

In his first start since being recalled from Rochester, Jake Cave went on a rampage. He was 3-for-4 with a two-run homer, a double and an RBI single, providing a much-needed boost to the Twins offense.

The Twins made a few promotions of note recently, one being catcher Ben Rortvedt getting the call up to Fort Myers. He made his Miracle debut tonight and went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Check out what else happened across the system on Saturday.

Kyle Gibson pitched a good game but the offense was quiet and the Twins lost by a run. Again. This team is now 3-13 in one-run games. They only lost 18 games by a one-run deficit all of last season.