Minnesota Twins News: Tyler Duffey Up to Fill in for Ervin Santana
The Minnesota Twins’ Tyler Duffey will make a spot start for Ervin Santana tomorrow.
The Minnesota Twins’ best starter down the stretch last season, Tyler Duffey, will be back tomorrow for a spot start. Ervin Santana has a stiff back and needs a few more days to recuperate before his next start.
Duffey’s return will be brief as he will head back to Rochester after the game tomorrow.
Santana isn’t heading to the DL so someone will have to be optioned to make room for Duffey. The probable candidates are Jorge Polanco or Max Kepler. Neither are out of options and can move freely between the majors and minors this season.
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Sending either down would mean the Twins would be playing with a short bench but Danny Santana is due back in a few days so the Twins could cope for a game or two.
As mentioned above, Tyler Duffey was excellent last year for the Twins. He looked to have a rotation spot locked down coming in to Spring Training but ultimately lost his grip on it.
He was sent to AAA to start the season due in part to his own struggles in the spring and the strong pitching of Ricky Nolasco and Tommy Milone.
Through 3 starts so far this season with Rochester, Duffey has pitched 15.2 innings with an excellent 1.72 ERA. He’s walked a few too many batters but it hasn’t really come back to hurt him yet. He hasn’t let up a home run. He’s stuck out 13.
This isn’t a long term call up by any means but Duffey has a chance to raise his profile and begin to regain the confidence that he enjoyed last season from the Twins.