Rays Designate Rob Delaney for Assignment: A Second Chance for the Twins?

Rob Delaney can't catch a break. He seems to be one of those tweeners who posts very solid minor league numbers, but scouts don't rave about his abilities or his strikeout rates or his fastball, and as a result he doesn't seem to get much of a shot in the Majors. Between last year and this year, the extent of his time in The Show, Delaney has appeared in four games totaling three innings.

That includes 2011 in the minors, where he's bounced back from a mediocre ERA in 2010, posting 22 strikeouts and 6 walks in 21 innings, along with 20 hits and just one home run. His ERA is 2.57.

With the Twins being the worst team in Major League Baseball, not to mention being in the same league as the Rays, they will get first dibs to claim Delaney. And I can't think of a single reason why they shouldn't. With the dearth of pitchers on the 40-man roster who don't even have encouraging minor league numbers, the least Minnesota could do would be to claim him, stick him in Rochester for a few games, and see how he does.

I wasn't necessarily a fan of the Twins stamping Delaney with a DFA in the first place, when I wrote this during a Breakfast & Baseball segment in January:

The Twins claimed southpaw Dusty Hughes off waivers this week, designating minor league strikeout machine Rob Delaney for assignment in the process to make room on the 40-man roster.  Hughes had a pretty good season with the Royals last year, in spite of some red flags in terms of peripherals (base runners allowed, for one), and while it's not much of a surprise that the Twins were looking for another left-handed reliever (read: alive and breathing) there is some surprise that it was Delaney who was given the heave-ho.  Delaney will be just 26 in 2011, and while he's unlikely to become a major factor for the Rays, who claimed him off waivers, he certainly looked serviceable enough.  But Hughes has some Major League experience, at least, and I can only rationalize this by thinking the Twins believe a mediocre lefty is better than a potentially plus righty out of the bullpen.  I know I wouldn't have done it.  At least Delaney will have a real shot to contribute somewhere this season, because it obviously wasn't going to be happening in Minnesota.