Minnesota Twins: Craig Breslow designated for assignment

The Minnesota Twins have designated Craig Breslow for assignment. Breslow was in the middle of what he hoped would be a career-reviving year.

Minnesota Twins reliever Craig Breslow put in the work this past offseason to have a bounce back year in 2017. Unfortunately for him, it has not paid off the way he would have liked it to. Breslow was designated for assignment this past weekend.

Breslow started the season off well, having held a 2.57 ERA through the first week of June. That all changed on June 11th when the San Francisco Giants lit him up for five runs in one inning of work. In his next eight appearances, Breslow would give up eight earned runs and his ERA would shoot to above five.

His last appearance came Sunday, getting two outs and giving up no runs while giving up one hit. Outings like that had been rare for Breslow since the middle of June, which is a big reason the Twins decided to cut ties with him.

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A comeback that fell flat.

This season was supposed to be a revival year of sorts for Breslow after a rough three-year stretch with the Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins. Breslow had struggled with giving up runs and was not a viable bullpen option. He was released by the Marlins in July of 2016 and was signed by the Texas Rangers before being released less than two weeks later.

The Twins gave him a chance by signing him to a minor league deal in February of 2017. He made the team out of Spring Training, which looked like a possible comeback. The comeback, unfortunately, seems to have fallen short.

Breslow is 36 years old and coming off some of the worst seasons of his career, so he is not a very attractive option for a team to sign for the rest of the season. If baseball doesn’t work out, Breslow can always put his degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry that he earned from Yale University to use.

Next: Twins Daily Morning Dip: July 24th, 2017

Maybe a team will take a chance on Craig Breslow, but it doesn’t seem likely. If his career is done, he had a heck of a run and will be remembered for his 2013 postseason heroics and his incredible intelligence. Maybe it isn’t quite over yet, but we will see.