To this point in the season, the Twins have been shuffling around career AAAA type players to fill empty spots, primarily in the back of their rotation, or within the terrible bullpen. The only member of MLB’s top 30 prospects to appear before last night was Adalberto Mejia, the team’s #8 prospect. The lack of youth coming out of the farm has something to do with injuries to players like JT Chargois and Nick Burdi, something to do with the strategy the new front office has used, taking their time to evaluate talent on their roster, and something to do with the make up of their minor league system.
The top of the talent pool simply doesn’t have players that are ready to make the jump to the Major League roster. The best prospect, Nick Gordon, is both a couple years from Major League ready, and not playing a position of immediate need. The Major League ready players are broken. After a lot of recent shuffling, however, the Twins decided, for the first time this season, to allow a top 30 prospect to make their MLB debut. Did anyone have Randy Rosario as the first top 30 prospect to debut this season?
The Twins did debut Jason Wheeler this year as well, though Wheeler aged out of that pool, and is now a member of the Dodgers organization, after he was traded for cash considerations. As I noted, Mejia was the first Top 30 prospect to show up on the roster, and has been met with some success. Jose Berrios returned to the majors with much fanfare, but his stint last year meant he had too much service time to qualify as a prospect any longer. Randy Rosario is something completely different.
His skill set, a hard thrower, waylaid a bit by elbow issues, with a couple plus pitches will profile nicely as a middle reliever. He had been a starter previously, but his arm issues and limited number of pitches suggest that a role in the bullpen will suit him well. With some success, even if it has just been in Chattanooga, and not even in Rochester, and the flaming wreckage in the bullpen, he got the call.
Because of his inexperience at higher levels, expectations can be limited. That isn’t to say he won’t be effective now that he is here. He was OK in his first appearance last night, but began to fall apart in his second inning of work. Still, the best available relief prospect was brought up to the majors, breaking the ice on that particular action for the new front office. Even if Rosario maxes out with a cup of coffee as a middle reliever (and I don’t think he will… there is more to come) that is still an exciting milestone in the organization under it’s new leadership.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
