It’s not the huge move other contenders are making, but the Minnesota Twins did make a trade to shore up their ailing bullpen Friday.
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Jepsen is 2-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 46 games with the Rays. He had an ERA of 2.44 with 73 strikeouts and 19 walks in 84 2/3 innings with Class A Advanced Fort Myers.
Add to that a four-game hiccup for Perkins, who had blown two saves and given up six earned runs since the All-Star break, and the Twins’ bullpen was in rough shape.
Today, at the MLB Deadline the Rays traded set up man Kevin Jepsen to the Twins for 2 minor league pitchers.
“We talked a little bit and he kind of just – as far as the whole pen’s being used, he’ll work me in there and we’ll get a feel for how it’s going to go the next few games”, Jepsen said. His strikeout to walk ratio was just 1.70-to-1 as his 7.3 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, and 0.9 HR/9 were all his worst since 2011.
Actually, Silverman said, it was their confidence in that group that kept them, after trading Jepsen and outfielder David DeJesus (to the Angels on Tuesday) from dealing away more pieces – reliever Jake McGee was another possibility – in what turned out to be a seller’s market. There is no question that the Twins got better with this move, and Jepsen will be a big part of their bullpen for the remainder of the season.
To make room for Jepsen on the 40-man roster, the Twins designated Caleb Thielbar, a lefthanded reliever from Randolph, Minn., for assignment. “He’s that guy and we got him for that reason”.
Molitor said he told his new reliever that recently in the Twins bullpen there have been no “stapled roles for people”. With the deals that he Blue Jays made at the deadline, the Twins have virtually no chance of hanging on to the wild card anyway, but stranger things have happened.
“You certainly have to put something into the package”, Ryan said. “I might say he’s an successfully wild man”. We have not played good baseball and I’m aware of that. The first was Chi-Wei Hu, a 21-year-old from Taiwan. In three seasons Hu, 21, is 16-5 with a 2.31 ERA.
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Jepsen’s ERA is 4.60 in 18 outings since June 11, during which he has allowed a. 707 combined on-base/slugging percentage and a 24-percent line-drive rate, but his overall numbers this year have been strong, especially against right-handed batters.
