Article: Three-Bagger: Ramirez, Bad Wings & Catching A Draft

[Nick Nelson]

An intriguing new pitcher acquisition, a perturbing injury trend, and a clear emphasis in draft strategy: We'll cover all three in today's Three-Bagger.* Last week, in discussing the benefits of badness, I mentioned that the waiver wire could be a key avenue for the Twins to infuse some talent during the season. Over the weekend, they utilized it, claiming right-handed reliever Neil Ramirez after he was waived by the Brewers.

 

Ramirez is only 27 and has an impressive track record. Over the past two seasons with the Cubs, he posted a 1.87 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 68-to-23 K/BB ratio in 57 innings. The stuff matched the numbers as he racked up strikeouts with a mid-90s fastball and power slider.

 

The velocity has been down a bit this year, and Ramirez has been a mess. The Brewers had acquired him off waivers from the Cubs and kept him for less than 10 days – only two appearances – before designating him for assignment, so clearly they didn't like what they saw.

 

He's a project. But one with considerable upside that the Twins, desperate for arms, can't pass up.

 

The word is that Ramirez has been battling some ongoing shoulder issues, so he should feel right at home with his new club.

 

* Pitching a baseball is hard on the human body. For proof, look no further than all of the ravaged shoulders within Minnesota's pitching ranks. It is only fitting that the newest Twin has a bad wing, because that's been a persistent theme for the staff cornerstones.

 

Phil Hughes' shoulder isn't the reason he went on the 60-day disabled list, but it's the reason he was pitching as the mop-up man in the ninth inning of a blowout loss when he took a line drive off the leg, breaking his femur.

 

Battling through shoulder fatigue by his own admission, Hughes had been utterly ineffective. It wasn't entirely clear the Twins knew what to do with him. They sent him to the bullpen at the end of May, but his only appearances in June were a spot start in place of Kyle Gibson, and Thursday's mop-up relief outing in the final innings of a blowout loss.

 

Now, the Twins have no choice but to do what they probably should have done all along: let that shoulder rest. No one seems able to diagnose what is specifically wrong with Hughes, other than vague dead arm attributions, but continually sending him out to take the mound was not doing any good. Since recording his lone victory this season, against the Brewers on April 18th, he has struck out only 17 of the 184 batters he has faced.

 

That's 9 percent. You can't get by as a pitcher in the major leagues striking out less than 10 percent of opponents, much less as a fly ball guy.

 

Hopefully the time off will do Hughes some good. So far, that plan hasn't worked for Glen Perkins, who remains tangled in an indefinite state of limbo due to his own ambiguously ailing shoulder. The lefty experienced yet another setback during his latest bullpen session, and is off to receive a third opinion due to lingering discomfort.

 

Perkins hasn't pitched in a game since blowing his only save chance on April 10th, which was more than two months ago. Attempting to simply rest and rehab his aching shoulder has not resolved the issue, and that isn't surprising considering he dedicated his entire offseason to that approach before breaking down immediately.

 

Meanwhile, Alex Meyer has been shut down for at least the month of June. We've been reassured that "nothing (was) found but inflammation" in his shoulder, but really there's nothing reassuring about that at this point. And if the shoulder strain that sidelined Gibson for seven weeks is now healed, it wasn't evident in his return on Saturday when he was rocked for five runs in 5 2/3 innings while inducing few swinging strikes or ground balls.

 

The Twins are on pace to allow 894 runs, which is a higher total than any team has allowed since the 2010 Rangers gave up 967. And sure enough, bum shoulders are shouldering the blame for his porous pitching unit.

 

* Turning the page to another deep-running organizational problem, here's some good news regarding Minnesota's catcher situation: John Ryan Murphy is hitting .370/.438/.630 this month at Rochester, with five extra-base hits (including his first home run) in eight games after totaling just two doubles in his first two months between the majors and Triple-A. At long last, it looks like he has shaken out of his mystifying slump.

 

The better news, when it comes to the franchise's future at the catcher position, was the heavy emphasis given to it in last week's MLB Draft. The Twins smartly went the "Best Player Available" route with their first pick, selecting prep outfielder Alex Kiriloff and his enormous offensive ceiling, but they took a catcher with their second pick and then four more within the first 25 rounds.

 

It's the most aggressively we have seen this team address the position since a 2013 draft class that produced the organization's two best current prospects behind the plate, Stuart Turner (a third-round pick) and Mitch Garver (a ninth-rounder). In fact, since Joe Mauer's MVP season in 2009, the Twins have spent only nine picks in the first 20 rounds of their six drafts on catchers, which... well, might help explain the situation they find themselves in today.

 

But at least they're doing something about it. Ben Rortvedt, a high school backstop from Wisconsin that the Twins took with the 56th overall pick on Thursday, became the most highly drafted catcher for Minnesota since they got Mauer first overall in 2001, and he was considered by many to be the best prep player in the country at his position. Check out Jeremy's writeup on him.

 

Along with Rortvedt, the Twins selected Mitchell Cranson, a slugging college catcher from UC Berkeley, in the ninth round. They grabbed Kidany Salva, a switch-hitting 17-year-old from a Texas high school, in the 17th and will try to lure him away from Sam Houston State. In the 20th round they landed Shamoy Christopher, an on-base machine from a community college in Tennessee.

 

These guys are all wild cards to varying degrees, and some are quite unlikely to stick behind the plate, but the Twins are smart to load up on lotto tickets, with the hopes of finding a rare two-way treasure. Maybe they'll finally catch a break.

 

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[mumoo13]

Do all NL teams get higher priority than all AL teams for an NL player? If so, then all NL teams must have passed on Ramirez, which isn't a great sign.

[old nurse]

Ramirez to the dl. They can work on his issues then.

[roger]

I like your analysis of the Twins emphasis on catchers in the draft.  Hopefully, it will help a few years down the road...thanks!

[d-mac]

 

Maybe they'll finally catch a break.

 

I see what you did there!