In a surprisingly quick early season move, the Twins claimed relief pitcher, Juan Morillo, today off of waivers from the Colorado Rockies. To make room for Morillo the Twins were forced to designate reliever Phil Humber for assignment. Humber, like Morillo, is out of options and will have to pass by all the other Major League clubs before being sent down to AAA-Rochester.
It’s no doubt that the Twins bullpen has struggled thus far in this young season, but I am surprised that they pulled the trigger on a move like this. Humber was one of the players acquired in the Johan Santana deal last year and is now in risk of leaving the organization. At the same time, Humber looked like he would just be an innings eater this year which seems to be role that R.A. Dickey has claimed.
Morillo’s has pitched a career 8.2 innings in the major and has an ugly 11.42 ERA to show for it. Obviously, this is a small sample size and the Twins see some promise in Morillo who apparently has a great fastball that clocks out at 96 mph. With that great fastball Morillo also brings some control issues walking 56 batter over 59.2 innings last year at AAA.
On the positive side, Morillo did strike out 8.3 batter per 9 innings last year at AAA and stayed away from the long ball giving up just 3 homeruns over his 59 innings. I guess the Twins are looking for somebody who can come in and throw the ball hard and hopefully strike out some batters. We’ll see what Billy Smith was thinking on this one!
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