Twins Claim RHP Matt Wisler

Clown? Slug?

You might be correct. But I think you are wrong on FO management of bullpen. Twins 2nd half in 2019 was very very impressive with good development internally. FO doesn’t put guys on their 40 man roster without a good game plan for the addition. Time will tell.

He has been with 4 teams already? To me that is not really a good sign unless he is a great player who has left for Free Agency to pitch for his home state team like say, a Gerrit Cole will do...I hope the Twins are smart about their choices this year because watching the World Series the past few days really showed some good pitching.....

Sorry to bust anyones bubble but this is old school Terry Ryan dumpster diving at its best. Career 5.20 ERA. I see no point in adding someone like this to the 40 man roster.

A lot of angst over a guy who was once a top draft choice and top prospect who just hasn't turned out yet. EVERYONE grabs fliers like this, not just the Twins. And some turn out to be really good fliers. This is just is just due diligence, that every single team does.

MLB and milb are filled with guys with big FB who couldn't throw a consistent breaking pitch to save their life, much less their career. Here is a 27yo, former top prospect who seemingly has a good/great slider in plac. The FB, and consistent placement of it, is still #1 in any pitcher's arsenal. From just a single season of results, Johnson seems to have a good trip on making adjustments to help pitchers center themselves, find a consistent delivery, and improve their FB. He does that here, with a potential I man bullpen, and options available for other speculated arms making the pen for versatility sake, you could have a potential steal on your hands.

You also have a guy you could dump and try to slide through waivers at some point.

I had the chance to cover Wisler with the Braves. First, he's a very self-aware guy and willing to be open about issues he's having on the mound and will take coaching. Bad part was the young pitcher wrecking ball was employed in Atlanta at the time in Roger McDowell. Plenty of promising young arms came and went during his tenure. When you can nearly ruin Julio Teheran as a top-5 overall prospect, you've got issues.

The sinker, when he's behind it, gets great late action. His issue has always been that he gets too much ahead of his arm in all of his deliveries. He's worked on it, but never been able to get it completely to stick. Perhaps Wes can have more success with him as he's a legit arm that I had a retired scout tell me he graded as essentially the second coming of Brandon Webb when he was in AA with the Padres. He sold me pretty well that Wisler was going to floor at Derek Lowe bullpen and peak at Brandon Webb starter with Derek Lowe late-career starter being his middle outcome. Needless to say, that was before McDowell got hold of Wisler.

Options aren't as valuable next year, I don't think. 26 man roster, but only 13 can be pitchers so not much difference for teams who would frequently carry the extra pitcher anyway.

The big change is that players must be optioned for 15 days now. This essentially ends the shuttle system we used so well last year to not carry a designated looking reliever and keep everyone a bit fresher. Otherwise options would be even more important as you'd have to probably add a couple relievers to shuttle to pitch during those extra 5 days. I think most teams won't have that depth will be reluctant to send the best of their shuttlers down for that long and probably just keep the Smeltzers up and the Kohl Stewarts down.

All teams make these kinds of moves early in the offseason as they rotate bodies around the 40-man.

 

The most likely outcome is that nothing comes of this and Wisler is released some time next year but if the Twins see something that can be fixed, why not give it a shot? He's basically a free player if it works out.

 

This move will not impact other, more important decisions this team will make during the offseason. Every team makes these kind of organizational depth moves.

agreed, and hopefully the FO sees that it will be trading some minor league guys for a starting pitcher and it can't hurt to have another option on the 40 man. If they don't trade and sign some free agents he is probably the first guy dropped off the 40. So I see no harm right now, maybe in a few months if they haven't done much else I will complain and complain loudly about it.

Is the waiver claim order right now based on league right now? So like a player has to go through the AL before being exposed to NL teams? I can never remember the waiver order rules...

Yes, I believe it's by league.  So the Twins would have had preference over the National League.

Sorry to bust anyones bubble but this is old school Terry Ryan dumpster diving at its best. Career 5.20 ERA. I see no point in adding someone like this to the 40 man roster.

I don’t think anyone’s bubble is being burst. They didn’t sign him to be a key pitcher. Free agency hasn’t even started yet.