Twins’ Rotation Filling Up

By Jim Moberg
Updated: January 2, 2013

Alright Minnesota Twins fans, general manager Terry Ryan has been doing some work over the last couple of weeks and here are his results: two starting pitchers who had a combined three starts last year.

Mike Pelfrey is the pitcher who I still believe should have been the cornerstone of the Johan Santana deal, but he had Tommy John surgery in May and the staff thinks that he is ready to return to form this season. The other signing was Rich Harden to a minor league deal with a spring training invite included. He missed all of last year to surgery to repair his torn rotator cuff.

The Minnesota Twins will be banking on Mike Pelrey to be part of the starting rotation despite him missing all but three starts last year due to Tommy John surgery.

Some writers, fans and sports people are talking about the rotation kind of tongue in cheek to keep from chuckling. The rotation as of right now for next season looks like this (not in order):

Scott Diamond – Just had surgery to remove bone chips in his throwing elbow

Mike Pelfrey – Missed all but three starts last season for Tommy John surgery
Kyle Gibson – Still working his way back from Tommy John
Vance Worley – Picked up in trade from the Philadelphia Phillies, with a 6-9 record and a 4.20 earned run average.
Kevin Correia – Free agent from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with career numbers of 60-65 and a 4.54 ERA

And here are the challengers for those spots:
Rich Harden – Missed all of last year with rotator cuff surgery
Liam Hendricks
Brian Duensing
Cole De Vries
Nick Blackburn
Anthony Slama
Alex Meyer – Picked up in trade with Washington Nationals
Samuel Deduno
Esmerling Vasquez

Overall, I would have to say that there would have to be some huge surprises during the spring that carry through the year for the Twins to compete. Their lineup is mostly the same except at the top of the order and centerfield.

Now a prospect that I hadn’t heard much of until the Arizona Fall League is Nate Roberts. He spent all of last season with Beliot and looks to be the new outfielder to replace whomever the Twins decide to take from AA New Britain. He hit .446 with a little power and some speed on the base paths. If he can keep developing, he could be an option in either 2014 or ’15 to take over a corner outfield spot. Also during the AFL, Gibson logged some time on the mound but was out done by Logan Darnell. It looks like Darnell is still another season away from Minnesota unless we are decimated by injuries to our starting rotation.

Well, I hope that for our sake the Twins get more answers than questions coming out of spring training. Otherwise, the 2013 season could be a very long one.

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