After a flurry of deals Monday afternoon–four players signed to minor-league deals and Tony Barnette returned to the fold on a one-year deal—the Rangers waited until later in the day for news to leak out about perhaps the biggest move of the day (no, still not that one). Mike Minor, soon-to-be-30-year-old left-hander who was a starter-to-reliever revelation last year in Kansas City, was reportedly the latest addition to the Texas pitching corps.
It’s a fascinating move, mostly because Texas could use another left-handed reliever, but they could really use more starting pitching. Minor was a starter in Atlanta from 2010-2014, and had his best season in 2013 when he went 13-9 with a 3.21 ERA, a 1.090 WHIP, and 181 strikeouts to just 46 walks in 201⅓ innings. But his performance dipped a little in 2014, and in 2015 he found himself on a disabled list stint that would span two seasons and a surgery to repair a torn labrum.
By the time he found a big-league mound again, Minor was no longer a starter, and no longer a Brave. The Royals added him to their bullpen, and Minor flourished, racking up 2.8WAR in 77⅔ innings, striking out 88 and walking 22 to the tune of a 2.55 ERA and a 1.017 WHIP.
It was expected that it would take a multi-year deal to lock down Minor this off-season, and according to Jon Paul Morosi with MLB, that’s what Minor has gotten, though details of the deal are still yet to be revealed, and the deal is still pending a physical.
So the intrigue begins. Was this the first move of a team that knows that Shohei Ohtani is likely to land elsewhere? Is this the fourth piece of an Ohtani-Hamels-Perez-Minor-Fister rotation? Or is Minor going to stay in the role where he found so much success last season? Early reports seem to indicate the Rangers plan to let him start.
We’ll know soon enough. But for now, this is a nice move by a team who needs quality pitching, however it comes.
ebubekir yasa says
Now we are talking about converting two relievers from last year to our rotation. Am I the only one who is scared?
fireovid says
I hope this doesn’t kibosh Bush to the rotation because it’s too good an idea, actually. Sans Shohei scenario: Hamels/Minor/Bush/Fister/Perez …. how about another swing guy like Scott Feldman to this? A righty who can eat some innings in the rotation or relief. With Shohei, maybe Bush back to the pen. We certainly have some openings there with only Claudio/Kela/Barnette set
Levi Weaver says
I’ll be interested to see how quickly the names Miles Mikolas and Chris Martin come up after the Ohtani sweepstakes has been decided.
fireovid says
There is also this 6-man rotation talk that is fascinating, with it possibly being a smart/attractive idea in regards to recruiting/best utilizing Otani, and throw in two converting relievers, and the idea that you throw in some of these guys regularly for an inning on side days, and that’s some deep chin scratching right there.
Levi Weaver says
…..aaaaaaand there it is.
ebubekir yasa says
I think we learned this year that you never have enough bullpen arms. One of our strongest assets was our bullpen at the beginning of the last season. But our bullpen probably was one of the, if not the biggest reasons why we didn’t make the playoffs. I am just afraid Bush is going to turn into an other Neftali Feliz.
Joe Don says
I’d rathe haveTommy Hunter than Feldman.
fireovid says
Me too, but Hunter would be more of a bullpen piece (especially now with Minor and Bush in there) who would cost a couple million. A good idea I think maybe. Feldy would be a minor deal or like $1 at most guaranteed and maybe not even guaranteed, a guy who can start and eat innings as a plan B like a Dillon Gee or Bibens-Dirxx but on the level he’s been better than those guys. So I like him in that sort of spot.
fireovid says
Minor deal looks like gold 3 / $28 mil in comparison to the Cubs’ signing of the apparently vastly overrated Tyler Chatwood 3 / $38. WOW.
JD > Theo