The Twins announced that they’ve claimed left-hander Adam Wilk off waivers from the Mets. Wilk will join the Twins tomorrow, per the team’s press release, at which point Minnesota will announce a corresponding roster move. Minnesota does have an open 40-man spot that Wilk will fill, so only a 25-man roster move needs to be made tomorrow.
The 29-year-old Wilk made his first appearance in the Majors since 2015 and just his second since 2012 over the weekend when he made a spot start for the Mets. Wilk’s outing came under sub-optimal circumstances, to say the last, as Fred Kerber of the New York Post detailed. The lefty flew from Las Vegas to Albuquerque (with a stop in Denver) last Saturday, only to learn he was needed in the Majors, at which point he flew to Los Angeles and took a midnight flight to New York to start against the Marlins at 1pm. The results weren’t pretty, as Wilk was roughed up for five earned runs on eight hits and a walk with two strikeouts in 3 2/3 frames.
In total, Wilk has just 30 Major League innings under his belt, but he could potentially get a start for Minnesota on Saturday, per MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger (Twitter link). His big league efforts have resulted in an unsightly 7.20 ERA, but Wilk has a more palatable 4.15 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in parts of six Triple-A seasons (663 innings). He’s also had some success in the hitter-friendly Korea Baseball Organization, having pitched to a 4.12 ERA with 70 strikeouts against 27 walks in 91 2/3 innings for the NC Dinos back in 2013.
I wish Wilk the best of luck as he is away from a classless organization. I hope that he has a modicum of success for the Twins and uses the platform to express himself for the mistreatment and abuse that the Mets showed him.
How did they abuse him?
They literally flew him across the dang country on a midnight flight for an afternoon game. And the effects were there, he probably flew like crap, and he played like crap.
I think this is more of a commentary on how teams triple A facilities should be relatively close. This is the second time where a player has had to be pulled and basically dropped into a game. First with Bormann because they couldn’t get Diaz, and now Wilk who they flew from LA to NY overnight. That’s kind of what you get when your triple A facilities is on the other side of the country.
That’s just how baseball goes. He’s a AAAA pitcher at best who struggles in majors each time. Mets needed a quick fill in and someone who they could dfa right after and not care if they lost him. Sports are a business, not a friendship club.
The Mets really blew it when they didn’t renew Buffalo as their AAA affiliate. They had bottom-of-barrel choices and got stuck with Las Vegas.
I don’t think it was their choice. It’s like musical chairs and the Mets were the only chair left after Buffalo chose someone else.
My point exactly.
No, you made it sound like the Mets were the ones to blame for not renewing the agreement. I don’t think they were given the option. Now, you can make the case that the Mets were at fault because they sent crappy players to Buffalo and the team was not competitive. That’s why the AAA team ownership wanted to switch.
Buffalo didn’t want them, they chose to not reup the Mess so they could get the Jays in there thus leaving Vegas as the only option.
Hey Stev-they are classless and stupid. It’s no way to treat someone, flying them on the red eye and asking them to perform.
Perhaps you have not experienced flying overnight. I do quite often – around once a month and you don’t bounce back so easily.
Perhaps you would feel differently if you were one of the fans that paid for a seat in the stands? They were all screwed by this bogus management scenario.
Yeah, he’s the only guy in the history of Major League Baseball to be called up at the last second
It wouldn’t matter where their AAA team is from. If either of the teams has to play a road game, then they would have to fly them decently far anyway. Now, if both teams were playing at home at the time, yeah, it would help a little, but that probably wouldn’t usually be the case
Yeah how did they abuse him?
So what do you propose they should have done? Not used him as a starter? It was a spot start because of the Harvey suspension. This kind of thing happens in every organization.
Exactly… There’s all kinds of stories of guys getting called up having to get dressed at the airport and sprinting from the cab with minutes to spare because he was already on the lineup card and his batting order spot wasn’t up yet.
I get that the Mets are a three-ring excrement-show these days but the hand wringing here is a bit much.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Nick Tepesch now Adam Wilk i thought last years rotation could not get any worse. guess i was wrong. i wonder who else they will pick up and start besides giving a 22 year old Berrios another shot
Maybe convert Famillia to a starting role? That way he can only blow a game one even every 5 games (lol).
This is why people hate the Yankees. S***heads like you.
I get keeping Berrios down a little bit to start with because of the WBC but, still? I don’t get it. Falvey doesn’t strike me as someone who does stuff without some specific reasons for it… so I’m assuming he sees something we don’t.
There probably is. He dominated last year too and then got rocked in MLB.
I know fastball command was mentioned before. Not sure if that’s the only thing.
Where there’s a Wilk, there’s a way…..