Turns out Dallas Keuchel is joining the Twins after all; Joe Ryan placed on 15-day IL

Life has its twists and turns, and then there’s the last month that Dallas Keuchel had.

Since winning the Cy Young back in 2015, Keuchel has bounced around a bit and landed with the Minnesota Twins back in June. He was signed to a minor league deal, with a pair of contractual opt outs that would allow him to leave the team if he wasn’t called up to the Majors.

It appeared that Keuchel’s time with the team was over, as he reportedly opted out of this deal with the Twins late Tuesday night. The move came as a bit of a sour chaser after Minnesota did absolutely nothing at the MLB Trade Deadline hours prior.

The opt out was the second Keuchel had at his disposal, as he chose not to use the first one earlier in July. His feelings appeared to have changed in the short time between then and Tuesday but it turns out that wasn’t really the end of the story.

Twins Rumors: Dallas Keucehl called up to replace Joe Ryan

As it turns out, Keuchel isn’t going anywhere.

On Thursday the Twins announced that the former Cy Young winner would be joining the team after starter Joe Ryan was placed on the 15-day IL.

It’ a bit of a good news, bad news situation. Keuchel is getting a shot to potentially revive his career — one in which he’s displayed the ability to be a Cy Young winner — but it comes at a price.

Joe Ryan was shelled by the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night, and his trip to the IL seems to be a direct reflection of that performance and the reason why it happened. He’s only on the 15-day IL, which means he shouldn’t miss extended time, but losing him is the exact situation the Twins were hoping to avoid by standing pat at the trade deadline.

The idea of not making any trades was rooted in the belief that the Twins have pieces in place that when healthy can be better than anything the team would trade for. Less than a week into this plan, Joe Ryan has been lost, although the front office luckily has a backup plan.

How well the plan works out is yet to be seen. Keuchel posted a 1.13 ERA over six starts and 32 inning with the Saints, with a 61.5 percent ground ball rate. While that all looks pretty good, he did post a 21.2 percent strikeout rate and 9.1 percent walk rate, which is less than ideal.

Nobody is rooting against Keuchel succeeding with the Twins, but it's hard to feel good about the team after cracks are already showing in its flimsy deadline strategy.