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Going into the deadline, many Twins fans had their sights set on adding a front of the rotation starting pitcher, along with a couple backend of the bullpen arms. As the deadline started to draw near it, was apparent that this wasn’t going to be the case, for not only the Twins, but for most of the teams looking to add pitching at the deadline. Some of the biggest named starting pitchers, like Noah Syndergaard, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Boyd, Robbie Ray or Mike Minor didn’t even get traded.
The only big-name starting pitchers that go moved were Marcus Stroman, Trevor Bauer and Zack Greinke. Neither Bauer nor Greinke were ever really options for the Twins as the Indians weren’t going to deal Bauer to the Twins while they are in a division race together, and Zack Greinke wouldn’t waive his no trade clause for a potential trade to the Twins. This left Stroman, who was traded to the New York Mets in the biggest head scratcher at the deadline. Not only are the Mets not in contention this year, but the package they gave up to acquire Stroman could have easily been matched by the Twins with Jhoan Duran and Blayne Enlow. It sounded as though the Twins were in trade talks with the Blue Jays, but the Jays didn’t circle back to the Twins before making the deal with the Mets. It is unclear why this happened, or if the Twins were just unwilling to offer something that rivaled the Mets offer.
The Twins were also reportedly interested in some of the big-name relievers on the trade market, which included Will Smith, Kirby Yates, Ken Giles, Felipe Vazquez, Edwin Diaz and Shane Greene. At the end of the day, the only one of those pitchers who actually got moved was Shane Greene, who really wasn’t much of an option for the Twins as the Tigers weren’t all that interested in making an interdivision trade. It is up for debate if the Twins could have been more aggressive to try and acquire one of these arms to assist the bullpen, but if nearly all of them didn’t get traded it probably suggests that the asking price was way too high, and could have been a trade the Twins would come to regret down the road, ala Matt Capps.
Now that has been said, let’s move on from what the Twins didn’t acquire, and focus on what they did. I won’t spend a ton of time going over the Sergio Romo acquisition, as we already spent a bunch of time on that, but if you would like a more in-depth review of that trade you can find it here. The Twins also made a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for a Double-A reliever named Marcos Diplan in exchange for cash considerations. In 2013, Diplan was consider the top available pitcher on the International Free Agent market. Fast-forward to 2019, and things haven’t exactly gone as planned for the now 22-year-old. In 57 and 2/3 innings at Double-A this year, Diplan has a 4.99 ERA (4.41 FIP) with a 9.8 K/9 and an extremely high 5.8 BB/9.
The final trade that the Twins made before the deadline was perhaps their biggest, when the acquired Sam Dyson from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Jaylin Davis, Prelander Berrroa and Kai-Wei Teng. In the Twins Daily Mid-Season Top 40 rankings, Davis was ranked as the 35th best prospect in the Twins system, while neither Berroa nor Teng were ranked. In all, it was more of a quantity over quality get for the Giants, which is exactly what the Twins were looking to do as they did not want to part with some of their higher ranked prospects.
So, what are the Twins getting with their newly acquired piece to the bullpen? Sam Dyson is a 31-year-old right-handed reliever who has had his fare share of ups and downs during his MLB career. So far, this year has been more up than down for Dyson. In 51 innings, across 49 appearances, Dyson has a 2.47 ERA (2.74 FIP), with a respectable 8.2 K/9 an excellent 1.2 BB/9, which is the 5th lowest among qualified relievers in 2019. This has helped Dyson get a remarkably low .902 WHIP. This is not only lower than Taylor Rogers (1.027), but also lower than Dyson’s former teammate Will Smith (.906) and ranks 11th amongst qualified relievers this season. Relievers who can keep runners off the base paths late in games are the kind of low stress pitchers that Twins fans will need as we watch some of the highest stress Twins baseball in over a decade a few months from now.
Despite being reliever, Sam Dyson uses a five-pitch mix, with his sinker being his most prominent pitch, which he throws about 45 percent of the time. Despite this, Dyson’s sinker appears to be his worst pitch, as opposing hitters have a .305 average and a .343 wOBA against his sinker, while Dyson isn’t giving up a batting average above .211 and a wOBA above .232 on any of his other pitches. It wouldn’t shock me if Wes Johnson and the Twins take a similar approach with Dyson that they have with some of their other pitchers, like Tyler Duffey, and faze out Dyson’s sinkers. Whether that happens mid-season is up in the air, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear rumors of the Twins tinkering with Dyson’s pitches next spring. Dyson also features both a cutter, which he throws about 25 percent of the time, and a four-seam fastball, which he throws roughly 13 percent of the time, to go along with his sinker. If the Twins were to make some changes with Dyson’s pitch selection this season, look for those to pitches start being used more often.
A few weeks ago, our own Tom Froemming made a video pitch for why the Twins should acquire Sam Dyson. You can check out the video here. While you’re at it, make sure to go ahead and subscribe to Tom’s Youtube channel. He posts a bunch of excellent video content on Twins related topics, so if you can’t get enough Twins talk, this is a great place to go.
Overall, Sam Dyson is another good addition by “Falvine” to Taylor Rogers and the rest of the Twins bullpen. On my personal reliver trust rankings, I have Dyson and Romo slotted in at second and third respectively. While neither will be the lights out relief ace, they are still big improvements on the Twins bullpen from where it stood a week ago.
What are your thoughts? Did the Twins do enough to make you feel comfortable about their chances to take on the Yankees and Astros in October? Let us know in the comment section down below.
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Twins Acquire RHP Sam Dyson from Giants
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