What Should Minnesota Twins Do with Jorge Alcala?

[stringer bell]

Technically, Alcalá is not out of options. His service time is at a level where he can reject an optional assignment, so if he consented, he could be sent down. I don’t know if there is a scenario where this could come into play.

This also highlights the delicate dance with service time and options which we fans don’t focus on enough. Alcalá accrued considerable service time while on the IL and Ronnie Henriquez had his option years used up at a really young age, affecting the Twins’ ability to move both of them on and off the active roster. Having a bunch of guys without options makes handling the bullpen difffcult. In hindsight I wonder if they would have preferred to keep Blewett and/or McCaughan instead of Alcalá. 

[Omardog]

Alcala has got to go.  Throw him into a bigger trade for a meaningful, middle of the order bat.  He's got a live arm, the Twins have tried hard--let someone else try and figure him out.  Frankly, Twins fans are sick of him.

[USAFChief]

1. Can we stop calling relievers "low leverage?" Such things no longer exist.

2. Alcala doesn't have the consistent command to be consistent. I doubt he ever will. Move on. 

[jorgenswest]

Alcala pitched well yesterday. It was his 14th (of 20) appearance where he has given up no runs while pitching at least an inning. I looked to his game log to see if there was any pattern to his appearances where he has given up multiple runs. None of those appearances were on the second end of a back to back or after long layoffs. One was game 2 and the others had one or two days off in between. If you look at the splits his 6+ days rest numbers look bad but that is his bad first appearance of the season in game 2 which is part of 6+ days rest data and shouldn’t be.

If everyone is healthy I think he is the 8th man in the pen with Funderburk behind him. That is a tenuous position because when the bullpen gets overburdened they will call up reinforcements and he will be the next guy to go. Until that happens or they add a reliever from outside the organization I don’t think they have anyone that is a better option.