Why the Heck Won't the Minnesota Twins Call Up Alex Kirilloff?

[Matthew Taylor]

Alex Kirilloff has been demolishing the baseball over the last month with the St. Paul Saints, yet the Minnesota Twins still have not called him up. What are they waiting for?

 

Cole Sands, Yennier Cano, Jermaine Palacios, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Ian Hamilton, Mark Contreras, Tyler Thornburg and Elliot Soto, these are just a handful of names that have been called up to the Minnesota Twins since May 12. Over that same time frame, Alex Kirilloff has hit .382 with the St. Paul Saints with an OPS of 1.182, including nine home runs and 15 extra base hits. Yet, Alex Kirilloff has yet to be promoted to the Big League club since his April demotion.

There are a few reasons that people will give when explaining why Alex Kirilloff has not yet been promoted back to the Twins. The first reason is that the Twins need pitching. Regarding the starting rotation, absolutely, the Minnesota Twins currently have five starting pitchers on the injured list and names like Chi Chi Gonzalez and Cole Sands are absolutely understandable call ups for the Twins. Getting into the bullpen, though, is when it’s harder to justify Kirilloff not getting a call-up. 

The Twins currently have ten pitchers in their bullpen, five of the ten pitchers have only thrown once over the past five days. The Twins really value having depth and flexibility in their bullpen, but when arms are getting used so sparingly (and they aren’t exactly golden arms), it doesn’t seem to be completely necessary to carry so many arms. Especially when one of those arms is Tyler Duffey, whose spot on the team is certainly not a warranted one. Since his three-run implosion against the Royals on May 26, a Duffey-for-Kirilloff swap on the roster has seemed so obvious, but the Twins continue to trot out an arm every day that is actively hurting the team, while hiding a dominant bat in Lowertown.

Another reason people give for the Twins not calling up Kirilloff is that there aren’t enough at-bats for him with the Twins. With Trevor Larnach mashing in left field and Luis Arraez showing fielding chops at first, Kirilloff might not have a spot in the lineup anyways. In reality, though, there would be plenty of at-bats for Kirilloff in the Majors. Utilizing the DH spot, Baldelli can have Larnach, Kirilloff and Arraez all play at the same time and cycle them through different positions. This will allow the Twins to avoid situations where they play both of their catchers in a lineup against a right-handed hitter, as was the case on Saturday.

The addition of Elliot Soto on Monday was the most curious decision yet, though. The Twins are coming off of a game where they were shut out and when adding an offensive player they opt for a AAA journeyman with a .658 OPS, especially when they are already rostering Nick Gordon who has the same defensive flexibility as Soto.

Alex Kirilloff has demonstrated that his wrist is healthy. He’s demonstrating that he has the ability to not only make contact but to drive the ball. Alex Kirilloff needs to be up with the Minnesota Twins, and the Twins need to stop waiting and make the call yesterday.

What do you think? Should the Twins call up Kirilloff now or are there legitimate reasons not to? Leave a COMMENT below. 

 

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[Trov]

He is mashing in AAA, but I am sure there is some internal discussion about his wrist and has he worked on the few issues he had early this year?  I think also they only want to bring him up one more time.  I fully agree he could slide into DH or rotate around, but my guess is the team wants to make sure when he does come up, he will be up here for good.  He is getting regular swings each day, and I think they want to make sure he will have no set backs on the wrist.  Also, is he mashing fastballs only?  I have not watched so if he is only mashing fastballs but still rolling over anything not fastballs, he may not be ready to come back up because he will see nothing but offspeed when he gets back up here. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

14 minutes ago, KFEY93 said:

Because Rocco's mind is on its own private island, surrounded by excel spread sheets and BP usage charts. 

Doesn’t the GM make that decision?

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Agreed with the OP. I was absolutely befuddled by Soto’s call up.

Also perplexed with all of the one inning relievers on the roster, and no swing man. I’d think Piggy-backing would be an ideal way to manage Archer/Bundy and the revolving AAA starters

this team needs to more consistently score runs, and Kiriloff should be a key part of that

[Major League Ready]

Who does he replace?  Arraez / Miranda at 1B, Kepler in RF or Larnach in LF?  What's the gain? 

[MMMordabito]

27 minutes ago, KFEY93 said:

Because Rocco's mind is on its own private island, surrounded by excel spread sheets and BP usage charts. 

Not even Rocco's call (and I'm not a Rocco fan)

[Jack Griffin]

8 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Yes, he should be up here now.  I'm not surprised as this FO makes very strange roster moves plus Rocco doesn't seem to have a clue unless his spread sheets tell him what that clue is.

This is such an uniformed lazy take. I don't even like how Rocco has managed but he constantly makes decisions that aren't "from a spreadsheet"

[USAFChief]

8 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Agreed with the OP. I was absolutely befuddled by Soto’s call up.

Also perplexed with all of the one inning relievers on the roster, and no swing man. I’d think Piggy-backing would be an ideal way to manage Archer/Bundy and the revolving AAA starters

this team needs to more consistently score runs, and Kiriloff should be a key part of that

It's hard to dedicate 2 starters to one game consistently. That chews up 6 or 7 pitching roster spots to fill 5, and makes them unavailable the rest of the games. Can you find anyone doing this regularly, anywhere? 

 

[Squirrel]

32 minutes ago, KFEY93 said:

Because Rocco's mind is on its own private island, surrounded by excel spread sheets and BP usage charts. 

 

11 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Yes, he should be up here now.  I'm not surprised as this FO makes very strange roster moves plus Rocco doesn't seem to have a clue unless his spread sheets tell him what that clue is.

Not Rocco's call. 

[USAFChief]

1 minute ago, Squirrel said:

 

Not Rocco's call. 

At least not solely his, or primarily his even.

But He might be asked for input. In fact, I'd be surprised if he wasn't, at least most of the time, asked about what he'd prefer to have, for example how many pitchers, or do you want another OFer or a utility IFer.

But past that, yeah, providing players is the FO's job.

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

7 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

It's hard to dedicate 2 starters to one game consistently. That chews up 6 or 7 pitching roster spots to fill 5, and makes them unavailable the rest of the games. Can you find anyone doing this regularly, anywhere? 

 

This is fair, and no I can’t…. but per the OP there are 5 relievers on the roster pitching once every 5 games anyways, 3 innings every 5 games is better than 1 every 5 games for a workload management standpoint.

[MMMordabito]

I understand Soto over Kirilloff for the short term.  Polanco and Gordon are both dealing with naggining injuries, and I'm sure they want Palacios to keep playing every day.  Soto is an emergency shortstop who can be DFA'd with little consequence.  He can ride the pine and maybe get one day in the 9-hole when Rocco thinks Correa needs to DH or rest.

Trov provided a possible explanation for the delay on a Kirilloff return, but I'm hopeful this will all work out after some rest for Gordon and Polanco and this west road trip wrapping up.  Hopefully, AK's wrist just needed a little more time to get back into baseball shape after the stupid, weird off-season that led to the ST delay.  His numbers of late sure make it seem that way.

[swahl]

There is a corner jam on the team right now. The Soto addition is going to be quite temporary. Meanwhile, Kiriloff getting another week or two of consistent at bats isn't the end of the world. By July, however, I would then start to wonder what the hell is going on. 

[Mike Sixel]

Soto will be DFA very quickly. You aren't doing that with Kiriloff.

Maybe we wait to see if Ryan and Grey are healthy, them go down a pitcher. 

Or maybe the front office and manager that are on pace to win the division three of fory years are what you all keep saying.

[DJL44]

27 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

I understand Soto over Kirilloff for the short term. 

Yes. Soto was brought up to sit on the bench. If Kirilloff is promoted he will play every day.

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Yes, he should be up here now.  I'm not surprised as this FO makes very strange roster moves plus Rocco doesn't seem to have a clue unless his spread sheets tell him what that clue is.

These "Rocco only does what the computer tells him" type takes are getting really old, really fast. Basically the equivalent of Joe Morgan complaining about Billy Beane writing Moneyball.

I'm ready for Kirilloff to come back and I think there's enough ABs for him. But the roster is getting a little tight when Garlick comes back, especially if Miranda is still hitting well. (I would still pick Kirilloff over Miranda right now because Miranda is meh defensively anywhere and Kirilloff could be great at 1B...)

[Mike h]

Absolutely he should be up now. Nelson Cruz had no defensive position but he was extremely valuable as a DH.  Kiriloff could get every day AB that way, or be a very dangerous bat off the bench as a PH on days he doesn't start. 

But I have a dark thought. A worry really.  I'm afraid the FO is keeping him at AAA  because they have realized they have to trade him to get some pitching.  If he is promoted and has a drop off in performance his perceived trade value may go down, so they are maximizing his value by letting him mash where he's at.  I hope this is not the case I really want him now and for many years to come.

Btw I know that every FO does their due diligence and evaluates players on a whole body of work, not just a hot streak or small sample size. So it may make no difference if Kiriloff had a drop off at ML level, a team that wants him would still want him.  I guess I'm trying to talk myself out of an irrational fear .  I think he should be untouchable.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, Mike h said:

Absolutely he should be up now. Nelson Cruz had no defensive position but he was extremely valuable as a DH.  Kiriloff could get every day AB that way, or be a very dangerous bat off the bench as a PH on days he doesn't start. 

But I have a dark thought. A worry really.  I'm afraid the FO is keeping him at AAA  because they have realized they have to trade him to get some pitching.  If he is promoted and has a drop off in performance his perceived trade value may go down, so they are maximizing his value by letting him mash where he's at.  I hope this is not the case I really want him now and for many years to come.

Btw I know that every FO does their due diligence and evaluates players on a whole body of work, not just a hot streak or small sample size. So it may make no difference if Kiriloff had a drop off at ML level, a team that wants him would still want him.  I guess I'm trying to talk myself out of an irrational fear .  I think he should be untouchable.

Untouchable? I think he has a chance to be very good, but why untouchable? Unless you aren't trading any good prospects?

[MABB1959]

Manipulating service time comes to mind.  Twins hate paying the good ones and have no problem holding them back to make their already fat wallet even fatter.

[baul0010]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

Who does he replace?  Arraez / Miranda at 1B, Kepler in RF or Larnach in LF?  What's the gain? 

All of them need days offs.  There's also DH.  With our pitching staff having another guy to drive in runs will be needed!

[Steve71]

My read on this is that they needed an infielder with Polanco and Gordon both dinged up.  They want to temporarily promote a player they are not worried about losing when they move him back down, hence Soto.

Hopefully Kiriloff is up in the Majors to stay once they bring him up, but they do have a roster crunch right now.

Trading some hitting for pitching makes sense, and I mentioned on another thread that the Marlins would be a logical trade partner as they have lots of pitching and need hitting.

[Rosterman]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

Who does he replace?  Arraez / Miranda at 1B, Kepler in RF or Larnach in LF?  What's the gain? 

He would have to basically replace Miranda with Miranda returning to St. Paul to play more third base.

But, right now, the Twins are buying service time, it seems.

[Karbo]

1 hour ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Agreed with the OP. I was absolutely befuddled by Soto’s call up.

Also perplexed with all of the one inning relievers on the roster, and no swing man. I’d think Piggy-backing would be an ideal way to manage Archer/Bundy and the revolving AAA starters

this team needs to more consistently score runs, and Kiriloff should be a key part of that

Soto was called up because Polo is dealing with a bad back and Gordon has a Hamstring? pull so the Twins are a little short on infielders. They are certainly not going to shorten their bullpen until they have to.

[Mike Sixel]

8 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

He would have to basically replace Miranda with Miranda returning to St. Paul to play more third base.

But, right now, the Twins are buying service time, it seems.

Based on what evidence? And they aren't buying Miranda's service time? Why is every move evil or wrong? Maybe, just maybe, they have a plan that is about the team continuing to have the division lead?

[Craig Arko]

9 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Soto was called up because Polo is dealing with a bad back and Gordon has a Hamstring? pull so the Twins are a little short on infielders. They are certainly not going to shorten their bullpen until they have to.

Right, as soon as the 13 pitchers rule takes effect he will be up, if not before. Also need to see how long Ryan and Gray make it through this first pass before thinking of moving pitching. 

[Mike Sixel]

6 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

Right, as soon as the 13 pitchers rule takes effect he will be up, if not before. Also need to see how long Ryan and Gray make it through this first pass before thinking of moving pitching. 

Stop with the reasonable take! This is a message board for goodness sake.

[MMMordabito]

19 minutes ago, MABB1959 said:

Manipulating service time comes to mind.  Twins hate paying the good ones and have no problem holding them back to make their already fat wallet even fatter.

Why are they manipulating service time when Kirilloff doesn't play the position of need ATM? Here is the MLBTR article on Soto's call up.  It clearly states the reasoning for his selection.

[In My La Z boy]

When I saw this topic my first thought was the trade possibility brewing. With Larnach taking LF, and Arraez taking 1B Kirilloff doesn't exactly have a clear path to the starting 9. No question we must give up someone great, to get back someone great. We are very deep this year at corner outfield, and I do not see Miranda going back down. I don't see Kirilloff coming back up unless we have a starting position available.

[MABB1959]

6 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Why are they manipulating service time when Kirilloff doesn't play the position of need ATM? Here is the MLBTR article on Soto's call up.  It clearly states the reasoning for his selection.

Thanks for sharing very good info.  When I see journey man it is frustrating that the Twins so down that path so oftn.

[Mike h]

In mho, I think Kiriloff could be better than "very good".  Not Kirby Puckett good, but probably Kent Hrbek good or Justin Morneau  good.  I see a career of 200+ HR with 280 BA for Kiriloff, and I think that's too much to give up for any of the available pitchers.  In mho.

I realize that as a prospect there are no guarantees (there aren't any for anybody, actually) which makes trading POTENTIAL for a proven all-star caliber ace, which I assume we are looking for, a very risky proposition. So perhaps I am valuing him more than others see him, but sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong. I'm just one guy, just a fan, not pretending to be anything else, not smarter than anyone else. Just my opinion