Could Jorge Alcalá Begin the Season at Triple-A?

Jorge Alcala has all the stuff to be a shut down late inning reliever. He plays for a team that wants him to throw more than an inning. Seems like a clash of capability versus desire.

The Twins can start the season with Alcala in AAA but gain little unless they feel that any of Topa, Varland, or Castellano have better pitches which seems unlikely. If that occurs and when Alcala is called up he can no longer be optioned after five days of service time in MLB. At that point the Twins would be just playing with Alcala's head and he is gone. So no the Twins need to keep Alcala until they no longer want him on the team.

11 minutes ago, arby58 said:

I don't get why Tonkin is considered a better option than Alcala (or others, for that matter). For his career, he is 0.0 WAR, he was nothing to write home about last year, and he's 35 years old - he's not going to get any better.

Once the Yankees worked with him his FIP became in the low 3 range and continues with the Twins, he can pitch multiple innings.  Career numbers are kind of useless. Thiebar gas a career WAR of 4.4  I guess they should have kept him. 

Four times from when I started the above note this page has reloaded.  They stated in an article  that traffic was down. They blamed it on the Twins. If this was a site that I was going to casually versus being a day one of their existence person, I would not come back. If the rest of the diamond centric sites do this I would not be surprised to see them struggle 

They should be able to successfully juggle all of these pitchers for the first month.  Alcalá being sent down for a week or two is not a travesty.  He is gone at the end of this season.  Castellanos can be controlled for several seasons.  

Similarly with Topa or Varland being sent down.  A short term sample size on any of these 4 is highly unpredictable as it is with Tonkin.  Ideally they keep all of them as they will need them.

The Twins have already indicated that they value Castellano’s potential more than Henriquez, Headrick, or Moran.  

I think the twins will give Castellano every opportunity to stick in the pen. They are using a roster spot on him, he's one of our top pitching prospects now and he has great potential as a starter down the road. It sounds like Stewart might start the year on the IL which should open a spot for Alcala, leaving Topa and Varland pitching for St Paul, likely first men up. Alcala was misused last year. Hopefully they learned from that because of used correctly, he has the potential to be one of our best late inning options.

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He was better than Varland last season

Nearly everyone was better than Varland last season. Henriquez and Headrick were better than Varland last season and they were both cut off the 40-man roster. Louie was lousy.

BTW - both Henriquez and Headrick were cut to keep Castellano on the roster. They're going to give him a fair shot.

I think Alcala if healthy and based on past performances and usage should make the opening day roster.  But than again I have never really figured out the pen construction or usage since Falvey and Rocco took over

13 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I don't often bash Rocco, even if i don't always agree with him. But Alcala was POORLY used last season. He had thrown something like 20 innings due to injuries the previous 2yrs. But he's got the pure stuff to be very good 1 IP at a time. Especially coming off injury, he should have been handled as such. But he was frequently asked to throw 40-50 pitches at 2-3 innings per. And the "someone has to throw those innings" is either a horrible mismanagement of Rocco, or the FO.

No wonder he was worn out later in the season.

Topa has options, so does Varland. I want the best pen the Twins can assemble. But if they HAVE to protect depth, NO WAY should Alcala be sent down. The guy has paid his dues, and performed very well when used properly. 

I don't like the idea of protecting Castellano unless he looks GREAT in ST. If he does, then make a trade with the Phillies that makes sense. And if that doesn't work, let someone else take the temporary demotion to AAA before the inevitable injury/promotion of someone else.

Name me a team that has a high K reliever that produces when used properly that would send said pitcher down? That's just awful roster management.

Doc, you hit the nail on the head. When used properly Alcala is a valuable high-leverage BP weapon. But that's it if used properly, he wasn't last season. So should Alcala be chosen on the opening active roster? The answer is yes, but will he? The answer is more likely no. Baldelli's favorites get chance after chance & are handled with kid's gloves. Alcala isn't one of Baldelli's favorites, so Alcala won't get the special treatment that is needed, and will have a very short leash. IMO Alcala will unfortunately start out in AAA. 

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

Agree with you. Why not go with youth and potential for the last spot, someone that will be around for a few years.

& someone with options

Nobody has so far projected Castellano to be the next coming of Johan Santana.  If he is, then trade away whatever pitching talent is necessary to keep him and develop him as needed (including Alcala) because he is certainly worth it.

In reality, no other Rule 5 pick by this franchise has had an impact beyond a single season, and at this point there is little anticipation that this one will be any different.  I do not expect Alcala to be at AAA to start the season.  He may be traded based on how he was handled last year, but otherwise I expect him to survive at least to opening day on a big league roster someplace and hopefully with the Twins.

2 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

Nobody has so far projected Castellano to be the next coming of Johan Santana.  If he is, then trade away whatever pitching talent is necessary to keep him and develop him as needed (including Alcala) because he is certainly worth it.

In reality, no other Rule 5 pick by this franchise has had an impact beyond a single season, and at this point there is little anticipation that this one will be any different.  I do not expect Alcala to be at AAA to start the season.  He may be traded based on how he was handled last year, but otherwise I expect him to survive at least to opening day on a big league roster someplace and hopefully with the Twins.

Ryan Pressly says hello.

Most likely someone (Stewart perhaps) starts the season on the IL.  They could also option Topa.  I doubt the team even seriously considers starting Alcala at AAA.