The Twins will place Jose Miranda on the 10-day injured checklist previous to Sunday’s recreation with the Giants, supervisor Rocco Baldelli advised reporters (together with Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Utilityman Diego Castillo may have his contract chosen from Triple-A to take Miranda’s spot on the energetic roster and the Twins must make one other transfer to clear area on the 40-man roster.
Decrease-back tightness has stored Miranda off the sphere since Wednesday, so the Twins will be capable of backdate Miranda’s IL stint to July 11. With the four-day All-Star break additionally factoring into the 10-day span, Miranda gained’t miss a lot further recreation time if he is ready to return after solely 10 days, although the Twins will definitely watch out with a participant who has emerged as considered one of their chief offensive weapons.
Miranda appeared to put declare to the Twins’ third base job with a really strong rookie season in 2022, however then struggled by a tough 2023 marketing campaign that was restricted to 40 video games as a consequence of shoulder surgical procedure. Royce Lewis’ personal harm issues allowed Miranda to get a recent probability at common enjoying time this season and he has exploded for 9 residence runs and a .325/.366/.522 slash line over 276 plate appearances, translating to a 149 wRC+. This huge 12 months included a spot within the historical past books, as Miranda’s string of 12 consecutive at-bats with successful matched a significant league document.
Miranda has a .349 BABIP, and between middling hard-contact numbers and a below-average 5.1% stroll fee, he’s definitely overachieving to some extent — the infielder’s .380 wOBA is effectively above his .345 xwOBA. Nonetheless, even that xwOBA is effectively above the league common, and Miranda’s contact is helped by the truth that he’s not often swinging and lacking. His 13.4% strikeout fee is within the 93rd percentile of all batters, even when his chase fee is unimpressive.
This manufacturing has been an enormous purpose why the Twins are in possession of an AL wild-card spot, so the membership can solely hope that Miranda’s again downside gained’t linger. Past simply Miranda’s absence, the Twins’ wider-scale downside is a sudden swath of infield accidents, as Miranda joins Lewis, Kyle Farmer, Alex Kirilloff and Austin Martin on the membership’s 10-day IL. Star shortstop Carlos Correa was additionally a late scratch from Saturday’s lineup as a consequence of a heel contusion, although there isn’t but any indication that Correa’s harm is something however a day-to-day concern. With a lot infield depth lacking, Minnesota needed to get artistic with Saturday’s lineup, shifting catcher Christian Vazquez to 3rd base — Jair Camargo was referred to as up from Triple-A earlier this week, so the Twins nonetheless had flexibility behind the plate with Vazquez, Camargo and Ryan Jeffers all accessible.
Castillo brings some versatility to this combine, because the 26-year-old has already performed 5 completely different positions and even thrown a few innings over his two MLB seasons. Debuting with the Pirates in 2022, Castillo hit .206/.251/.382 over 283 throughout his first 12 months within the Present and was then traded to the Diamondbacks after the season and appeared in only one MLB recreation throughout the 2023 marketing campaign. A flurry of waiver claims this winter noticed Castillo be part of 4 completely different organizations earlier than lastly touchdown with Minnesota, through an early April commerce with the Orioles.
