Twins Deal Enigmatic Reliever Jorge Alcala to the Red Sox

Following the Twins 6-2 win at Target Field over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night, Jorge Alcala was called into manager Rocco Baldelli's office. He was told he had been traded. He went back out to the locker room and exchanged hugs with teammates. 

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, it was announced that the Twins had claimed lefty reliever Joey Wentz off of waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. He will join the Twins before their Thursday afternoon game with the Rangers, taking the 26-man roster spot of Alcala. Pablo Lopez was moved to the 60-Day Injured List. 

In return the Twins will receive 21-year-old utility man Andy Lugo. In 44 games for High-A Greenville this season, he is hitting .265/.327/.430 (.758) with 11 doubles and four homers. He has played 21 games at first base, 16 at third base, and four games in left field. Presumably, he will remain at the High-A level and join the Cedar Rapids Kernels. 

Immediately Lugo will become one of the best bat-flippers in the Twins organization. He got some great height on this effort. 

How do we summarize Jorge Alcala's time with the Twins? 

No doubt, it was a rollercoaster, filled with some remarkably high highs, and each coupled with a remarkably low-low. 

Alcala came to the Twins organization with outfielder Gilberto Celestino from the Astros in exchange for reliever Ryan Pressly days before the 2018 trade deadline. Pressly was one of the most successful Rule 5 picks in Twins history, but he had his ups and downs for a few seasons before putting together some advanced statistical metrics that got a lot of teams excited. He went on to Houston and became one of the most dominant late-inning relievers in baseball. Twice an All-Star, he was on the mound when the Astros won the 2022 World Series title. 

Celestino was a highly-touted prospect still in the rookie leagues. He had signed as a 16-year-old for a seven-figure bonus a couple of years earlier. He got rushed to the Twins, made some great defensively plays, and struggled mightily with the bat. 

At the time of the trade, Jorge Alcala was touted as a hard-throwing starting pitcher at Double-A. He was also lean and prone to issuing too many walks. The Twins gave him about a season of starts to see what they had, and they ultimately decided that he would be best working out of the bullpen. Clearly this was a wise move. He could air things out for one or two innings at a time. His time as a starter allowed him to develop a slider. He threw a changeup, but it never really developed fully which made him a two-pitch pitcher. 

But as we have seen ever since his two-game debut at the end of the 2019 season, those were, at times, two really, really good pitches. Blessed with a fastball that sat consistently in the upper-90s, Alcala frequently hit 100 mph in games over the past few years. And while his slider wasn't always consistent for him, when it was on, it could be a devastating swing-and-miss pitch. 

While he was seemingly always the guy that the front office would send down to Triple-A when there was a need, he typically came back and had a very dominant streak. Unfortunately, he also dealt with a lot of shoulder issues earlier in his career which slowed his development to some degree. He missed most of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. 

He was solid in 2024, even reliable for an extended time frame, but then came the game against Texas where it literally seemed like a safe lead was gone in a matter of about eight pitches when he came into the ball game. Since that moment, he just has not been able to find it. "It" might be release point, or grip, or balance, or mojo, or any number of things.     

In 22 appearances this year, he was 0-2 with an 8.88 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP. In 24 1/3 innings, he had 28 strikeouts, but he also walked 15 batters and opponents made a lot of hard contact against him among their 29 hits. He went from being the next guy behind Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, and Cole Sands, to being used in low-leverage situations, to almost not being usable. 

And, when the Twins put him on their Opening Day roster, it wasn't long before they could not option him due to service time. Hoping that a change of scenery or a new voice will help, he was dealt to the Boston Red Sox, a team that definitely needs bullpen arms. 

And I don't think many Twins fans will be surprised if Alcala finds himself. He showed with the Twins just how good he can be. I think Twins fans would be happy for Alcala if he's able to turn it around. 

Meanwhile, one of his good friends, lefty Jovani Moran was traded to the Red Sox in the offseason for Mickey Gasper. He missed all of the 2024 season after having Tommy John Surgery. He is rehabbing now. He pitched a couple of games in the FCL, and he is currently getting some innings in with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs. Moran, like Alcala, has certainly shown he can be a quality MLB reliever. 

The Red Sox have Aroldis Chapman closing games this year. Justin Slaten was very good, but he's on the IL with shoulder inflammation. They have called up guys from Triple-A Worcester, and shuttled them up and down for awhile now. Former Twin Liam Hendriks has struggled in his return from Tommy John and is currently on the IL. So is another former Twins pitcher, Nick Burdi. While they have some intriguing starters, their bullpen could use the good Jorge Alcala. 

The Red Sox pitching coach is former big-leaguer Andrew Bailey. Peter Fatse, their hitting coach, was with the Twins as a minor-league hitting coordinator when Alcala was in the Twins upper levels. Former Twins pitcher Craig Breslow is the Chief Baseball Officer. The Sox "stole" Justin Willard from the Twins organization. He had been the Twins assistant minor-league pitching coordinator. Now he is the Red Sox Director of Pitching (for all levels). In addition, Kyle Boddy is a Special Advisor to the CBO, and he's well respected for his pitching knowledge. 

In other words, maybe Alcala is going to a situation that is perfect for him and he'll regain the form we know he can. Or maybe not. Ultimately, the Twins were going to DFA him, and the Red Sox didn't want to have to hope that he got to them on the waiver wire. He wouldn't have. Alcala's got an arm that would be intriguing to a lot of teams, especially those who aren't playing for 2025 anymore. 

The Twins got a minor-league hitter, a 21-year-old who is at least intriguing. It'll be fun to watch him develop. 

What are your thoughts on the Jorge Alcala/Andy Lugo trade? Leave a comment below.