Minnesota Twins sign former Reds reliever Ian Kroll

The Minnesota Twins added to their bullpen depth (kind of) by signing the former Cincinnati Reds lefty to a minor league contract.

Any fan of the Minnesota Twins with a keyboard will tell you that the team could use some help in the bullpen. After getting off to a decent start, the Twins bullpen has sunk to 26th in the majors in bullpen ERA and many of Minnesota’s relievers such as Blake Parker are giving up slugging percentages this month that would make Babe Ruth blush.

While the Twins haven’t made a major move to address their bullpen woes, they are taking some action to try and correct the problem. It’s just not the move the fans would like to see right now.

On Tuesday, the Twins signed left-handed reliever Ian Krol to a minor league contract. The 28-year old signed a minor league deal with the Cinncinnati Reds last winter, but didn’t make the cut out of spring training and struggled with Triple-A Louisville this season registering a 5.33 ERA in 25 1/3 innings.

Over his career, Krol has been hit or miss, registering a solid year with the Atlanta Braves in 2016 (3.18 ERA, 56 K, 13 BB in 51 innings) but falling off the map in 2017 (5.33 ERA, 44 K, 21 BB in 49 innings) and spending last season in the Los Angeles Angels organization, throwing two shutout innings in his only major league appearance.

Krol’s addition comes almost a week after the Twins signed Cuban righty Yennier Cano to a minor league deal, but it would be a surprise if he is a contributor to the bullpen in 2018.

For now, the Twins are simply looking to stockpile arms and see if they can strike gold without having to cough up multiple prospects for a rental arm. While it’s a long shot that Krol can reach his form from three years ago, Minnesota may be wise to throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks to help deepen its supply of relief arms.