Twins Send Four Pitchers to Minor League Camp

[1985Fan]

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

That start in the play-offs was five years ago - fast forward to 2023, where he started 26 games for St. Paul last year, threw 126 innings, and had a 1.654 WHIP. If the Twins had traded for that as their number five starting pitcher, people on this site would be less than happy, wouldn't you say?

Moot point since he is not the #5 SP, he’s already under payroll, and he’s depth at St. Paul. I said IF he found his sinker and IF he’s fully healed, he’s a veteran pitcher that, as the #3 depth piece, could fill in for injury if needed. 

[gman]

It certainly looks like our top 3 minor league teams could have very good rotations. It's especially nice to see the talent at St Paul. The team pitching looks like it could have a continue flow of starters available. Doesn't look like we need to get the last guys available in free agency.

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, 1985Fan said:

Moot point since he is not the #5 SP, he’s already under payroll, and he’s depth at St. Paul. I said IF he found his sinker and IF he’s fully healed, he’s a veteran pitcher that, as the #3 depth piece, could fill in for injury if needed. 

Dobnak and his lack of strikeouts and heavy sinker usage means the Twins would run out the defensive infield, benching guys like Julien, Kirilloff and Jeffers. Which in turn means he's going to get much less run support. We trusting Dobnak to win a bunch of 3-2 ball games?

[bean5302]

8 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Dobnak and his lack of strikeouts and heavy sinker usage means the Twins would run out the defensive infield, benching guys like Julien, Kirilloff and Jeffers. Which in turn means he's going to get much less run support. We trusting Dobnak to win a bunch of 3-2 ball games?

I think it's pretty commonly held that Dobnak isn't on the roster and has no good path to making it back onto the roster. The Twins have to pay him his MLB salary regardless of whether or not he's on the team, and in terms of absolute emergency depth, he's not an awful option. If Dobnak hadn't been extended, I don't think anybody would argue he wouldn't have been DFA'd and released a while back. Last year was his first relatively healthy year in a long time.

Dobnak seems like a nice guy with a good story, clinging to his last opportunity to make it back into the big show. I'm rooting for him, but he's going to have to build on his 2019 AAA performance from so long ago, and have a couple Twins starters fall to the injury bug this year to get another shot. Gotta be a bittersweet situation for him.

[1985Fan]

58 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Dobnak and his lack of strikeouts and heavy sinker usage means the Twins would run out the defensive infield, benching guys like Julien, Kirilloff and Jeffers. Which in turn means he's going to get much less run support. We trusting Dobnak to win a bunch of 3-2 ball games?

We’re trusting him as the #8 or #9 starter on the depth chart. 

[arby58]

10 hours ago, 1985Fan said:

Moot point since he is not the #5 SP, he’s already under payroll, and he’s depth at St. Paul. I said IF he found his sinker and IF he’s fully healed, he’s a veteran pitcher that, as the #3 depth piece, could fill in for injury if needed. 

It's even more of a moot point in terms of bringing him up - he is not on the 40 man roster. There is no way in Hades they are bumping somebody off to bring Dobnak up to pitch for the Twins.

[1985Fan]

3 hours ago, arby58 said:

It's even more of a moot point in terms of bringing him up - he is not on the 40 man roster. There is no way in Hades they are bumping somebody off to bring Dobnak up to pitch for the Twins.

You can’t predict injuries. He’s on their depth chart, so if injuries happen, there is the 60 day IL. It’s not that long ago that Devin Smeltzer and Andrew Albers got starts for the Twins. I wouldn’t rule out anything. 

[arby58]

6 hours ago, 1985Fan said:

You can’t predict injuries. He’s on their depth chart, so if injuries happen, there is the 60 day IL. It’s not that long ago that Devin Smeltzer and Andrew Albers got starts for the Twins. I wouldn’t rule out anything. 

This reminds me of a famous scene in the pilot for the television show Law and Order, where the medical examiner is being pressed by the defense attorney to 'not rule out' a fairly incredible possibility on what killed the victim. The medical examiner replies, "It's possible that death rays from Mars killed her. But I don't think so." 

Sure, anything is possible, if that is the life raft you want to grasp onto. Considering that they have, already on the 40 man roster, several other starting pitchers, unless death rays from Mars wipe them all out, I don't think Dobnak even sniffs MLB with the Twins this year.