The Minnesota Twins made a highly-expected move when they designated Simeon Woods Richardson for assignment. After posting an MLB-high seven losses and a 7.74 ERA in his first 12 appearances (10 starts), Woods Richardson’s leash had run out and the Twins had no choice but to put him on waivers as a player who was out of minor league options.
But when the emotional response fades, Woods Richardson’s DFA could wind up looking like the type of “rage dump” you would see in your fantasy baseball team. Only 25 years old, there’s a good chance another team will take a chance on the right-hander and it could be part of a ripple effect that was created when Kendry Rojas was scratched from Thursday’s start against the Chicago White Sox.
Kendry Rojas’s injury created a ripple effect in the Twins’ rotation
Rojas was supposed to start the series finale in Chicago but gave the ball to Woods Richardson after experiencing left elbow soreness. Pressed into emergency duty, Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs – all with two outs – in a 6-2 loss, but it was even worse considering he only went 2.2 innings.
With the Twins’ monitoring Taj Bradley’s innings in his return from a pectoral injury, the bullpen had to throw 4.1 innings in Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The strain on the pen left Minnesota short on arms and it led to the decision to DFA Woods Richardson and call up John Klein from Triple-A St. Paul.
While Twins fans may be thrilled with the move, it comes with some risk. Woods Richardson earned a demotion, but he also went 12-9 with a 4.11 ERA in 51 games (50 starts) over the past two seasons. Baseball Savant also shows the fix may be as simple as pitch selection as his splitfinger, which allowed a .137 batting average and threw 10 percent of the time last year, is allowing a .352 average and a .648 slugging percentage with a 26.5% usage rate this season.
It’s also worth noting that Woods Richardson pitched three scoreless innings out of the bullpen in two appearances on May 18 and May 25, which may have signaled a way to work through his issues. Instead, the Twins decided their leaky bullpen couldn’t be touched and put a 25-year-old with previous success in the major leagues on waivers.
This move comes under more fire considering how things played out this weekend. Rojas went to the 15-day injured list with a triceps injury on Friday and Bailey Ober followed him to the IL after allowing eight runs (seven earned) in Saturday’s 10-9 loss to the Pirates. Klein was also sent down the following day, which makes the decision to give up on Woods Richardson even more questionable.
If a team focuses on the things he does well, there’s a chance that Woods Richardson could bounce back. They could also stick him in the bullpen like the Twins were planning to do and perhaps find the quality relief arm the Twins are lacking. Instead, Yoendrys Gomez and Travis Adams were deemed to be irreplaceable and it may have caused self-inflicted damage to an already thin starting rotation.
This makes Rojas's injury one that forced a knee-jerk reaction to let Woods Richardson go. While he could slide through waivers, his upside makes it unlikely, which could hurt the Twins in the coming months.
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