Twins Claim RHP Dennis Santana from Atlanta

[Seth Stohs]

Always searching for more pitching, on Sunday, the Twins claimed right-hander Dennis Santana off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. 

Image courtesy of Eric Canha, USA Today

According to a tweet from Star-Tribune beat writer Phil Miller, the Minnesota Twins have claimed right-hander Dennis Santana from the Braves. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, the Twins have shifted shortstop Royce Lewis to the 60-Day Injured List. 

The 26-year-old from the Dominican has well over three years of service time in the big leagues. Signed by the Dodgers way back in 2013, Santana made his big-league debut for Los Angeles in 2018. He worked 3 2/3 innings in one game. In 2019, he pitched in three games, and in 2020, he worked in 12 games. In 2021, he pitched in 16 games for the Dodgers before being traded to the Rangers. He finished the season with 39 games in Texas. Last year, he pitched in 63 games for the Rangers. 

In total, he has pitched 139 big-league innings and has an ERA of 5.12. He has just under a strikeout per inning while walking one every other inning. Therein lies the issue. 

Shortly after the season, he was acquired by Atlanta. 

However, it is important to note that Santana is out of minor-league options. So, he will have to make the Twins roster or be put on waivers in an attempt to keep him in the organization. 

He has a nice pitch profile. Last year, his average fastball was about 97 mph. His big pitch is his mid-80s slider, which he threw about 40% of the time. He also has a decent, 90-mph changeup. 

Again, adding a young guy with a big arm. If needed, he could be DFAd and you hope he stays in the organization. Or maybe Pete Maki finds something to make him a consistent bullpen weapon. 

The addition of Jeff Hoffman is interesting. No, not because he was the ninth overall pick in the 2014 draft, but he is a 30-year-old who has spent a lot of time in the big leagues. He pitched in 68 games for the Rockies between 2016 and 2020. He has pitched for the Cincinnati Reds the past two seasons. 

He was a starter earlier in his career, so he's got a full pitch-mix. His fastball averages about 94 and he throws it a lot. He also has a curveball in the mid-to-upper 70s, a low-to-mid 80s slider, and a changeup that he probably throws too hard. 

Feel free to discuss this transaction in the COMMENTS below. 

 

 

 

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[Richie the Rally Goat]

Over-under on number of days until he is waived again: 2.5?

[HerbieFan]

Guessing hes a guy they'll DFA before opening day, hope he clears waivers and then send him to St.Paul to be ready for the two-way shuttle to Target Field.

[Dave The Dastardly]

Another "sure fire" reclamation project? Or Dumpster Diving? Not only not blowing up my skirt I don't even feel a breeze.

[Parfigliano]

Another X-Red in Hoffman.

[stringer bell]

43 minutes ago, HerbieFan said:

Guessing hes a guy they'll DFA before opening day, hope he clears waivers and then send him to St.Paul to be ready for the two-way shuttle to Target Field.

Not so easy to be “on the shuttle” when he has no options. If he is DFAed any club can claim him and if unclaimed he may be able to claim free agency. That would be the case whenever he would be sent down. 

[jkcarew]

I fully expect the next move to be the hiring of a former Red’s administrative assistant 12-months removed from carpal tunnel surgery for $8/ hr.

[mikelink45]

What everyone is missing is how successful the Reds have been.  They did have a winning record in 2013 and have been the Little Red Machine ever since.  Of course if we could be as lucky as the Yankees were when they annually grabbed the best players off the Athletics 

 

Here is a quote from Baseball Almanac, "

Of course, the Yankees were the richest and most resourceful club in baseball, then as now, and they found a way to ensure a continuous supply of good players. They managed to turn one of their American League rivals, the Kansas City Athletics, into a virtual farm team.

How did this happen? Connie Mack's family sold the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, and Yankee principal owner Dan Topping arranged for one of his business friends, Arnold Johnson, to buy the A's and move the team to Kansas City . It's still unclear how much influence the Yankee ownership held over the A's, but the two teams then embarked on a six-year series of trades. These trades, as we shall see, almost always favored the Yankees .

The Yankees, in fact, rarely traded players with any other team in this six-year period. From 1955 to 1960, the Yankees gained many outstanding players from Kansas City, and managed to give only marginal value in return. It must have worked, since the Yankees won four more pennants in a row beginning in 1955, while the new Kansas City team struggled to stay out of last place."

[Dman]

He has a big fastball and a slider so not too surprised the Twins are going to see how he does or if they can pass him through waivers.  Given the way Megill pitched today guys with control problems don't really excite me much.  Lawyerson can barley get his fastball into the 90's.  Three K's, no hits, no walks.  Granted against the B or C squad but still he hit his spots when he needed to.  You can throw it 100MPH but if it is straight or you can't get it over the plate when you need to it doesn't really matter.

Hopefully Santana is a tweak away and the Twins get another power arm.

[Nine of twelve]

22 minutes ago, Dman said:

Hopefully Santana is a tweak away and the Twins get another power arm.

We all hope for that. Of course, we hoped for the same out of Jim Hoey.

[LA VIkes Fan]

Hey, worth a shot to try to harness his stuff, which does sound good, We have an open bullpen spot. Henriquez isn't going to be ready, Megill hasn't looked great, and it looks like they don't want to sign Brad Hand. Trying out guys like this is what Spring Training is for. 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Over-under on number of days until he is waived again: 2.5?

The over, but not by much. 

[GKuehl]

I’m all for it. With Henriquez and Winder not 100% and Megill looking atrocious, maybe Hoffman can be the long guy we’re looking for or Santana can figure something out, especially considering he’s been really good in stretches and then looks like April/May-Pagan the rest of the time. 

[CRF]

I'd sure take Hand over Megill and Santana. It's only ST, but Megill was brutal today. Hand might not blow it by you at 95+, but he's not gonna walk three guys and then give up a dinger. For some reason, we love projects.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, CRF said:

I'd sure take Hand over Megill and Santana. It's only ST, but Megill was brutal today. Hand might not blow it by you at 95+, but he's not gonna walk three guys and then give up a dinger. For some reason, we love projects.

Hand’s walks went up a ton last year. I don’t think he’s still the guy you remember.

[nicksaviking]

Santana does nothing for me. Getting Hoffman on a MiLB deal is exactly the kind of bullpen move I was interested in though. 
 

And I really like the converted relievers one year removed from starting. If they take to the pen, it tends to be in year two of the transition

[Blyleven2011]

No real surprise that they are looking for pitching on tge cheap side again  , maybe 1 of  Santana or hoffman makes the roster out of spring training  ....

Or they are both dfa'd  and pass through waviers and then are depth at AAA ....

Where is the confidence in our prospects , there going to be old man before they get an opportunity  ...

[Rosterman]

Goes to show that the bullpen is far from set, although didn't the front office say something about NOT doing much to improve that part of the field operations?

Megill and Pagan have to be on the spring training bubble. I personally feel Alcala should stay back in training camp and continue to pitch nin Florida, then a couple of minor league levels, before coming back.

The question is, the Twins don't have a lot of play on the 40-man. Canterino could go on the 60-day-IL, but do you want him to have major league service time. Royce Lewis will now get two months more of major league service time.

The Twins have filled their 40-man with AAA starters, it seems: Ober, Sands, Winder, Varland, Woods Richardson, Balazovic, Henriquez - but at some point these guys will have to be called upon to picth for the Twins bullpen, just because there isn't a 40-man spot to shuffle minor league free agents back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth.

 

[h2oface]

Twins get rid of their own that are wild, but love to grab those that are the same elsewhere. Can our staff “fix” them, but fail on their own draft picks?

[Parfigliano]

4 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

What everyone is missing is how successful the Reds have been.  They did have a winning record in 2013 and have been the Little Red Machine ever since.  Of course if we could be as lucky as the Yankees were when they annually grabbed the best players off the Athletics 

 

Here is a quote from Baseball Almanac, "

Of course, the Yankees were the richest and most resourceful club in baseball, then as now, and they found a way to ensure a continuous supply of good players. They managed to turn one of their American League rivals, the Kansas City Athletics, into a virtual farm team.

How did this happen? Connie Mack's family sold the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, and Yankee principal owner Dan Topping arranged for one of his business friends, Arnold Johnson, to buy the A's and move the team to Kansas City . It's still unclear how much influence the Yankee ownership held over the A's, but the two teams then embarked on a six-year series of trades. These trades, as we shall see, almost always favored the Yankees .

The Yankees, in fact, rarely traded players with any other team in this six-year period. From 1955 to 1960, the Yankees gained many outstanding players from Kansas City, and managed to give only marginal value in return. It must have worked, since the Yankees won four more pennants in a row beginning in 1955, while the new Kansas City team struggled to stay out of last place."

New season new reason to loathe  the Yankees.

[USAFChief]

No room for Hand, but room for this?

[Squirrel]

8 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

No room for Hand, but room for this?

I, quite frankly, want neither. And I don’t want Megill, either. Again, the BP is an after thought. The starters need to go deeper and lots of current RPs need to step up and stay strong. It’s a lot to bet on.

[Shaitan]

I misread this as a different D Santana and had a mild heart attack.

[FlyingFinn]

No harm in giving these guys a shot. There are always lots of moves on the back end of the 40 man roster. When the first catcher injury comes up, it will require a 40 man move to bring up a catcher from the Saints. Catch lightning in a bottle one time and it makes the other 19 moves that didn't work on the 40th man on the roster all worth it. Never know about relievers from one year to the next with many of them.

[stringer bell]

Minor league contracts don't bother me much at all. Santana, OTOH, bothers me some, in that he takes a spot on the 40-man roster and has no options. There will be plenty of transactions, but right now the current 40-man is tight and several players that are pretty desirable could be lost to get a relief pitcher or catcher on the active roster.

[jorgenswest]

 

Isn’t Santana’s signing similar to that of Ortega? For a few days there was some angst about his spot on the 40 and then he was off the 40 and outrighted having been unclaimed.

Santana doesn’t stop them from adding Hand or anyone else. If they are interested in Hand why not use that spot to try to add organizational depth first?
 

[PatPfund]

Hopefully this is just signing a professional arm to eat ST innings until either (most likely) the SPs have boosted their pitch counts, and/or (less likely) lightening strikes on the control front and the Twins uncover a hidden gem. Also hopefully they aren't counting on the latter. If mediocre early ST castoffs can walk on to our 26-man roster, our bullpen is officially a mess. 

(Which it isn't. Megill was bad today, but he's always been that way despite the velocity. Never really considered him or Moran to be the bullpen locks others have talked up, but I also think there are enough arms to push them off the roster if they can't find the plate.)

[MTV]

Odd moves on both fronts, with some similarities between the 2. I’ll start with Santana:

he’s got good fastball velo and limits hard-contact to a surprising degree, but definitely needs to limit the walks. Was solid in Texas for the back end of 2021 and start of 2022, but fell off a cliff at the end of 2022. Not a ton of pretty stuff for splits, but did hold a 2.25 ERA in the 9th last year for what it’s worth. Most likely a DFA candidate, but maybe a bullpen injury pushes him into the pen to start the year.

As for Hoffman, he has less on his shoulders with the minor league contract. Similar story, good fastball/movement but got torched in Cincinnati last year. Similar to Trevor Megill and Santana, he was surprisingly excellent in the first half of 2022 but fell off. Looks like a guy that could eat some innings as an early reliever (5th, 6th, 7th) if injuries hit the pen, don’t throw him in during the late innings.

not horrific moves, maybe some reclamation projects but not guys I’m gonna expect to make an impact in 2023.

[Major League Ready]

What's the downside?  If injury forces a need for their 40 man spot you cut them.  I never understand the complaints about these types of moves.  Would we prefer our team was the one team in the league that never picked up players on waivers or minor league deals?

[miracleb]

Agree....there is no downside because we had Lewis to move to the disabled list anyhow.  Santana can easily be dropped if something better comes along.  But looking at his stats.....it is hard to believe his is still pitching professionally....... let alone getting a major league "shot."