Hayes: Twins To Sign Rich Hill & Homer Bailey

ok, I guess...

A look at the Pohlad's earlier this week:

Reasons to hope on Homer...

Homer Bailey was very good with the A’s in the second half. In two August starts against the Yankees he struck out 17 and walked 1. In those 11.1 innings he gave up 3 earned runs. He Pitched against Houston in September giving up 1 run. The A’s went 2-1 in those late season starts.

Eno Sarris in the Athletic wrote about his splitter

https://theathletic.com/1151891/2019/08/21/the-as-prove-their-formula-is-working-in-big-win-over-yankees/

Good deal. Both one year.  Bailey can be the Jeremy Guthrie.  Hill can get healthy and then be the Johnny Cueto, or he can not get healthy and the Twins will have to do a deadline deal.

2020 Twins could be the 2015 Royals.  Except power instead of speed.

Hill is recovering from elbow surgery and will need a roster spot?

Bailey, didn't he throw a couple times against the Twins recently, kind of 5 to 6 innings of swing and miss stuff?

Hill, on his game, can be a playoff pitcher; maybe Bailey too for 4 or 5 innings.

It's something at least.

The floor gets higher yet!

Reasons to hope on Homer...

Homer Bailey was very good with the A’s in the second half. In two August starts against the Yankees he struck out 17 and walked 1. In those 11.1 innings he gave up 3 earned runs. He Pitched against Houston in September giving up 1 run. The A’s went 2-1 in those late season starts.

Eno Sarris in the Athletic wrote about his splitter

https://theathletic.com/1151891/2019/08/21/the-as-prove-their-formula-is-working-in-big-win-over-yankees/

So, the Twins signed Bailey because he is a Yankee killer.

I am on board!

Hill is recovering from elbow surgery and will need a roster spot?

High chance he goes on the 60-day IL out of the gate .... Those incentives are pretty creative and work well for both team and player.  

We could have all saved ourselves a lot of frustration if we would have just accepted that these were the type of additions they were going to make. I fell for it, too. The more things change (FO), the more they stay the same (ownership).

Exactly. Personally, I never bought into the whole idea that the Twins were all of a sudden going to change their philosophy and go out and get an impact arm(s).

You don't set your expectations up for failure, and you don't feel terrible when underwhelm...again.

Long term solutions found! I have no idea if it works for this year, but they are setting themselves up to be pitching poor next year, again.

I agree.  They must really believe the farm is going to produce what they need.  I sure hope Graterol, Duran and Balazovic turn into something this year or next year could be brutal for us.

Long term solutions found! I have no idea if it works for this year, but they are setting themselves up to be pitching poor next year, again.

That part is a bit frustrating, but the silver lining is that they will have the early part of the season to see if the likes of Thorpe, Dobnak, Smeltzer or Graterol can be part of that long term solution.  It would be nice if the Bailey contract had an option.  Early report doesn't look that way though.

Short term, I believe Bailey is a clear upgrade over Perez.  Hill is better than Gibson, if healthy.  That, of course, is the big question. 

I will hope that Hill at age 40 can recover to be what he was 2 and 3 years ago.  An elbow injury at his age is a danger sign and if we are signing him to a Pineda like deal he is at the wrong end of an aging curve.  I love what he did, but have concern about what he can do.  

Bailey was the butt of many jokes in Cincinnati after getting his too large contract.  He has six WAR in 13 years.  Career FIP 4.20, Career Whip 1.37.  He has 3 good years out of 13.  Last year was one of them so let's hope that he starts a new good trend.  The A's did not keep him. Why?  

Bailey is not someone I am excited by, but In the end, if is fine if Hill and Bailey compete with the young pitchers we have and are not just handed the rotation spots.

Impact pitching, baby.

Love the signings.  Hill can be a stud.  He's out until Mid-Summer but what an impact down the stretch.  Plus he will provide much needed mentorship to the pitching core.

Homer Bailey also comes with a lot of experience.  I'm not expecting much out of him, but a solid guy to plug in the 4th-5th spot as we wait for these rookies to come up.  Perfect stop gap with all the pitching prospects we have.

Falvey and Levine are the masters of doing the absolute minimum in terms of adding outside talent. They manage to fill holes, but do it in the most uninspiring way possible.

At those prices, why not bring back Gibson?

Didn't want to go three years?  

Falvey thinking Duran and Dobnak better options long term? (Going with guys he acquired)

This is underwhelming to say the least. Maybe I was expecting too much, but these moves tell me that the Twins are probably done making "impact" pitching moves.

I'm going to guess that many teams (and agents!) underestimated how high the demand and prices would get on starting pitchers. Twins might've gone after Gibson and Odorizzi definitely would have declined his QO.

Both are a bit more than I expected by about $2-3M each.  Rich Hill's guarantee of $3M isn't a bad gamble though.   Still good signings though.

Hill is recovering from elbow surgery and will need a roster spot?

 

Bailey, didn't he throw a couple times against the Twins recently, kind of 5 to 6 innings of swing and miss stuff?

 

Hill, on his game, can be a playoff pitcher; maybe Bailey too for 4 or 5 innings.

 

It's something at least.

They have to wait for the season to start to place Hill on the 60 day IL. So they can't free up a roster spot until then.

If this is what is considered impact pitching I really don't want to see what dumpster diving looks like.