Kyle Gibson demoted to Rochester

In a move that the Twins had to make, Kyle Gibson was sent to Triple-A Rochester after his latest rocky start. A corresponding move will be announced today, per the Internet.

Gibson was knocked around by a subpar Oakland A’s team in Thursday’s 8-5 loss. His ERA is now 8.20, and left the Twins with little choice. Paul Molitor’s quote about the move, from Phil Miller’s post-game Strib story, says it all.

You can feel free to speculate if the Twins would have been this quick to make the obviously correct move in the previous regime. I do think the Terry Ryan-era Twins would have eventually done something if Gibson had continued to flail, but not this early.

Where does this leave the Twins pitching staff? Nick Tepesch, who is definitely a major league player I’ve heard of before, is making his debut as the fifth starter tomorrow against the Red Sox. That would lead one to believe the team will call up a reliever today in case he gets knocked around early.

That leaves the matter of next Saturday, which is when Gibson’s next turn in the rotation comes up. Do the Twins bring back Adelberto Mejia? Or is this when they decide Jose Berrios has done enough crushing of Triple-A to take another shot at major league hitters? Or is there a third option somewhere out there? Don’t say Mike Pelfrey. It’s not funny.

As for Gibson: man, I don’t know. He’s been inconsistent-to-plain-old-bad for awhile now.

Nick Blackburn was alright until he very much wasn’t. That’s the path Kyle Gibson is on.