Minnesota Twins put brakes on Kyle Gibson‘s return from the DL
It was reported a few days ago that Kyle Gibson would be returning from the disabled list to start Thursday’s game and that Phil Hughes would be sent to the bullpen. Well, scratch that for now.
Phil Hughes will start tonight in place of announced starter Kyle Gibson (back stiffness). The @Twins will delay Gibson's return from the DL
— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) June 2, 2016
Phil Hughes is back as the starter for Thursday and Gibson will remain on the DL.
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Based on the language used, it doesn’t sound like Gibson’s stiff back will keep him out much longer—it sounds precautionary. This is a seperate issue from the injury that Gibson originally was placed on the disabled list for. His shoulder strain is recovered.
Gibson went down to the injury just over a month ago on April 26. Both he and Ervin Santana were DL’d that day dealing a heavy blow to the rotation.
Gibson’s delayed return presents one more opportunity for Hughes to prove that he belongs in the rotation and not assigned to long relief duty.
With a strong start tonight, Hughes may be able to convince Twins’ management to send Pat Dean to the ‘pen instead. Santana and Duffey’s spots are safe and Ricky Nolasco‘s spot should be safe as well. Nolasco’s ERA isn’t pretty but his FIP and K/BB are much better and indicate that he may be suffering from some bad luck. Nolasco also turned in some of the Twins’ best starts of the season earlier this year.
So if Hughes is able to unseat anyone from the rotation with his one last chance tonight, it’ll probably have to be Pat Dean.
Phil Hughes has a 5.74 ERA, 5.11 FIP, an ugly 1.7 HR/9, 2 BB/9 and just 5.1 K/9 in 53.1 innings pitched this year. Gibson made 4 starts before getting injured and put up a 6.10 ERA, 5.34 FIP and alarmingly, walked more batters than he struck out.
With so many names heading to the DL, it’ll be nice to have one come off it soon.