Article: Hildenberger (And Gee) Gets The Call

[Seth Stohs]

Twins Daily has learned and confirmed (from a person with direct knowledge) that right-hander relief pitcher Trevor Hildenberger will be called up to the Twins on Friday. When the 26-year-old gets into a game, it will be his major league debut.

 

In addition, the Twins will call up RHP Dillon Gee, who they just signed on Wednesday to a minor league contract. Nik Turley was optioned to Rochester following his Thursday night outing in which he recorded just two outs. Also Ehire Adrianza was placed on the 10-day disabled list.

 

UPDATE - The Twins announced the Alex Wimmers and Mason Melotakis were DFAd to make room for Gee and Hildenberger.

 

The Twins head to Cleveland for a three-game series starting Friday night.

 

The Twins will need to make two 40-man roster decisions to make room for Hildenberger and Gee.Last week, the Twins called up hard-throwing Alan Busenitz from Rochester. In an article on Busenitz, we mentioned that Trevor Hildenberger was also very deserving.

 

The side-arming righty was the Twins Daily choice for Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2015and again in 2016.

 

In 21 games for Rochester this season, he is 2-1 with six saves. In 30.2 innings, he has allowed 27 hits, walked eight and struck out 35.

 

Following Thursday night's game, Hildenberger got the news every ballplayer wants to hear. And, he was able to share it with a couple of very important people. Hildenberger said, "It was awesome having my parents in Rochester and being able to tell them face-to-face."

 

Hildenberger's story is a great one. He was the 22nd-round pick of the Twins in 2014 out of Cal-Berkeley. He was at Berkeley for five years (a redshirt year), and he barely got on the mound until his fourth year because of a change he made on the mound.

 

As he told Seth in the Twins Prospect Handbook 2016, "It started back at the end of my third year at Cal-Berkeley when my teammate wore the wrong number jersey to practice. My pitching coach, Mike Neu, commented on what he pictured when he saw my teammate's number. I asked him what he pictured when he saw my number 26, and he said a sidearm pitcher because UCLA and Washington both had sidearm relief pitchers with the number 26. At that point in time, I had thrown a cumulative 12 innings in three years and was clearly not effective enough to compete. So he asked me to throw a bullpen from a lower arm angle. I obliged, not realizing it was a permanent change. He liked what he saw and sent me off to summer ball in Bend, Oregon, in the summer of 2012 to refine my new style and experience some growing pains."

 

The change worked. He had a great final season at Cal, got drafted and on Thursday night, received the call that every baseball player hopes for, a call to the big leagues.

 

Hildenberger is comfortable with himself now as a pitcher and what it takes for him to be successful. In that same article, he said, "I really pride myself on throwing strikes with all three of my pitches, and the ones over the top too. If I get to a 3-2 count, I have no problem throwing from side-arm, fastball, changeup or slider. I really believe I can put it in the strike zone when I need to."

 

At Berkeley, Hildenberger majored in American Film and Media. It's something he has a passion for. He told us, "I'm a big movie guy. I wrote about film a lot in college. I watch films that are a bit more off the beaten path, some foreign films or independent films that are played in really small theaters.

 

But it's on the pitcher's mound that Hildenberger has dominated, really since signing back in 2014. Like Busenitz, Hildenberger has earned his promotion.

 

The 22nd-round pick becomes the first member of the Twins 2014 draft to reach the big leagues. If healthy, it's likely both Nick Burdi and Jake Reed would be up too, and John Curtiss is certainly a name to watch as he's dominating in AA. Nick Gordon was the team's top pick, and he's put up an all-star first half in Chattanooga.

 

Click here to view the article

[Old Twins Cap]

Two 40-man moves.  That will be interesting.  Start cutting the chaffe.

[jimbo92107]

Time for Breslow and Belisle to join the Saints!

[hugelycat]

I'm excited to see what Hildenberger can do! He might be the 25th man on the 25-man roster right now, but a lot of the fun in baseball is following players and their stories. Hildenberger definitely makes for a great story!

[Oldgoat_MN]

Belisle has to be one of them.

His numbers are terrible. He is 37 years old, so they are unlikely to get better. I've been of the suspicion that Falvine are blind to flaws that the guys they sign have, while ignoring as long as possible the players they inherited. Letting Belisle go would help me (and perhaps others) believe they have in mind a roster that helps the team win rather than a roster they can point to and say, "Those are our guys. We built this team".

[Brandon]

Any draft signings to update?

[jud6312]

Glad to see Trevor finally get the call.

 

Pretty sure we've already seen Dillon Tepesch Rucinski pitch a few times this year so I'm less thrilled by that one.

[jud6312]

"Ladies and gentleman ... we got him." - Derek Falvey

 

 

 

[Dave The Dastardly]

I'm at a loss. Does the FO think we need help with the pitching staff? How did they come to that conclusion? What was the first, second, third, fourth clue?

[Brandon]

Belisle has been great in 25 of 29 appearances. Not good but not as bad as others with an era over 7. I think he gave up 15 runs in 2 innings over those 4 appearances. And 4 runs in the other 25. Lets fix the other holes before we do anything with Belisle.

 

Breslow reminds me of Guerriers last season. He had a good era until he couldnt get anyone out anymore and was done. Though i think Breslow has a little more left in the tank still.

[Han Joelo]

Happy for Hildenberg. Hope he doesn't do anything to deserve an all-too obvious nickname!

 

If they were going to ditch anyone, like Belisle, off the 40 man, they probably would have taken them off the 25 man first.

[Rosterman]

Sadly, the Twins will have to make a couple of moves when Santiago and Hughes return.

 

[Seth Stohs]

Turley and Adrianza are the two 25-man roster moves, and Hildenberger and Gee are coming up... Belisle and Breslow probably aren't the 40-man moves because they would necessitate other guys being added too. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Any draft signings to update?

 

Twins signed a bunch of guys today in Ft. Myers... The highest pick signed today was Bechtold, but a bunch of lower-round picks signed as well.  I'm guessing Jeremy will post an update one of these days on things he's hearing. 

[Squirrel]

Happy for Hildenberg. Hope he doesn't do anything to deserve an all-too obvious nickname!

If they were going to ditch anyone, like Belisle, off the 40 man, they probably would have taken them off the 25 man first.

Are you thinking Hindenburg?

[jokin]

 

Are you thinking Hindenburg?

 

Oh, the humanity!

[jokin]

 

 Nick Gordon was the team's top pick, and he's put up an All Star first half in Chattanooga.

 

 

That is an understatement and then some. I just checked the leaderboard in the Southern League. Gordon is the ONLY 21-year-old among qualified position players. And he's either first or among the league leaders in multiple hitting categories. Despite the necessary caution needed for an inflated BABIP, he's in the midst of a monster season- and showing newfound power (leads the SL in XBH).

 

As a SS, arguably you could make a strong case for Gordon being the first half SL MVP.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Time for Breslow and Belisle to join the Saints!

By "join the Saints"  you mean, what, exactly?

 

OH, the MN independent team!  Whew, for a second I thought Twins Daily was going really dark there...

Edited June 23, 2017 by HitInAPinch

[Tommygun921]

How long has it been since Chargois pitched? Could he be a 60 day DL candidate? Could Haley be sent back to make room?

[Otto von Ballpark]

One 40-man spot is easy: DFA Wimmers.

 

The other, not as easy. Haley back to Boston? Or maybe Palka gets DFA'd?

[gman]

With the call up of Hildenberger and Busenitz earlier, Rochester is running rather thin in available support. Reed and Melotakis may make appearances later this year, but currently have only thrown 3 innings between them at Rochester. Probably won't see them for at least a month. Given a choice I would prefer to see these four take their lumps then other teams retreads.

I expect to see Santiago, Pressly, Hughes and perhaps Tonkin again. Looks like a revolving door set up for the pitching staff in general for the rest of the year. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

My first guess was that Gee would be replaced by Santiago in a few days, then be recalled as the 26th man to start in next Saturday's doubleheader. But while Gee has options remaining, he also has over 5 years of MLB service time so he has to consent to being optioned. He consented to being optioned by the Rangers already this spring, so perhaps he could consent again for us. Or we could release him and re-sign him, I suppose.

[Respy]

Gee will be temporary as Hughes and Santiago are almost ready to come back.  I really hope Hildenberger can stick.  About time!

[Otto von Ballpark]

Gee will be temporary as Hughes and Santiago are almost ready to come back.

Not sure. If Gee avoids implosion (and his record says that is likely), I think his service time status might keep him on the roster a while. The first ones to go will probably be any strugglers among Boshers, Busenitz, and Hildenberger. But hopefully they all do well, and perhaps that would finally shift the heat to Breslow.

Edited June 23, 2017 by spycake

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'm pretty excited for Hildenberger. I got to meet him at ST in 2016. He is a nice guy. I hope the Twins give both him and Busenitz a reasonably long leash at this point, as both of shown in AAA that they are ready for a taste.

[yarnivek1972]

How long has it been since Chargois pitched? Could he be a 60 day DL candidate? Could Haley be sent back to make room?

There is no such thing as a 60 day DL for the minors. Once the decision was made in March to option him to AAA and place him on the DL there, that ship sailed. I doubt it would be allowable to retroactively place him on the MLB DL unless his agent was successful with some sort of grievance. Which, frankly is possible and would likely even be successful. He was optioned because he pitched poorly in ST. He presumably was pitching poorly because of the injury. His agent could argue that Chargois should have been medically evaluated prior to being optioned.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

There is no such thing as a 60 day DL for the minors. Once the decision was made in March to option him to AAA and place him on the DL there, that ship sailed. I doubt it would be allowable to retroactively place him on the MLB DL

Options can be rescinded.  Here's a few examples:

 

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/clubhouse_insider/2017/06/robbie_ross_jr_added_to_big_league_disabled_list_after

 

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/123392352/seattle-mariners-tyler-olson-placed-on-15-day-dl-option-rescinded/

 

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/rockies-rescind-option-on-chacin-who-goes-on-dl-34243235-050712

 

Obviously Chargois was optioned a while ago, so I'm not sure it would be quite so straightforward, and it would be the 60-day DL rather than the 15-day DL, but I'm also not finding any language anywhere yet that strictly prohibits it.  It's an odd area of transactional rules, to be sure!  It seems that, as long as their is no dispute about his health and timeline for return, he and the player's union would welcome the MLB back pay and service time (plus freeing up a spot for an additional union member?).

 

Otherwise, you are correct that there doesn't appear to be a direct mechanism for moving a player from a minor league DL to the MLB 60-day DL. Per Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disabled_list#Minor_League_Baseball

 

Minor League Baseball uses a 7-day disabled list for all injuries. Players who are on the 40-man roster but get hurt in the minor leagues are placed on the minor league DL, but not on the major league DL. One problem this poses is that a player who is injured in the minors and who would be placed on the major league 60-day DL cannot be placed on the 60-day, meaning the 40-man roster spot is not freed up.

 

[yarnivek1972]

I think the Twins might have an issue with retroactively awarding service time and back pay.  Otherwise, they would have taken that action in April.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I think the Twins might have an issue with retroactively awarding service time and back pay.  Otherwise, they would have taken that action in April.

Obviously, yes, it's a bigger deal for the Twins.  But it wasn't clear that Chargois' injury was serious until the last couple weeks.  And the team arguably didn't have as much need for the 40-man spot in April.

[yarnivek1972]

 

Obviously, yes, it's a bigger deal for the Twins.  But it wasn't clear that Chargois' injury was serious until the last couple weeks.  And the team arguably didn't have as much need for the 40-man spot in April.

It was clear he was injured in April.  Frankly, that should have been all that mattered to change his status from optioned to DL.  But it wasn't.  Once again the Twins organization is bowing down to the almighty dollar.  That's why they remain a second rate organization.