Previewing the Minnesota Twins 2017 Potential Arbitration Eligibles
Trevor May
When the Twins made the move after the 2012 season to move players to create room in their outfield, they moved speedster Ben Revere to the Philadelphia Phillies for May and Vance Worley. Worley crashed and burned with the Twins, leaving after 2013, when he put up a 7.21 ERA over 10 starts, but May has developed in the Twins system around injuries and struggles to find his long term role.
May was moved to the bullpen in 2016, but he was attempting to make the starting rotation in 2017 spring training when he suffered a torn UCL in March and underwent Tommy John surgery. He began throwing again in early August, and hopes are that he will be able to return this next spring and likely return to the major leagues in the first couple of months of the 2018 season.
Because he’s been injured frequently, May will come up for arbitration before he’s really defined his future role as a major leaguer. Due to the stress on his arm, it’s quite likely the Twins will have May work as a reliever when he returns.
When May moved into the bullpen, he saw his fastball tick up a full MPH on average to 93.9. His slider and curve both played up in effectiveness and movement out of the bullpen, even though the breaking stuff didn’t add any velocity.
As he’s returning from a season making just $550K, he’ll likely only make $600K-$750k this season, so resigning him is not the issue, but getting him healthy will be the goal for 2018.
Michael Tonkin
A 30th round selection by the Twins in 2008, Tonkin has been up the last four years for some extended time with the Twins in the bullpen, but his performance has been less than stellar the last two seasons, combining for a 5.05 ERA and 1.49 WHIP at the major league level in 92 2/3 innings over 81 games.
He attempted to use a cutter more this season, but he continued to have a negative pitch value with his fastball, slider, and now also with his cutter. He could be a guy that the Twins negotiate with ahead of time on a minor league deal before the contract tender deadline. Otherwise, even though he’d likely cost little, he’d likely be a non-tender candidate.
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