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No player in the Twins clubhouse looks less like a big-leaguer when they walk through the door, but Danny Coulombe carries himself so much like one that any doubt gets pulverized quickly. Certainly, whenever he took the mound, he left no doubt—across multiple tenures with the Twins. Now, he'll bring that swagger and that brilliance—with a hefty dose of matchup value to boot—to a playoff hunt. The Texas Rangers looked like sellers for much of this month, but the muddle of the American League and a well-timed charge had them hunting for ways to get a bit better without spending any more money. Jeff Passan was first with this news.
Coulombe, 35, ends his second stint with the Twins having somehow managed to pitch even better than he did in his first. He's made 40 appearances on the year, totaling 31 innings. Using the loophole in the three-batter minimum rule whereby a pitcher isn’t required to return to the mound the next inning if they finish the one they enter, Rocco Baldelli frequently brought in Coulombe to face a dangerous left-handed batter in a middle-innings jam. Coulombe had eight appearances in which he faced just one batter, and three more in which he faced just two. Across those 11 outings, he inherited 15 runners and didn’t allow any to score. In fact, he’s only allowed four of 24 inherited runners to score all year.
With a very high arm slot from his very short stature, the southpaw gives opponents an exceptionally difficult look. That elevated his trade value, almost as much as his superb performance and his affordable contract. He signed a one-year deal worth $3 million in early February, which will end up being roughly $3.2 million as he hits incentives based on games pitched. That leaves only about $1 million to be paid for the balance of the year.
Coulombe has not allowed a home run this year. Left-handed relievers are always in demand at the deadline, and Coulombe is no exception. The Rangers, much in need of bullpen help and with no extra money to spend as they flirt with the competitive-balance tax threshold, were a perfect fit for him, and the two sides found each other with about 100 minutes left before the deadline.
In exchange, the Twins will receive Texas's 6th-round pick from last year's MLB Draft, Garrett Horn. Mark Feinsand broke that news.
Horn was recovering from Tommy John surgery when selected last summer, and has made just nine starts in Low A this year. He's moderately promising. One might have dared hope for a player with either more upside or more proximity to the major leagues, but he's not entirely without merit. It's unfortunate that the Twins couldn't dervie more value from having been so right to reinvest in Coulombe, but that's the nature of one-year deals with middle relievers. The way to derive big value from it would have been to win this year and have Coulombe keep getting big outs into October.
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