Twins sign Blaine Boyer to minor league contract

The #MNTwins have signed RHP Blaine Boyer to a minor league contract w/ an invitation to spring training. 61 players invited to camp in 2015

— Dustin Morse (@Twins_morsecode) January 7, 2015

Where pitching is concerned, it seems the Twins are crossing their T's and dotting their I's. Terry Ryan has said that they need to make a commitment to improving the pitching staff, front team-level talent to depth across the board, and while there hasn't been a lot of effort made to ease the issue on the defensive side of the equation the organization is certainly doing their job finding pitchers.

Blaine Boyer is a 33-year old right-hander who hasn't had a great deal of success throughout his career, but found his way back to the Majors in 2014 after two years bouncing around the minor leagues, the NBP, and no baseball at all. He gave the Padres 40.1 innings of 3.57 ERA baseball (2.93 FIP) with 29 strikeouts and just eight walks. If this is a new aspect to Boyer, a new era of his career that sees him perform with high-end command with a passable strikeout rate, then Minnesota has just added some solid depth for their bullpen.

Boyer has an invitation to spring training, and will join at least ten other candidates who will be vying for what should be one or two spots in relief with Lester Oliveros, Michael Tonkin, Ryan Pressly, J.R. Graham, Logan Darnell, Aaron Thompson, and quite possibly Mike Pelfrey, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Tommy Milone.

It's a full house, and these battles are going to be some of the best to watch in spring training. If any Padres fans are in Florida come March, they'll be able to watch two of their top eight relievers from 2014 in action.