The Minnesota Twins have selected the contract of right-hander Chase De Jong, while first baseman Tyler Austin will be designated for assignment, per The Athletic’s Dan Hayes (via Twitter).
De Jong, 25, was a 2nd round draft selection of the Blue Jays before seeing time in the Dodgers and Mariners organizations. He joined the Twins via the Zach Duke deal last July, making four starts with Minnesota in 2018, going 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA (4.92 FIP). A rough spring in which he surrendered more runs than innings pitched led to a reassignment to minor league camp, but the Twins are obviously satisfied with the progress he’s made since then.
There was some confusion as to who was getting the call, with various reports from last night suggesting that Zack Littell was being brought up. Littell will remain in Triple-A, however, while De Jong has an opportunity as the Twins’ fifth starter, though someone like Martin Perez could conceivably move from the bullpen to the rotation instead. The Twins have a day off on Monday and another next Thursday following a two-game series with the Mets, so they could conceivably go without a fifth starter until the Blue Jays come to town April 15-18.
Austin, meanwhile, has plenty of pop in his bat, but has yet to consistently get on base in the big leagues. He went 1-4 this season after slashing .230/.287/.480 with 17 home runs in 268 plate appearances between the Twins and Yankees in 2018. Those numbers track with Austin’s career averages as a .232/.291/.469 hitter across a total 371 big-league at-bats. Austin was out of options, so he’ll need to clear waivers before being reassigned.
Goodbye Tyler. Best of luck- clearly we don’t have a role for you.
If I’m the giants, I should be all over this
I’m a giant’s fan and I was thinking the same thing lol. Just difficult because the person DFA’d would leave us with no backup SS
Giants have Belt so where does Austin play? Don’t say OF because he can’t play OF. Unless you trade Belt and eat part of the contract. Better just to keep Belt.
Why would the giants want Austin? There is no way I would want him playing in the OF in that park.
He played right and left in the minors and was fairly decent at it. He has a great arm.. and good speed
Average speed, at best.
baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard
They can do better than Tyler Austin in the outfield.
He is a bad outfielder. He takes weird routes and is not fast. Decent arm if I remember right.
Pretty sad that one horrible outing can cost another player his job and team☹️
Yankees need to get him back, and release Bird!
If I remember correctly Austin bats Right handed. Voit is also right handed and even though he has a woeful Avg he is getting on base a bit over .350 and his OPS is pretty close to .800. Pitchers seem to have adjusted to him but that usually happens in a sophomore season. I am sure the Yankees are going to see how he adjusts before picking up another RH 1st baseman.
Also, let’s not forget Bird has been injured for the better part of 3 years. The Yankees would do him a great service by sending him to AAA or even AA and letting him get his confidence back by playing everyday against weaker competition. I had high hopes for him becoming the Yankees version of Mark Grace. Bird had just as flawless a swing when he first came up. I know he is stinking up the field now but I still have faith he can turn it around.
Why would they want two right handed hitting first basemen that do little else?
Tyler Austin won’t even get the chance to be claimed off waivers; I feel like multiple teams will be willing to trade for someone with his potential.
Maybe. I don’t think Austin has a great deal of trade value. He had a long opportunity to show potential last year and he didn’t show anything. A .287 OBP with an unplayable K rate North of 35% almost confirms what he can do.
Clearly Austin was no longer a long time fit with the Twins the moment that Cruz was signed. Twinkies should have bundled Austin with Reed in that trade with the Giants. I fully expect Austin to be with a different organization in short order.
I doubt Austin would even get to the Giants via waivers.
Based off how they work, the DFA’ing teams league gets first choice from worst to first, Orioles would get first, Boston would get 15th, followed by the worst to first teams in the NL last year based off record since it’s still to early to go off 19’ records.
Meaning, San Francisco would need all of the AL to pass on a guy who is purely cut out for that leagues style of play based of him defensive limitations.
Problem is mostteams have a DH/1B on their team already. So that team would need to cut a player. Os look like the only team with a spot available to carry a player like him.
I believe that starts at the end of April. I think offseason rules are just overall reverse standings. I could be wrong.
Arizona’s gonna sign Austin I bet
Why would they? Have you seen Christian Walkers numbers? That would be a very lateral move imo.
We’ll see if Orioles are willing to cut bait on Chris Davis and bring Tyler Austin into the fold. Orioles have to pay Davis’s contract whether he’s on the team or not.
I like him, and I’d bet he’d rather be somewhere else. He should be a starter somewhere.
Horribe move by Falvey! Twins will regret this move as he WILL get picked up and WILL get regular ABs as aDH/1B in American League. Austin deserved a chance to play after his performance last season and hitting .350+ in ST. I know others will disagree that he has”no position” to play with Cruz entrenched at DH (not this weekend playing in NL) and Cron at 1B. I’m not sold on Cron. Yes, he had a 30-HR season last year with Tampa, but so did Logan Morrison a couple of years ago. We all know how that turned out. What’s the plan now if Cron does on the DL?? Yeah, Gonzalez can slide over there, but know you’re forced into playing Adrianza EVERY DAY at 3B. That, plus the uncertainty of Sano returning anytime soon AND producing makes this a BAD move.
LOL! Wow is that a hot take or what? Tyler Austin is closing in on 28, is out of options and has never hit well enough to expect him to be a starter at DH or 1B. The Twins gave him the one thing he needed to prove he could improve last year… plate appearances at the MLB level and he did everything people expected him to do.
Austin can play 1B or DH and his career stat line at upper levels are:
MLB .232/.299/.460 (OPS .759) in 409 PA 7.6% BB, 36.9% K
AAA .270/.345/.489 (OPS .834) in 871 PA 9.8% BB 26.9%K
AA .268/.348/.409 (OPS .755) in 1,124 PA 10.5% BB, 20.0% K
Austin can’t identify pitches he can hit and feasts on mistakes which don’t get offered to him nearly as frequently at the MLB level. He has a major hole in his swing which allows pitchers who can hit their spots to render Austin helpless. His overall offense profile at the MLB level is below average, but not unplayable. The issue is he has no defensive value. He can play 1B adequately, but there’s no way a team could justify Austins complete inability to get on base at a DH position. Austin needs to change his swing to eliminate a major hole… and he’s had years and years to do it.
What he said.
Any twins fan would rather see Astudillo take first if we are truly that short at the position. It’s a total backlog right now. Why force Austin to come in the game when cron has hit 2-3 w a 2b in the first seven innings. Cron has been way better than Lomo already. Power isn’t showing yet but I’ll take what he’s putting up.
Cron already showing he’s a bust, not only offensively, but is mediocre at BEST defensively as evidenced by his dropped pop up today and horrible throw to 2B that Adrianza bailed him out on. Offensively, he’s done NOTHING….actually a weaker bat than Mauer, which says a lot. Yeah he’s hitting .250 (6-24), but with 1RBI in 24 ABs. He’s NOT good and NOT the answer at 1B. Say what you want about Austin as he does have his limitations ( a lot of K’s), but he did hit 9 jacks with 35 RBI after being acquired late last season and did hit .390 in ST. That, imo, warranted a least a chance to compete against Cron.
HECK YEAH LETS GO CHASE!! LONG BEACH WILSON LETS GOO!
Good win for the Twins today over Philadelphia. Having Chase De Jong sitting in the bullpen over having Tyler Austin sitting on the bench was comforting. Austin was needed for depth on LAST year’s Twins, but there was no room on the improved 2019 position players, and pitching is needed more than an extra guy who won’t get off the bench..
Disagree…….having Chasie DeJong sitting in the bullpen was comforting…really? why? So he can come into a blowout and save some other bullpen arms? DeJong has an arm I give you that. The problem is when he’s forced to put a baseball in his pitching hand and actually face major league hitters. He was brought up for 1 reason: Odorizzi wetting himself Friday night (36 pitches in 2/3 inning), which killed our bullpen as Baldelli pitched all but 2 guys. What I’ve seen of CJ Cron so far makes my argument, imo, stronger. Cron is NOT good. Hitting .250 (6-24), but with no pop….0 HRs and only 1 RBI. His defense is also mediocre. There’s a REASON Tampa DFA’ed him last year. He had a fluke year with his 30 HRs and the Rays knew he’d revert to his pedestrian production that he had with the Angels. I HOPE that Cron improves, but he’s looking more and more like LOMO, which really sucks. Austin deserved a longer look and opportunities. We’re in big trouble…85+ losses if Chase DeJong pitches for this team.
Tyler Austin’s a guy I would see playing in a KBO or NPB team in the future.
I liked Tyler, but I expected the Twins would probably DFA him (but expected it AFTER the NL games). We’ll see what happens next. Hopefully, another team will give him a chance to play regularly (and also give the Twins an okay low-level prospect in return). If Tyler passes through waivers unclaimed, I don’t know if he would be best served by selecting free agency or not.
Orioles need to pick him up
And designate Davis, hopefully