Tom Froemming

*You're going to see a lot of speculation and analysis on potential bullpen additions at the site over the coming weeks. Cody led things off last night with a great overview of 10 potential trade targets. We'll continue to explore the reliever market by running profiles on specific pitchers each day. Kirby Yates, RHP, 32-years-old San Diego Padres (33-33, 4th in NL West) Under team control via arbitration through 2020 2019: 0.96 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 15.4 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 in 28.0 IP 2018: 2.14 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 12.9 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 in 63.0 IP What’s to Like? Well you gotta like the idea of a guy named Kirby joining the Twins, right? He’s also a frontrunner for fireman of the year right now. If you were looking to ride a hot hand, Yates is among the hottest you can find right now. Yates leads all relievers in saves (23), FanGraphs’ WAR (1.9) and WPA (2.59). Out of the 165 relievers with at least 20 innings, Yates is third in ERA (0.96), fourth in xFIP (1.95) and second in K-BB% (37.7). Opposing batters are hitting just .167/.245/.219 (.464 OPS) against him right now. Yates hasn’t given up a run in his last 10 appearances, yielding just two hits and one walk over that stretch. He hasn’t been taken deep in 2019 and has surrendered just five extra-base hits. Plugging in a set closer to the ninth inning would allow Rocco Baldelli to continue using Taylor Rogers in whatever other high-leverage situations he sees fit. Concerns Diversity is something to aim for in the bullpen, and Yates’ pitch mix is similar to a current Twins reliever. Yates’s specialty pitch is his splitter, same as Blake Parker, though Yates goes to that offering nearly twice as often as Parker does (42% vs. 21.8%). https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1126254140265566209 There’s also some concern that he may be a product of his pitching environment. Yates has posted a 161 ERA+ over 146 2/3 innings with the Padres. He was nowhere near that good with the Rays (73 ERA+ in 56 1/2 innings) or Yankees (83 ERA+ in 41 1/3 innings). What happens if you take him out of San Diego and put him back in the American League? He did develop that splitter while with the Padres, however, so maybe this is for real. The aging curve for relievers can be pretty brutal. Yates is 32 and it’s not like he’s a flame-thrower as it is. His four seamer, which he throws roughly 57% of the time, sits 93 mph. See Also 10 Relievers Minnesota Could Target

Box Score Gibson: 5.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 67.0% strikes (63 of 94 pitches) Bullpen: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 K Home Runs: Cruz (10) Multi-Hit Games: Cruz (2-for-3, HR, BB) WPA of +0.1: Cruz .102 WPA of -0.1: Gonzalez -.185, Gibson -.294 (chart via FanGraphs) The key moment in this game came in the bottom of the second inning. Kyle Gibson retired the first two batters he faced, then got ahead of the next batter 0-2. One more strike and the good guys are back in the dugout. Gibson’s next two pitches weren’t close enough to chase, however, evening the count at 2-2. Gibson manged to get a chase the fifth pitch, but the batter managed to hit a slider down and away into left field for a single to extend the inning. Gibson lost an eight-pitch battle with the next batter, walking him on a two-seamer that was well outside the zone. He then hung a slider on the second pitch he threw to JaCoby Jones, who crushed a three-run homer. That third out has been elusive for Gibson this season. In addition to the three-run homer, Gibson also gave up a two-out RBI single in the fifth inning. Entering today, opposing hitters had a .720 OPS with no outs, .648 OPS with one out and an .809 OPS with two outs against Gibby. Of the 11 home runs Gibson has now surrendered, six have come with two down. That’s a strange trend, not only generally speaking, but also in comparison to Gibson’s career numbers. With both the 2019 league averages and Gibson’s overall career marks, OPS against shrinks the more outs there are. It’s not like Gibson didn’t have good stuff today. He struck out eight batters and got 18 swinging strikes, which is the third-most whiffs he’s gotten in 12 starts this year. Eades Debuts Gibson’s short start created a nice opportunity for the Twins to get Ryan Eades his MLB debut. We’ve been privileged to some pretty special stories so far this season. Ryne Harper finally making his debut as a 30-year-old and cancer survivor/ultimate underdog Devin Smeltzer making it are about as good as it gets. FSN managed to tug at my heartstrings pretty hard today, as they showed Eades’ wife in the stands, baby wearing their infant, crying her eyes out at seeing her husband on a major league mound for the first time. Beautiful moment to be able to witness. Eades retired the first two men he faced, then walked the next two batters. Wes Johnson came out to the mound and probably said something along the lines of “hey, we’re not paying you by the hour,” and Eades retired the next batter to end the inning. Eades came back out for the seventh and gave up a couple of hits. He was helped out by the combination of a bad send at third base and a good relay from Marwin Gonzalez to Miguel Sano to Jason Castro, but Eades ended up throwing two shutout innings. He struck out three batters and topped out at 95.5 mph. Magill Floundering Matt Magill followed Eades and struggled badly, once again. He gave up four runs on five hits. Over his last three appearances, Magill has surrendered 10 earned runs on 10 hits and three walks over just 1 2/3 innings. Bats Struggle vs. Detroit Pen The Tigers went with a bullpen game today and managed to hold the Twins to three runs on just six hits. They combined to strike out nine batters, Miguel Sano accounting for three of those punch outs. The Twins had just two extra-base hits today, Nelson Cruz’s 10th home run and Jorge Polanco’s 18th double of the season. Really, the Twins as a whole just felt like the came out a little flat in this one. Postgame With Baldelli https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1137508466266796032 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Game Sun at DET, 12:10 pm CT (Odorizzi-Carpenter) Last Game MIN 6, DET 3: Offense, Bullpen Come Through Late as Twins Take Opener More from Twins Daily Cali Connection Jumps Draft Boards: Q&A with Keoni Cavaco Minnesota Twins 2019 MLB Draft Recap Area Man to Let Bullpen Ruin His Family's Weekend

TRANSACTIONS -LHP Devin Smeltzer was optioned back to Rochester. -C Trevor Casanova joined Fort Myers from extended spring. -OF/1B Trey Cabbage also re-joined Fort Myers from the suspended list. RED WINGS REPORT Game 1: Rochester 19, Pawtucket 4 (7 innings) Box Score Kohl Stewart: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 58.5% strikes (55 of 94 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: Luis Arraez (3-for-4, 2B, BB), Wilin Rosario (3-for-5, 2B), Nick Gordon (2-for-6, 2B), Zander Wiel (2-for-3, BB, HBP), Jake Cave (2-for-5, 2 2B), Wynston Sawyer (2-for-5, 2B) How do you score 19 runs in a seven-inning game without the benefit of a home run? Well, drawing nine walks helps. So does going 12-for-19 with runners in scoring position. Every single hitter in Rochester’s lineup reached base at least twice. Luis Arraez and Wilin Rosario both tallied three hits. Arraez drove in five runs from the leadoff spot while Rosario had four RBIs. Drew Maggi reached safely in four of his five plate appearances, hitting a double to go with three walks, and score three runs. Zander Wiel also reached base in four of his five plate appearances (two singles, a walk and a hit by pitch). Brent Rooker scored three runs … lots of crooked numbers. Kohl Stewart, the beneficiary of all that run support, improved to 5-3 on the year. Game 2: Rochester 7, Pawtucket 4 (7 innings) Box Score Zack Littell: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 81.1% strikes (30 of 37 pitches) HR: Drew Maggi 2 (5), Rooker (7) Multi-hit games: Cave (2-for-4, 2B), Maggi (2-for-3, 2 HR) The Wings trailed 4-2 entering the final inning, but Drew Maggi hit a game-tying home run, his second of the game, and Brent Rooker blasted a three-run homer to push Rochester ahead. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1137219192120336384 There were a lot of familiar names on the mound in this one. Gabriel Moya actually started this game. He recorded four outs before giving way to Zack Littell. I originally thought this may be an opener situation, but you don’t typically see the starting pitcher (or primary, whatever you want to call it) coming in to the middle of innings. Littell also only pitched 2 2/3 innings, throwing 37 pitches. The only hit Littell gave up was a solo home run. Fernando Romero followed with two innings. He gave up three runs on four hits, including a solo homer. Trevor Hildenberger pitched a perfect bottom of the seventh to pick up his first save for Rochester. BLUE WAHOO BITES Biloxi 9, Pensacola 1 Box Score Bryan Sammons: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 65.9% strikes (54 of 82 pitches) HR: Travis Blankenhorn (10) Multi-hit games: None Travis Blankenhorn led off this game with a home run. The Blue Wahoos managed just one more hit the entire rest of the game. Bryan Sammons also had a rough night on the mound, meaning Biloxi had a pretty comfortable evening. Blankenhorn’s homer was his 10th already in just 40 games since being called up to Double-A. The Southern League leader came into today with 14 homers, so Travis is making quite the first impression. Adam Bray was another positive for Pensacola. He pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings of two-hit ball while striking out four batters. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Jupiter 2 Box Score SP: Jhoan Duran: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 65.9% strikes (60 of 91 pitches) HR: Lewin Diaz (12), Jose Miranda (3) Multi-hit games: None Another day, another Lewin Diaz home run. That’s 12 home runs over his last 31 games now. Speaking of Blankenhorn, he led the Miracle with 11 homers last year. Jhoan Duran is another guy who’s been rolling for Fort Myers. He was hot, hot, hot tonight. https://twitter.com/JimCrikket/status/1137138222130257920 Duran held Jupiter to one run on six hits over seven innings and struck out four. In his last three starts, Duran’s surrendered just 10 hits and three earned runs over 20 innings. Jose Miranda hit his third homer of the year, drew a walk and scored twice. Trey Cabbage hit a double and drove in a pair of runs in his return to the Miracle. Royce Lewis got a single, stole his 11th base of the season and scored a run. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 3 Box Score Tyler Palm: 2.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 61.7% strikes (37 of 60 pitches) HR: None Multi-hit games: Yeltsin Encarnacion (2-for-5), Gabriel Maciel (2-for-4) Cedar Rapids stumbled a bit out of the gates, falling behind 3-0 after the first three innings, but they sure did finish strong. Carlos Suniaga, Jose Martinez and Moises Gomez combined to no-hit Peoria over the final seven innings of this game. Suniaga, the first man out of the bullpen, struck out five batters over his three innings. Martinez also delivered three innings before Gomez came in for the save in the ninth. The bats had a nice rally in the fourth inning to get rolling. With one out, Jared Akins and Chris Williams drew back-to-back walks. Jacob Pearson hit an RBI single before Andrew Bechtold provided a run-scoring ground out. Gabriel Maciel tied the game with an RBI single. Things stayed knotted up until the eighth inning. Gilberto Celestino hit a leadoff double and was driven home on a Williams triple. Celestino also helped provide an insurance run in the ninth, hitting a sacrifice fly. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Jhoan Duran, Fort Myers Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Drew Maggi, Rochester TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 1-for-4, R, SB, K 4. Trevor Larnach (FM): 1-for-4, 2B, R, K 6. Brent Rooker (ROC): 2-for-6, HR (7), 3 BB, 4 R, 5 RBI, K, HBP 7. Jhoan Duran (FM): Jhoan Duran: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 65.9% strikes (60 of 91 pitches) 11. Nick Gordon (ROC): 3-for-10, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, 3 SB 13. Ryan Jeffers (FM): 0-for-2, K 14. Ben Rortvedt (PNS): 0-for-4, K 16. Gilberto Celestino (CR): 1-for-4, 2B, R, RBI 17. Zack Littell (ROC): 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 81.1% strikes (30 of 37 pitches) 18. LaMonte Wade (ROC): 2-for-6, 3 BB 20. Jose Miranda (FM): 1-for-3, HR (3), BB, 2 R, RBI SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Pawtucket, 5:15 pm CT (Randy Dobnak) Pensacola at Biloxi, 6:35 pm CT (Charlie Barnes) Fort Myers vs. Jupiter, 5:00 pm CT (Cole Sands) Cedar Rapids at Peoria, 6:35 pm CT (Josh Winder) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games.

Box Score Perez: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 60.9% strikes (56 of 92 pitches) Home Runs: Buxton (7), Cruz (8), Polanco (10) Multi-Hit Games: Polanco (2-for-4, HR) WPA of +0.1: Buxton .191, Polanco .156 WPA of -0.1: Sano -.137, Perez -.218, Parker -.500 (chart via FanGraphs) The Twins held a 6-5 lead through six innings, but rain caused this game to be delayed more than an hour and a half. The Twins scratched across an insurance run once play resumed, but Blake Parker was ready to play his role in throwing gasoline on what was already a hot talking point across Twins Territory. I don’t know that you’ll find a Twins fan or baseball analyst who believes the Twins bullpen is fine as it’s currently constructed. So for Kimbrel to sign and Parker to give up three runs to blow the lead within a matter of hours is only going to increase the attention paid to that storyline. Parker gave up a two-run homer to Jordan Luplow and a solo shot to Roberto Perez. Just for good measure, Tyler Duffey gave up a solo homer to Francisco Lindor in the eighth. It’s worth mentioning that the Twins came into tonight 34-2 when holding a lead entering the seventh inning. Things like this haven’t happened all that often this year, it’s just that we’ve all been expecting doom for so long that it feels like they have. Perez Struggles Again Martin Perez entered this start having posted a 5.59 ERA over his previous four outings. His last time out against Tampa Bay was particularly ugly, as he gave up six earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Perez opened his evening by walking the leadoff man, Francisco Lindor, on four pitches. The Twins lineup was making noise again tonight, creating plenty of breathing room, but Perez wasn’t sharp once again tonight. There were a few bad-luck, seeing-eye singles mixed in, but Perez struggled to find the strike zone. When he did, he didn’t miss many bats. He threw only 60.9 percent of his pitches for strikes and got just four swinging strikes on his 92 pitches. That’s the fewest swings and misses he’s had in an outing this season, which is particularly striking because he had four appearances of fewer than four innings coming into tonight (he started the year in the bullpen, remember?). It was a bit of a sloppy game for the Twins. Perez and Jason Castro had some troubles, accounting for both a wild pitch and a passed ball. Also, Miguel Sano committed his second error of the season. Only two of the five runs Perez gave up were earned. Still, he was given a 5-1 lead at one point and could not seal the deal. Cleveland Pen Battles Through Trying Times This appeared to be a tough matchup for Cleveland from the get-go. Carlos Carrasco was placed in the IL due to a blood condition, resulting in the team being forced to go with a bullpen game. As if that wasn’t a challenge enough, I imagine the rain delay didn’t help things. They used seven pitchers tonight. Momentum isn’t something that can be quantified, but for Cleveland to win this game under these circumstances has to have injected some swagger into that clubhouse. The Good Stuff It wasn’t all bad. The Twins lineup was out there hitting bombas again. Byron Buxton absolutely obliterated an 0-2 pitch for a three-run homer. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1136418611927474176 The lineup also combined to go 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position and five of the Twins’ run were scored with two outs. Trevor May made things interesting in the sixth, but he got out of it unscathed and struck out a pair of batters. He was averaging 96.1 mph with his four seamer tonight. He had been sitting at 94.8 mph with that pitch coming into this evening. But who am I kidding? You’re a Minnesota sports fan. You’re only here to cry in your beer (or coffee, depending on when you’re reading this) and lament about not being able to have nice things. That’s OK, we’re all here for you, lol. Postgame With Baldelli https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1136496021943357440 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Game Thu at CLE, 6:10 pm CT (Berrios-Bauer) Last Game CLE 5, MIN 2: Twins Can’t Figure Out Bieber, Lindor Lifts Cleveland More from Twins Daily Will Minnesota Be a Fit for Craig Kimbrel or Dallas Keuchel? 2019 MLB Draft Day 2 Thread MLB Draft Day 3 Thread