Minnesota Twins: Should the Twins bring back Michael Pineda for 2020?

The case against bringing Pineda back

Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Find a new team. This could be the mantra that the Twins give Pineda this offseason thanks to his recent run-in with the league office. Again, Pineda was putting up terrific numbers throughout the season and his recovery from Tommy John surgery may have been paving the way for a bid to become the American League’s comeback player of the year.

Instead, it’s another chapter in a checkered past that has seen Pineda try to escape the long arm of MLB’s laws.

In April of 2014, Pineda had one of those moments, heading to the mound at Fenway Park with a foreign substance on his neck. As a member of the New York Yankees, the Red Sox quickly questioned the substance, which Pineda wound up admitting was pine tar. A ten-game suspension followed and while it is in no way connected with his most recent suspension, it adds a layer of intrigue in the decision to bring him back.

Take into account that the Twins opted not to add a starter at the trade deadline because they believed they had the horses needed to make a deep playoff run. While Berrios and Odorizzi have struggled since the All-Star break, Pineda had thrived only to have the Twins’ faith rewarded by this most recent suspension.

Teams have forgiven players for more egregious actions, but the act of sabotaging a playoff run for something so simple could be hard for the Twins’ brain trust to forget. Pineda will be available if the Twins want to bring him back, but there may also need to be an insurance plan thanks to his past.