Minnesota Twins Opening Day Countdown: 64, Tyler Robertson

The Minnesota Twins are just 64 days away from opening day in Baltimore. As we near that day, we will tap into Twins history related to each number as we get closer!

The Minnesota Twins are preparing for a 2018 season with expectations after making the playoffs in 2017 as a Wild Card. We will have bring out numbers from team history that represent the number of days until opening day on March 29th in Baltimore.

While we as fans would like to think that all of our team’s top prospects will develop into productive major league players, sometimes there are guys who seem to have a world of talent and never can get over the hump to be a productive major league player. Today, we focus on one of those, a player who wore #64, Tyler Robertson.

Robertson’s prospect rise and brief MLB career

Robertson was drafted out of high school in California in the 3rd round in 2006 by the Minnesota Twins and began his minor league career with 48 2/3 innings in the GCL, where he had a 15/54 BB/K ratio, catching the eye of a lot of Twins writers and evaluators.

He moved up to full-season ball in the Midwest League in 2007 as a 19 year-old, throwing 102 1/3 innings, with a 2.29 ERA and a 33/123 BB/K ratio. That season earned him the #4 ranking in the Twins system from Baseball America.

Robertson was dinged up in 2008 in high A, but was productive when healthy, producing a 2.72 ERA and 31/73 BB/K over 82 2/3 innings. His stuff wasn’t the same when he returned in 2009, as he still put up a quality ERA at high-A over 143 1/3 innings, but he only had a 51/103 BB/K ratio, struggling to control the ball and get the same bite on his pitches that he once had.

The 2010 season would be Robertson’s last as a starter, as he posted a 5.41 ERA over 28 starts in AA/AAA, striking out just 97 over 149 2/3 innings. He would move to the bullpen as a “relief ace” in 2011, showing well in that role, with 89 2/3 innings in 55 appearances, saving 16 games with a 29/88 BB/K ratio, getting quite a few people excited again about his major league possibilities, in the bullpen now, however.

More from Puckett's Pond

Robertson struggled with control in 2012 in AAA, and the control didn’t get any better when the Twins called him up to the big league club for 40 games, pitching just 25 innings as a LOOGY, but putting up a 5.40 ERA.

Robertson opened 2013 in the minors with the Twins and threw well (albeit without control) again, so the Twins bumped him up for a couple of games and saw the same issues as they’d seen before.

Robertson was DFA’d by the Twins in June of 2013, and nearly 7 years to the day that the Minnesota Twins originally drafted Robertson, he was selected off of waivers by the Washington Nationals.

He would spend one more season with the Nationals, having arm issues that season, and those arm issues continued into the next year with the Marlins, which would be his last.

Robertson pitched his last major league game at age 25. He totaled a 5.54 ERA with the Twins over 26 innings, posting a 14/28 BB/K ratio.

Next: Who will be next in Twins team HOF?

Though the Twins continue to count on young players developing to build their team, we remember today with #64 that not every young prospect will turn into the next ace or All-Star!

We look forward to that first day of the season against Baltimore!