Sad News on the Pitching Front: May out for Season

[HitInAPinch]

Another sad turn of events for Trevor May.  From the Strib:

 

Trevor May shut down for remainder of the season with more back problems

 

http://www.startribune.com/trevor-may-shut-down-for-remainder-of-the-season-with-more-back-problems/393321441/

 

In the Game article:  http://www.startribune.com/kyle-gibson-cruises-as-twins-pound-detroit/393343761/

 

Molitor is quoted as saying:  "“In a matter of a couple pitches, the symptoms returned,’’ Molitor said. “He finished it out the best he could. He told us when he came off that we were back to Square 1.’’

 

A note from Rob Anthony:   Acting general manager Rob Antony said he would like May, once he gets over his back issues, to return to starting next season.

 

[Old Twins Cap]

Wow.  If May is reduced to rubble, that would net the Twins return on Denard Span and Ben Revere to zero. 

 

Part of this has got to be rotten luck.

[beckmt]

Think his back will improve next year with a regular regime.  That would be almost forcing him back to starting.  You could replace him with Duffey in the bullpen, he has worked their before.

[Vanimal46]

Heal up Trevor. The Twins desperately need you to be healthy next season. 

[NCtwinsfan]

With this years team, it always seems like it can't get any worse... even when I try to be optimistic about some of the bright spots, it seems like a constant barrage of bad news, bad play, and bad luck. 

 

I want so badly to be able to enjoy the fun stuff - like Dozier's amazing run/milestones, Buxton showing signs of life, good stories like Beresford, and flashes of the future from prospects like Kepler and Sano.

 

Yet, as a Twins fan, 2016 has been a series of punches to the gut that just overwhelm anything positive. 

 

Dozier hits 3 home runs in a game, and it's darkened by the Twins still finding a way to lose. He reaches 40 milestone, and two days later a future rotation hopeful goes down for the season. Ugh. I understand the importance of "the big picture," and the importance of trading Dozier (if the package is right). But it sucks that the best case scenario is that we trade our most exciting player (at least for me). I want to enjoy his success beyond it just increasing his trade value - hard to do when I am expecting him to be wearing another uniform next year.

 

As for Trevor May, now where are we? Health issues becoming a problem. I didn't think I could be less optimistic about the rotation next year. Even if he recovers by next spring, it is hard to expect that he will be in great shape to be starting, or at least effective. He spent the last two years primarily in the bullpen, and not battling back issues. If I were a good GM candidate (or even an ok one), I am not sure I would want to take on the Twins. 

 

The present stinks, and I no longer feel 2017 holds anything better (I did as recently as July/August). I guess I am being a huge downer this morning. I need some baseball-zoloft. 

 

 

[TheLeviathan]

Let's hope he actually returns to the rotation. This whole situation has been horribly mismanaged.

[Dantes929]

 

Wow.  If May is reduced to rubble, that would net the Twins return on Denard Span and Ben Revere to zero. 

 

Part of this has got to be rotten luck.

    I liked Revere and Span but I will never criticize these trades.    I thought they were smart at the time. I never liked May to the bullpen and wasn't thrilled with Meyer being traded away but there is still a chance that May will return and be good as a starter and that Santiago will be useful.   

[jctwins]

I wouldn't characterize any goings on of anyone currently on this roster as "sad", other than perhaps Polanco, Buxton, and Sano. Anyone else will not be part of a successful run for this team.

 

Unfortunate for him, maybe, but meaningless in terms of where this team is at.

[Squirrel]

I just hope he can get healthy and START next season.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I don't really view this as a bad thing. Hopefully the front office realizes he should have been starting earlier this season and uses this injury as a reason to get him stretched out and starting next season.

[Thrylos]

 

Wow.  If May is reduced to rubble, that would net the Twins return on Denard Span and Ben Revere to zero. 

 

Not exactly:

 

Alan Busenitz and whatever the Pirates paid the Twins to purchase Worley's contract.

 

And May will be fine.  They just need to quit jerking him around

[Doomtints]

 

    I liked Revere and Span but I will never criticize these trades.    I thought they were smart at the time. 

 

OK.  But at least you can concede that those of us who criticized those trades all along were right.  

[Doomtints]

 

And May will be fine.  They just need to quit jerking him around

 

How are they jerking him around?  He's been in the same role for more than a year.

 

In his first appearance in 2016, he took a loss on a walk-off wild pitch.  He never got better from there.  I don't remember him having control problems before this year.  Are his control problems on the Twins?

[Halsey Hall]

I don't see anything sad here.  May really hasn't shown much anyway and just may never work out.  Kind of Gibson like, no consistency, clunkers all over the place and throw in a good game.  We've got to many of these type pitchers.

[Rosterman]

 

Not exactly:

 

Alan Busenitz and whatever the Pirates paid the Twins to purchase Worley's contract.

 

And May will be fine.  They just need to quit jerking him around

We never hear amounts! Like, are they getting a Target gift card for Arcia?

 

[Thrylos]

 

How are they jerking him around?  He's been in the same role for more than a year.

 

Other than the part that in the off-season they told him to prep as a starter to try to get a job out of ST, and the part that used him as a starter in ST, until they told him to move to the pen.  

 

So in real time the past 2 seasons, it has been half starting, half relieving... 

[Taildragger8791]

 

Not exactly:

 

Alan Busenitz and whatever the Pirates paid the Twins to purchase Worley's contract.

 

And May will be fine.  They just need to quit jerking him around

 

I'm still bothered by the fact that we apparently couldn't get any use out of Worley, who's been a pretty effective pitcher everywhere except his stint in Minnesota. Hell, his ERA was 3 runs higher here than at any other point in his career. What the hell are the Twins doing to ruin pitchers?

[wsnydes]

 

I don't really view this as a bad thing. Hopefully the front office realizes he should have been starting earlier this season and uses this injury as a reason to get him stretched out and starting next season.

That's the silver lining I'm looking for as well.  No sense in rushing him back in a lost season like this.

[old nurse]

 

I'm still bothered by the fact that we apparently couldn't get any use out of Worley, who's been a pretty effective pitcher everywhere except his stint in Minnesota. Hell, his ERA was 3 runs higher here than at any other point in his career. What the hell are the Twins doing to ruin pitchers?

They ruined him by making him start.    In Baltimore his leverage index is .62. He is the mop up guy when the game no longer matters. He did have a good half season in Pittsburgh followed by a year of mop up duty

[dxpavelka]

 

I'm still bothered by the fact that we apparently couldn't get any use out of Worley, who's been a pretty effective pitcher everywhere except his stint in Minnesota. Hell, his ERA was 3 runs higher here than at any other point in his career. What the hell are the Twins doing to ruin pitchers?

48 innings is not much of a sample size.

 

[dxpavelka]

Put the man in the starting rotation and fire anyone involved in any decision(s) to the contrary.

[Taildragger8791]

 

48 innings is not much of a sample size.

 

It was enough sample size for the Twins to decide they couldn't make use of him and trade him off for petty cash.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I don't really view this as a bad thing. Hopefully the front office realizes he should have been starting earlier this season and uses this injury as a reason to get him stretched out and starting next season.

Yeah, a few more relief appearances these last few weeks wouldn't have mattered much anyway.

 

Although it would have been nice to end on some kind of healthy/high note, even in the pen.

[Doomtints]

 

Other than the part that in the off-season they told him to prep as a starter to try to get a job out of ST, and the part that used him as a starter in ST, until they told him to move to the pen.  

 

I would call that pretty minor.  If he's upset about that -- and bear in mind I doubt he actually is upset about it -- baseball is probably not for him.

 

At the time of the May and Meyer trades, I read several scouting reports on both of them and what I read made it look like both of them were going to be relievers.  Twins fans seem to be the only people around hoping for more, seeing more than what is really there.  Maybe that's because the Twins gave up so much to get them, maybe that's because the franchise needed both of them to be better than what the scouts saw.  I don't know.  But at the end of the day, neither of them have worked out to be starters, and it's not surprising to me at all based on what analysts not tied to the Twins have been saying since day one.

 

For what it's worth, I always pegged May as the better of the two.  And so far that's right.  But he's a bullpen arm, and hopefully someday a decent one.

[Thrylos]

 

It was enough sample size for the Twins to decide they couldn't make use of him and trade him off for petty cash.

 

To make matters worse, here is the list of the players who made starts for the Twins that season:

 

Kevin Correia
Mike Pelfrey
Scott Diamond
Sam Deduno
Pedro Hernandez
Andrew Albers
Liam Hendrinks
Cole DeVries
------
Kyle Gibson

 

Other than Gibson, arguably Worley was the best of the list

[Thrylos]

 

I would call that pretty minor.  If he's upset about that -- and bear in mind I doubt he actually is upset about it -- baseball is probably not for him.

 

 

Upset?  Not a matter of being upset or not.  It is a matter of preparing different ways.   And some people will break down if they prepare the wrong way.  May seems to be that type

[Dantes929]

 

OK.  But at least you can concede that those of us who criticized those trades all along were right.  

Not a chance.    I am not hindsight based and if Meyer and May turned into Cy Youngs and Hicks and Buxton were all stars I am guessing those who criticized the trade would not be admitting it.    If Hardy had tanked and Nishioka, Casilla and Valencia had become all stars I still would have said it was a bad move getting rid of Hardy at the time.    Bad moves sometimes work out.   Good moves sometimes do not.    If you had said at the time that Meyer will never command the strike zone and HIcks will be awful then I might say you were right.    Unfortunately, my experience is that most posters are hindsight based.    I have to look no farther than 99.9% of posters demanding that Mauer be signed to the large contract at the time vs 99% of posters saying they were against it a few years later.   The math doesn't work out.

 

 

[Doomtints]

 

Not a chance.    I am not hindsight based 

 

Being "hindsight based" doesn't matter.  Some people were right about those trades.  There is a lot of volume from some fans regarding May and Meyer both, volume that has been unwarranted.  

[Doomtints]

 

Upset?  Not a matter of being upset or not.  It is a matter of preparing different ways.   And some people will break down if they prepare the wrong way.  May seems to be that type

 

I'm not sure how different offseason prepration is for relievers v. starters.  If the sin here was "stretch yourself out during the offseason" I think that's probably good advice for any young pitcher.

[Doomtints]

 

I'm still bothered by the fact that we apparently couldn't get any use out of Worley, who's been a pretty effective pitcher everywhere except his stint in Minnesota. Hell, his ERA was 3 runs higher here than at any other point in his career. What the hell are the Twins doing to ruin pitchers?

 

Pittsburgh demoted and cut him in spite of him playing well for them due to his odd behavior.  I can see the Twins not knowing how to deal with a  bipolar personality.  The Phillies probably knew this when they traded him to the Twins.