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Minnesota Twins Spring Training Battle: Ricky Nolasco vs Tommy Milone

By Michael McKee

Mar 14, 2016; Jupiter, FL, USA; Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Tommy Milone (33) delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during the game at Roger Dean Stadium. The Twins defeated the Cardinals 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 14, 2016; Jupiter, FL, USA; Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Tommy Milone (33) delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during the game at Roger Dean Stadium. The Twins defeated the Cardinals 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Minnesota Twins have a fierce competition going to round out their rotation

Ricky Nolasco vs Tommy Milone. One will round out the rotation as the 5th starter and the other will head to the bullpen (At least for the first few week of the season and of course an injury could change everything. This also assumes Tyler Duffey indeed has the 4th starter slot locked down. The team has said it’s his to lose).

Comments from Nolasco’s camp indicate that Ricky would be very displeased if he were booted from the rotation. Milone hasn’t said anything of the sort publicly but one would assume he would vastly prefer being in the rotation.

Nolasco doesn’t really have any leverage to change his situation if he were sent to ‘pen. It’s not as if suitors would be lining up to acquire him in a trade and Minnesota is not going to release him. His only viable recourse would be to sulk and/or phone it in. That could hurt the Twins since they are unable to send Nolasco to the minors but he’s not going to go down that road (at least in any obvious way) as it is tantamount to career suicide.

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Milone does have trade value as he’s making much less money and hasn’t struggled recently like Nolasco has. But Milone hasn’t shown any signs that he would be overly disgruntled if he were relegated to the long man reliever role.

In Spring Training so far Milone has pitched 9 innings, allowed 2 earned runs, 1 home run, 6 hits, 0 walks and has struck out 8. The quality of the batters he’s faced has been 8.5 OppQual (1 being a rookie ball player and 10 being a major leaguer). Milone was scheduled to pitch last Saturday but the game was called off due to “weather.” Milone threw a simulated game with 75 pitches thrown to stay on schedule.

Nolasco has thrown 7.1 innings, allowed 6 earned runs, no home runs, 11 hits, 3 walks and has struck out 7. The quality of the batters he’s faced has been 8.6 OppQual. Nolasco last outing came in a minor league spring training game that doesn’t count for official Grapefruit league stats. In that game he went 5 innings allowing 1 earned, 2 hits, 1 home run and struck out 6.

Even fully counting Nolasco’s start against minor league batters, Milone clearly has the better numbers this spring. Of course, spring training stats should be taken with a handful of salt. The previous year’s regular stats should have more weight in decisions than spring stats. There too though, Milone’s numbers are definitively better.

Going by projections, Baseball Reference predicts Nolasco will have a 4.84 ERA and 1.441 WHIP in 2016. Milone: 4.10 ERA, 1.313 WHIP.

Nolasco has the advantage of a much longer track record in the majors. Also weighing in his favor will be the desire to rebuild his trade value. Nolasco only has potential trade value as a starter. No one wants a $12 million long man. The only way to rebuild his value is to start him.

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Milone also has the advantage of being left handed. If Nolasco were to take the 5th starter spot, the whole rotation would be right handed—which is not ideal. Having a lefty in the rotation allows the Twins to match up against lefty heavy offenses and mix things up for opponents within series.

Milone currently has the upper hand overall but a few spring starts remain for each pitcher before the regular season begins. This decision could go right down to the wire.

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