Ryan believes he did just that in acquiring right-handed reliever Kevin Jepsen from the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday in exchange for a pair of minor-leaguers.
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Coming into Friday, the Minnesota Twins were one of five teams that hadn’t made a trade this week.
Jepsen, 31, can slide right into the setup role ahead of Twins’ All-Star closer Glen Perkins. The Twins have been seeking bullpen help and appear to have landed their man. Jepsen has had a nice year in Tampa, putting up a 2.81 ERA while striking out 34 across 41 2/3 innings.
In his first season with the Rays after spending the previous six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Jepsen is due about $1 million for the remainder of the season.
In return, the Rays will receive two minor league pitchers from the Twins. Almost a dozen late-inning relievers changed teams in the final week before Friday’s deadline, including Jonathan Broxton (Cardinals), Steve Cishek (Cardinals), LaTroy Hawkins (Blue Jays), Jim Johnson (Dodgers) and Joakim Soria (Pirates). But after adding veteran righthander Kevin Jepsen to the Twins bullpen, the general manager sounded like he wanted to do more. Now that the bullpen has been addressed, look for the Twins to put up a fight over the last two months of the season.
After the trade deadline had passed, Pat Riley must’ve dropped his phone and pen, and walked out like he found the cure to disease, … Neither was rated among the organization’s top 30 prospects in Baseball America’s preseason list, although Hu was recently slotted in at No. 20 for the Twins by MLB.com. Minor league left-hander Caleb Thielbar was designated for assignment to make room for Jepsen on the 40-man roster.
He is walking 4.3 batters per nine innings, well above his career rate of 3.6. “I don’t think there’s any reason he can’t pitch in the eighth”. “You aren’t just going to grab guys without giving up people”. He was signed by the Twins as a non-drafted free agent out of Taiwan in 2012.
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Futhermore, Here is Alexis Tapia, a 19 year old pitcher who can either start or be in the bullpen. In three seasons Hu is 16-5 with a 2.31 ERA.
