The Twins announced their waiver claim of right-hander Michael Tonkin, which was previously reported. To open a 40-man spot, righty Trevor Richards has been designated for assignment. To take the active spot of Richards, the club has selected the contract of righty Caleb Boushley. To open a 40-man spot for Boushley, righty Joe Ryan has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Richards was the Twins’ lone deadline pickup a month ago, coming over from Toronto in exchange for minor league infielder Jay Harry. The right-hander had scoreless outings in seven of his ten appearances with Minnesota but also had three shakier outings, leading to a 4.15 ERA in 13 innings overall.
That may not seem particularly poor at first glance, but Richards walked a massive 18.6% of his opponents during his time with the Twins and even more incredibly uncorked seven wild pitches during those 13 frames. He also hit two batters. Overall, the lack of command he showed proved too alarming for the team to continue on with the right-hander.
Richards has had some big league success in the past, both as a starter (261 2/3 innings of 4.22 ERA ball in 2018-19) and a reliever (3.50 ERA, 31.1 K% in 64 1/3 innings in 2021). However, even though he’s shown a consistent ability to miss bats and regularly flummoxed lefties with a plus changeup, he’s struggled with command and been far too hittable against fellow righties.
Richards came to the Twins as a rental who’d been struggling with his former team, so the cost of acquisition to acquire him was quite low. Still, the Twins surely hoped for better results, particularly given their lack of other deadline additions. Instead, he’ll give way to Tonkin, who’s back for a second 2024 stint with the team that originally drafted him in the 30th round back in 2008. Richards will now hit waivers and presumably clear, as a team would need to be willing to pay the remaining $358K on his $2.15MM salary in order to place a claim.
As for the 30-year-old Boushley, this’ll be his second stint with the Twins this year as well. He pitched two innings and allowed two runs a few months back, but has spent the rest of the season in Triple-A, where he has a 4.97 ERA in 116 innings. That earned run average is skewed in part by a calamitous nine-run shellacking at the hands of the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate back on July 3, but Boushley has been struggling in general as of late. Even setting aside that nine-run bonanza, he’s been tagged for a 6.55 ERA in his past seven starts with the Saints.
Darn looks like Ryan is definitely done for the year
It’s sad because he has ace stuff but just always falls off during the 2nd half of the season
Failed trade #3 for pitching depth this year
jays will claim Richards. he was one of their better bullpen pieces.
I’m just glad the Twins made multiple moves to bolster their pitching staff for a playoff run………
What MLB needs is some sort of incentive program to encourage teams to go for it. Like, extra revenue for playing more games beyond the regular season, bonuses for players that win multiple rounds, maybe even like a trophy for winning the most playoff games!
I like your trophy idea. I also wonder if playoff success might excite the fan base to the point where season ticket and merch sales would increase year-over-year.
I feel like it’s as simple as a Salary Floor. There’s a reason why, in the other 3 main pro leagues, there’s consistent parity & offseason transactions of note regardless of “market”. To me the MLBPA’s insistence on not having a cap is slowly killing the game year by year. The average player salary has increased in the other sports at a higher rate than baseball…and they (gasp!) Have salary caps tied to the revenue. There is NO WAY that teams like Oakland, Cinci, Pitt and yes my Detroit Tigers are spending “51% of Revenue” on player salaries like the other leagues.
The problem with the floor is, you’ll never get it without a salary cap as well. All 30 teams are against one without the other. If the Pirates are bidding on mid level guys,and the big market teams want then, the result is the big market team just pays more.
That leaves small market clubs overpaying guys no one else really wants just to hit the floor. Baby Giraffe would be getting 10 million from Pittsburgh, Tim Anderson would’ve gotten 8 million instead of 2. Nothing changes that much with just a floor from a fan perspective, and no owner wants the change it would create
Perhaps some sort of tax applied to teams that are consistently bottom dwellers. In other terms, if a team’s overall average is less than .500 for a rolling 5 years in a row, they are hit with a fine. There has to be some incentive to develop and field a competitive team. A team can be competitive constructed of young guns not making a bunch of money. This shouldn’t be discouraged.
How about a reduction of the luxury tax, relative to the number of extra games played. Conversely, if a team is headed for paying the luxury tax and doesn’t make the post season…the tax increases….