Folding Dallas Keuchel into 6-Man Rotation Would Be Wise Choice for Twins

[jkcarew]

8 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

We don't want or need prospects this season. We need a hitter capable of doing well against MLB pitching. That's not going to come our way.

I want prospects (if more than lottery). One hitter doesn’t guarantee anything. And the core needs to be turned over.

[jkcarew]

I assume 2-3 starts to justify the signing…him being bad…and released. He’s the 2023 version of 1987 Steve Carlton.

Could those innings Carlton ate (and losses he contributed to)…have been the true key to the WS run???

[Mike Sixel]

27 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

We don't want or need prospects this season. We need a hitter capable of doing well against MLB pitching. That's not going to come our way.

I'm not sure I understand your point. 

[Nine of twelve]

21 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm not sure I understand your point. 

Trading Sonny Gray for prospects would not accomplish what we need accomplished. We need a hitter (or hitters) who can help the major league team this year.

[jorgenswest]

A six man rotation and 7 man pen is unwise. Are there any teams regularly using a seven man pen? One day after the break and the Twins 8 man bullpen is already over worked again.

I have no ability to assess Keuchel’s readiness but if they believe he is one of their top 5 starters they need him on the roster now. Push Maeda to the bullpen. No to a 6 man rotation.

[LewFordLives]

A playoff contender should not have Keuchel on their roster.  It's a great story, but he's cooked. If he wants to hang around and wait for an injury and a chance to prove himself, fine, but under no circumstances should the Twins rearrange the rotation to accommodate him. If he wants to opt out, then let him go.

[stringer bell]

I dunno. I don't have any great expectations for Keuchel, but saving a few innings for Ryan, Ober, Gray and López might make sense. As far as having “only” seven in the bullpen, with a bit better health (Thielbar, Stewart) added back, they can juggle their remaining members and mostly have enough arms available to get through. 

The tone of posters here is that the Twins are on the razor's edge to make the playoffs. BBRef today has them as having a 84.1% chance to make the playoffs. The surest way for those odds to go down would be to have injuries or ineffectiveness from their starting rotation. If adding Keuchel for 4-5 starts increases the effectiveness and health of the rotation, it would enhance their chances to not only win the division, but also have some playoff success.

[JD-TWINS]

A straight 6-man rotation is nuts because we don’t expect/want starters to go longer in games, just to have more rest between starts and thus less overall innings. Nuts, because we tax the bullpen as often but with one less arm in the Pen.

My assumption is that Kuechel is out of options at this point in his career - right?

Kuechel in long relief role to help stretch the Pen makes sense - he could face 8-9 guys per outing (nobody sees him twice, as they would as a starter) from middle 6th through 8th as an example. This helps freshen the rest of the Pen.

He needs to be up or he’s gone by July 31……can’t imagine he signed a deal that allows us to trade him to wherever we like! 

I like the “tired arm”, 10 day IL stints, for each of our 5 starters over the next 30 - 45 days!! Can use Kuechel to make this happen along with Varland (options). Could take a whole week of no arm activity and then a bullpen session and their regular start 3 days later. Details don’t matter - they’d have needed rest prior to September.

If we can build a lead in Division there may be more opportunity for rest later in September?

Need to get 86 wins for the Division (fair?) so we need to go 38-30 from here on out. As mentioned a few times “can’t afford to give away games with experiments”. Need to have a plan though on getting starters a breath going forward.