Louie Varland has made four terrible starts for the Minnesota Twins this season, and there will not be a fifth.
On Monday, less than a day after he was lit up by the Detroit Tigers and lasted less than three innings, Varland was demoted to Triple-A St. Paul for the foreseeable future. It's a move that was badly needed for all involved, as Varland showed some flash with his velocity but was getting absolutely rocked by hitters.
Varland heads to the minors owning a 9.18 ERA, with his last outing being a brutal one against Detroit in which he gave up four runs in 2.2 IP. It wasn't his worst statistical start of the season, has he gave up six runs on 11 hits against the Orioles but Rocco Baldelli didn't need to see much more of Varland crashing and burning before taking him out on Sunday.
Minnesota didn't need to see much more of Varland at the MLB-level, which was evident in his getting sent down. The question now is what happens moving forward, as Varland did well in the bullpen late last season after a similarly rough start but there's only so many chances he'll get.
Twins make five roster moves, including a demotion for Louie Varland
Sending down Varland wasn't the only move the Twins made, even if it was the most notable.
Just as important is the return of Max Kepler from the IL, who has been out for over a week after hurting his knee on Opening Day. Much like Varland, there's hope that Kepler's struggles can be ironed out although here's to hoping things go better.
Kepler struggled to start the season as well, but it's worth wondering how much of that had to do with his injured knee. He was 1-for-20 when he hit the IL, hitting an abysmal .050 which seems almost impossible for a professional baseball player.
Of course, Twins fans haven't needed to look hard for historically bad trends. Minnesota's offense is second-worst in the league and is in a funk so bad that it's keeping company with the Chicago White Sox.
Kepler's bat needs to wake up, becuse someone needs to start stepping up at the plate to get the offense going.
Twins send down Jair Camargo and send another pitcher to the 60-day IL
Another move that was announced on Monday was the demotion of Jair Camargo back to Triple-A. He was called up a week ago to provide some doubleheader relief after Carlos Correa went to the IL but went 0-for-4 with a walk and run scored in two games.
Replacing him on the 26-man roster is Ronny Henriquez, who will actually be replacing Daniel Duarte after he was placed on the 60-day IL. We knew his season was over this weekend, but it took until Monday for the Twins to lock in a corresponding move.
Henriquez will offer some length out of the bullpen, and is in perhaps the best position of anyone coming up to make an impact based on how well that unit has performed.
That being said, the Twins are down bad right now and it's clear they're trying anything they can to get some sort of a spark going before it's too late.