Minnesota Twins: It’s Decision Time With Duffey

When the Minnesota Twins traded Ricky Nolasco to the Los Angeles Angels in return for Hector Santiago, they essentially swapped starting pitchers.

The team also moved Tyler Duffey back to the starting rotation after very briefly being demoted to bullpen duties.

Duffey pitched Wednesday against the first-place Cleveland Indians with a lot at stake.

Unfortunately for Duffey, he did not pitch very well.

The Minnesota Twins’ offense was able to get off to another quick start thanks in large part to Joe Mauer but Duffey could not keep the Indians away.

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They remained in striking distance due to some big hits and timely home runs.

All said, Duffey allowed five earned runs over six innings on eight hits. Sure, he struck out six and walked none but his inability to keep the opponents from scoring has only been trumped by the Twins’ ability to score massive amounts of runs during his starts.

In his last eight starts the Minnesota Twins scored seven runs or more six times. Duffey however, allowed 31 runs in those starts with six starts of four or more runs.

Simply put, Duffey is not getting it done anymore and the Minnesota Twins need to understand that.

He’s only being put in situations to succeed due to the offense bailing him out.

Even Tommy Milone, who was moved to the bullpen, has been slightly more effective over his past few starts.

Neither Milone nor Duffey have been that great this season but with the acquisition of Santiago who had been red hot with a 6-0 in July, the Minnesota Twins should start looking at different internal options to spell Milone or Duffey for a bit.

it’s the baseball equivalent of “it’s not goodbye, it’s see ya’ later.”

Internally, the Twins could call upon the likes of Pat Dean who last pitched in June but saw his numbers inflate due to a poor start against the New York Yankees or newly acquired Adalberto Mejia.

With September right around the corner, it seems Milone and Duffey could be used as place holders until the Minnesota Twins use the expanded rosters to put Mejia or even Stephen Gonsalves potentially into the rotation for the final stretch.

Either way, it seems the Twins should start being realistic about Duffey’s struggles and stick with a demotion of some kind.

It’s not that I’m giving up on Duffey – I do believe he can still be an effective rotation guy considering what he did last year – it’s just I feel he needs to start figuring some things out first before he can truly be ready to contribute in the rotation.

In other words, it’s the baseball equivalent of “it’s not goodbye, it’s see ya’ later.”

Next: Why It's Time to Trade Suzuki

Duffey, we’ll see ya’ next Spring Training and hopefully see the 2015 version that we all grew to love.