How Soon Could Top Prospect Brusdar Graterol Debut?

YES - Bullpen, starter - either way it helps.  We have gotten rid of a lot of chaff in the BP, but we did not pick up anything to replace it (sorry Dyson - you are not my dream reliever) and we have Perez and Odorizzi spinning balls the wrong way in the rotation so bring him up!

To be honest, I'm very surprised by Antony's comments. Oh, I have complete faith/hope in this kid to be sure! He has an ELECTRIC arm and wicked stuff and only needs a little more consistency and better off speed to potentially be special. But still only 20 for a couple more weeks, even with a missed season, and already dominating at AA WHEN HEALTHY, I'm still surprised.

Most guys his age are in rookie or A ball. Even if they didn't miss a year!

I am all for aggressive promotion, even as I often preach patience at times. And this FO is so much more aggressive than the previous one. But no matter how talented, they could be considering a pitcher from his first season in AA coming off an injury to jump to the ML level to help this year?

Long term, would such a trial actually benefit his long term development? If he is at Pensacola in the next few days and dominates for the remainder of August I guess I could imagine it. He's added to the 40 man and is eligible and you could take a look-see. But I just don't see it, IMO.

If they are right, then not only are they geniuses, but whatever supplements they are on, whatever they eat or otherwise, I want to know so I can jump on board.

I want help. Pitching needs help. Francisco Liriano and Graterol are two different pitchers, but could have one thing in common; getting promoted straight from AA. I’m sick of baseball politics. Come the back end of the season, I want the best players to help you win on the field at all times. I don’t care about years of team control. I want to win. Especially with this offense that baseball hasn’t ever seen before. Rooker (when healthy), Kirilloff, Thorpe, Smeltz (keep using him), etc. Let’s go!!!

I'm betting $5 that Graterol makes a greater impact to this Twins bullpen than Sam Dyson. #KindaHotTakes

Quite a plan when your brilliant FO has to rely on 20 year olds to win a pennant

Can Graterol throw strikes without throwing the ball down the middle? I, for one, think that's important. 

This is an approach the previous Twins regime didn't seem to utilize, so it is great to see it is in play now.  Maximize the guys with truly special arms, get them in the MLB and let them pitch. 

Young velocity driven pitchers are an, if not the, hottest commodity in the mlb.  98-100 mph is a rare and fragile thing that needs to be capitalized on.  You can wait for that arm to hopefully fully develop secondary stuff or you can throw their prime at mlb hitters.

It is downright silly to bank on a move like this being successful however.  This team needed to add a top level reliever and should have done it despite the cost.  Romo was a nice move, Dyson was good in theory, even if both work out better than expected they severely lack a shut down RH.

Liriano had 14 starts at AAA before his first call-up.

 

Radke and Erickson skipped AAA, though.

Radke and Erickson skipping AAA had more to do with the dearth of MLB pitchers the Twins had in 1990 and 1995 then the expectation that those two would be special.

Kinda like now in a way.

39 year old Nelson Cruz isn't helping?

I guess I don’t see the parallel of a guy with barely any pro experience to one with 20 years plus as a pro.

Quite a plan when your brilliant FO has to rely on 20 year olds to win a pennant

Mets and Twins relied way more on Blyleven and Gooden to win pennants than these Twins.   Who cares what age he is?   When thinking of this team at the beginning of the year I was relying on him being a starter for the Twins by August.   I have no problem relying on him to come in relief.    

I'm betting $5 that Graterol makes a greater impact to this Twins bullpen than Sam Dyson. #KindaHotTakes

This reminds me of when I am golfing and say I am sick of bogies only to start making double and triple bogies.    Dyson has already had a pretty big impact, just not the kind we wanted.    I digress.   From the point both are healthy and saying greater impact in a positive way, I would take that bet.    Dyson has a two year history of being a really good reliever.    

Can Graterol throw strikes without throwing the ball down the middle? I, for one, think that's important. 

If you throw 100, it doesn't much matter where the ball comes across the strike zone. Location is overrated for a 1-inning guy; just don't walk guys and any trouble you get in will be minimal.

This reminds me of when I am golfing and say I am sick of bogies only to start making double and triple bogies.    Dyson has already had a pretty big impact, just not the kind we wanted.    I digress.   From the point both are healthy and saying greater impact in a positive way, I would take that bet.    Dyson has a two year history of being a really good reliever.    

Dyson has an entire career history of being a good reliever sandwiched around 1 year, really a month long stretch, where he absolutely lost it.

Pre-2014 - Minors

2014 - 2.14 era / 3.16 FIP

2015 - 2.63 ERA / 2.94 FIP

2016 - 2.43 ERA  / 3.6 FIP (3.45 xFIP)

2017 - 10.80 ERA in 16.2 innings / 4.03 ERA in 38 innings (ballooned by 3 bad outings in which he allowed 10 runs) he had a 2.95 ERA before allowing 5 runs in his last 2 outings of the season.  

2018 - 2.69 ERA /3.4 FIP

2019 (pre Twins) - 2.47 ERA in 51 innings

He's largely been really good and I'd bet that he will continue to be good.

Quite a plan when your brilliant FO has to rely on 20 year olds to win a pennant

Actually I do think it's a smart plan. Many, many people were howling for them to trade guys like Graterol for bullpen help. They took a lot of heat for refusing. I'm glad they held out. Graterol might contribute more to the bullpen THIS YEAR than a trade target like Dyson. But if we'd shown we were serious about winning now, we'd either lose that reliever next year, or pay him a market rate salary, completely offsetting the chance to hire a similar reliever for the same salary as a free agent. Instead, we have six years of cost-controlled pitching from a guy who already touches 100mph at age 20 and could be part of a playoff-quality rotation for years to come. I'll take that trade any day. Or in this case, that non-trade.  I'm hoping to see Graterol in the pen this year for the pennant run and playoffs, and in the rotation with Balazovic and Duran two or three years from now. In the meantime, rookie relievers often start really strong and can be difference makers in the playoffs. Not a sure thing obviously but neither is Dyson, or Greene, etc.

Quite a plan when your brilliant FO has to rely on 20 year olds to win a pennant

Kinda depends on who that 20 year old is, doesn't it?

Kinda depends on who that 20 year old is, doesn't it?

Exactly.   If you are relying on Shawn Mendes then you might want to rethink your plan......   Sadly I had to google famous 20 year olds and didn't recognize a single name on the list.    On second thought, maybe not so sad.

Can Graterol throw strikes without throwing the ball down the middle? I, for one, think that's important. 

Quality control within the strike zone is certainly important.  Good point!

Actually I do think it's a smart plan. Many, many people were howling for them to trade guys like Graterol for bullpen help. They took a lot of heat for refusing. I'm glad they held out. Graterol might contribute more to the bullpen THIS YEAR than a trade target like Dyson. But if we'd shown we were serious about winning now, we'd either lose that reliever next year, or pay him a market rate salary, completely offsetting the chance to hire a similar reliever for the same salary as a free agent. Instead, we have six years of cost-controlled pitching from a guy who already touches 100mph at age 20 and could be part of a playoff-quality rotation for years to come. I'll take that trade any day. Or in this case, that non-trade.  I'm hoping to see Graterol in the pen this year for the pennant run and playoffs, and in the rotation with Balazovic and Duran two or three years from now. In the meantime, rookie relievers often start really strong and can be difference makers in the playoffs. Not a sure thing obviously but neither is Dyson, or Greene, etc.

Just talking about the possible trades, I speculated that the Mets fans probably didn't want to trade Thor unless the return was astronomical because they just picked up Stroman and had a rotation of Thor, Stroman and DeGrom for next year and were not out of it for this year.     Well, as of today they are .5 games out of the wild card.   I think management kind of felt that way also and once they had Stroman were never really serious about trading Thor.