Twins Place Marwin Gonzalez On IL, Select Sean Poppen

The Twins have placed utilityman Marwin Gonzalez on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, the team announced. They also sent reliever Blake Parker to the family medical emergency list. To replace Gonzalez and Parker, the Twins recalled utility player Willians Astudillo and selected righty Sean Poppen’s contract from Triple-A Rochester. The club also transferred lefty Adalberto Mejia to the 60-day IL.

Gonzalez was one of the Twins’ highest-profile acquisitions last winter, when they signed the ex-Astro to a two-year, $21MM guarantee. The 30-year-old didn’t make an ideal first impression with the Twins, as he owned a meager .579 OPS as recently as May 10. But the switch-hitting Gonzalez has come alive since then for the first-place club, evidenced by his .255/.323/.420 line (98 wRC+) with nine home runs across 254 plate appearances. Defensively, the versatile Gonzalez has primarily played third base this season, but he has also logged multiple appearances at first, second and in the corner outfield.

Poppen, 25, is in line to make his Twins debut three years after they chose him in the 19th round of the 2016 draft. Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs wrote back in May 2018 that Poppen possesses “three pitches that flash above average and good control.” Poppen has gotten off to an outstanding start this year in his first Triple-A action, having posted a 1.55 ERA/3.61 FIP with 10.55 K/9 and 3.72 BB/9 over 29 innings.