Sam Dyson

[nicksaviking]

Sam Dyson is a former journeyman relief pitcher, playing for Toronto, Miami, Texas, San Francisco and very briefly the Minnesota Twins. He was born in Tampa Florida and was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 4th round of the 2010 draft out of the university of South Carolina.

Dyson was a functional reliever bouncing around between teams from 2012 through 2019. Despite struggling to miss bats, he had a career high 38 saves for the Rangers in 2016. At the last minute of the trade deadline on July 31st, 2019 he was traded from the Giants to the Twins for Jaylin Davis, Prelander Berroa and Kai-Wei Teng.  Things started out rough as he joined the Twins in Miami the next day entering the game in the 9th with a 4-1 lead giving up 2 hits, 2 walks and 3 ER without getting an out. Controversy surrounded the trade as it was soon revealed that Dyson was pitching with an injured shoulder, which would eventually lead to season ending surgery. He never pitched in the major leagues again.

However things would take an even darker turn soon after when he was accused of assaulting and pointing a handgun at his ex girlfriend, all this while he was still pitching professionally. The courting filings also leveled accusations of racist rants he would make against other MLB players.

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[Danchat]

I actually thought this was a good trade back in the day based on the way he was pitching, but the injury happened and basically nullified it. There weren't any red flags medically that we were aware of, so unlike some other pitchers they have traded for and immediately got hurt, I think this was plan old bad luck. Then that controversy came out and that was the end for him.

Part of the dislike of the trade came from trading Jaylin Davis, who was killing it at AAA but in reality was a AAAA player and proved that. His 2019 season at AAA was bonkers, hitting .300, 35 HRs and just short of 1.000 OPS. Teng and Berroa have pitched in 2024 in the majors but are fringe guys, and were seen as mere lottery tickets at the point of the trade.

[nicksaviking]

13 hours ago, Danchat said:

I actually thought this was a good trade back in the day based on the way he was pitching, but the injury happened and basically nullified it. There weren't any red flags medically that we were aware of, so unlike some other pitchers they have traded for and immediately got hurt, I think this was plan old bad luck. Then that controversy came out and that was the end for him.

Part of the dislike of the trade came from trading Jaylin Davis, who was killing it at AAA but in reality was a AAAA player and proved that. His 2019 season at AAA was bonkers, hitting .300, 35 HRs and just short of 1.000 OPS. Teng and Berroa have pitched in 2024 in the majors but are fringe guys, and were seen as mere lottery tickets at the point of the trade.

I severely disliked the trade at the time as I was still deep into my loathing for sinkers and pitch-to-contact guys.

The Twins had already started to turn the corner on that approach and were starting to become really good at missing bats as a team overall, but I couldn't shake the frustration of the past 20 years.