The Twins are going to select right-hander José De León to their roster, reports Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com. He will take the active roster spot of fellow righty Jorge Alcalá, who is going on the 15-day injured list. The club already had an opening on their 40-man roster after losing righty Dereck Rodríguez off waivers to the Braves yesterday. The club has subsequently announced the moves, listing Alcalá’s ailment as a right forearm extensor muscle strain. His IL placement is retroactive to May 15.
De León, 30, was once one of the top prospects in the league. Originally drafted by the Dodgers in 2013, he impressed prospect evaluators enough to land on Baseball America’s top 100 list in both 2016 and 2017, placing in the top 30 both of those years. Unfortunately, he’s battled significant injuries since then and still hasn’t been able to carve out a lengthy stay in the big leagues.
He was traded to the Rays prior to 2017 but then required Tommy John surgery going into 2018. He returned in 2019 and was traded to the Reds after that season. He struggled in his time with that club and was released after 2021. He was with the Blue Jays on a minor league deal last year but got hurt in Spring Training and didn’t debut until August.
Through all of that, he has an 8.44 ERA in the big leagues through 48 innings that have been scattered across five different seasons with three different clubs. He signed a minor league deal with the Twins this offseason and is off to a good start. He’s tossed 27 1/3 innings across nine Triple-A appearances, four of them starts. He has a 3.62 ERA, 22.2% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 41.6% ground ball rate.
That showing has impressed the Minnesota brass enough that the righty will get back to the majors. He is out of options and can’t be easily sent back to the minors later in the year, but he does have just two years and 95 days of major league service time. That means that he could be cheaply retained for future seasons via arbitration if he manages to hang onto his roster spot all year long.
Loading up on the former Dodgers! Good luck to you Jose.
He looks good for 62.
*has flashbacks of 2-19 in 1985 for the worst Pirates team I’ve ever seen, yes really*
First year I followed baseball. I remember reading the back of that DeLeon baseball card a lot just entranced by the 19 losses.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I read the phrase “was once one of the top prospects in the league” here.
It’s been a long time coming. Still would’ve been nice to see Balazovic. He’s feeling good in AAA and could get his cup of coffee while on the up swing be a nice confidence boost. Plus the young pitchiners are doing pretty good so far this year and they should keep it going imo
I love how the Twins eventually traded Brian Dozier to the Dodgers and ended up with Stewart and De Leon who the Dodgers were offering in the first place
For once it was a smart move for the twins. Not saying they couldn’t have got a better deal elsewhere, but comparing just de Leon to the one good year of smeltzer is enough.
Dodgers were way to big on De Leon.
Now if the twins ended up with Bellinger (what they wanted) they’d probably be a different team today.
I often think about that initial trade – Dozier for Bellinger, straight up. Dozier eventually became a Dodger but it was the following year for DeLeon and Stewart..
Had the Bellinger trade happened, what a coup for the Twins. Would they have traded him by now because they wouldn’t want to commit all that money? We know that Bellinger’s shoulder would have likely been healthy since he injured it celebrating with Kiké Hernandez. Dozier wasn’t very good after the trade because of some injury.
What a different scenario for both teams.
Dozier was traded for Logan Forsythe, Luke Raley, and Devin Smeltzer.
De León and Stewart were only signed as free agents within the last year.
That’s right, Logan Forsythe! He was a Tampa Bay Ray and the Dodgers got him for Jose Deleon
I am happy he could Ponce on the opportunity.
I have a feeling he will pan out better this time without injuries and coming in from the pen where his stuff can play up a bit.
Wondering what happened with Acala. I had very high hopes for him as a late inning reliever. Same with Winder at AAA.
Hoping to see Jordan B soon as well. He deserves a shot and has too much talent to not try at the big league level as long as he can stay out of fights.
He started the Puerto Rico Perfect Game in the World Baseball Classic. I was there!