The Twins introduced that left-hander Steven Okert was designated for project. The transfer was made to create area on the 26-man and 40-man rosters for right-hander Scott Blewett, whose contract has been chosen from Triple-A St. Paul.
Acquired from the Marlins for Nick Gordon again in February, Okert’s first (and probably solely) season in Minnesota has been inconsistent. He had a 3.20 ERA in his first 25 1/3 innings and 29 appearances, however has since stumbled to a 9.90 ERA over his final 10 frames and 15 video games. The lowlight was a four-run implosion over one-third of an inning pitched within the Twins’ 7-5 loss to the Padres final Tuesday, although Okert did bounce again with two scoreless innings two subsequent appearances.
Okert’s 20.6% strikeout fee is the second-worst of his seven-year MLB profession, and his longtime points with management have continued within the type of a ten% stroll fee. Whereas his hard-hit ball fee is likely one of the league’s finest, his barrel fee is beneath common, leading to six house runs allowed. Okert has lengthy been a fly-ball pitcher, and thus issues have arisen each time he has been unable to maintain the ball within the park.
As The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman just lately noticed, Okert has been hit onerous in high-leverage and even medium-leverage conditions this season, leaving the Twins in a tricky spot each time they’ve needed to name on Okert in any past mop-up responsibility. Okert had fairly even profession splits heading into 2024, however right-handed batters have torched him for a .984 OPS over 95 plate appearances this season (whereas lefty swingers have solely a .564 OPS in 65 PA).
Whereas the three-batter minimal has ended the times of the true lefty specialist, Okert’s splits could possibly be sufficient for a reliever-needy crew to contemplate a waiver declare, if this crew thinks it could possibly both repair his points in opposition to right-handed batters or just do a greater job of defending him going through righty swingers. Okert is in his first season of arbitration eligibility is taking part in on a $1,062,500 wage, so selecting up the final 5 weeks’ price of that wage represents a fairly minimal hit to a brand new golf equipment’s payroll.
As a result of Okert has beforehand been outrighted in his profession, he has the correct to reject an outright project from the Twins if he clears waivers, after which choose into free company. Okert is out of minor league choices so the Twins needed to DFA Okert earlier than making an attempt to maneuver him to Triple-A, and it could possibly be that the 2 sides have an settlement in place about Okert accepting an project (if he clears waivers) and biding his time in St. Paul till a contemporary arm is once more wanted within the massive league bullpen.
Blewett confronted a considerably related state of affairs when Minnesota designated him for project final week, as Blewett rejected an outright after clearing waivers, however then rapidly re-signed with the Twins after first testing free company. The best-hander first signed a minor league contract with the Twins again in January, and his time on the large league roster consists of a single sport — a scoreless inning on August 12 within the Twins’ 8-3 win over the Royals. At Triple-A this season, Blewett has a 3.79 ERA, 22.7% strikeout fee, and seven.1% stroll fee, with a .340 BABIP inflating his bottom-line numbers to some extent.
Previous to his lone sport with the Twins, Blewett’s MLB resume consisted of eight innings over 5 appearances with Kansas Metropolis through the 2020-21 seasons. Throughout the 2022-23 seasons, Blewett pitched within the minors with the White Sox and Braves, plus he frolicked overseas pitching within the Chinese language Skilled Baseball League. It could possibly be that this newest call-up will end in simply one other “cup of espresso” kind of cameo for Blewett, however he’ll get some alternative to indicate what he can do for a contending Twins membership.
