Adalberto Mejia to DL, Tyler Duffey and Tyler Austin recalled

As RandBall’s Stu noted this morning, the Twins were expected to call up pitcher Tyler Duffey and first baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin before tonight’s game. The team had at least one empty spot on the active roster after trading the beloved Fernando Rodney to the Athletics Thursday night, and apparently the second spot to fill came because Adalberto Mejia is going on the DL.

According to the Twins press released, Mejia’s issue is a bum left wrist. Indeed, he suffered the injury during his last start against the Indians on Tuesday. After giving up only one hit over 5.0 scoreless innings, the Twins were forced to pull Mejia from the game. The team was hopefully the lefty could make his next start scheduled for Sunday, but that won’t be the case.

In Mejia’s place, the Twins are calling up the aforementioned Tyler Duffey. Though Duffey has been a starter in the past, all of his recent work in Triple-A has been out of the bullpen. Hence, he’s not “stretched out”, as they say, and I doubt he will start Sunday’s game in place of Mejia, unless the Twins opt to do one of those “Opener”, bullpen game type things. The organization has experimented with the idea in Triple-A this year.

Over 11.1 innings in the majors this year, Duffey has a 6.35 ERA with eight strikeouts and one walk. That’s an awful small sample size, of course, because Duffey has spent most of this season in Triple-A, where he has a 2.72 ERA with 55 strikeouts and 20 walks over 53.0 innings.

The Austin Tyler (that is the other one, Tyler Austin) was one of the guys the Twins acquired from the Yankees for Lance Lynn. Austin played in 23 major league games for the Yankees this season, hitting .223/.280/.471 with a surprising eight home runs. He’s also already hit three home runs in nine games for the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings since being acquired on July 30th. Overall this year in Triple-A, Austin is hitting .255/.311/.547 with nine home runs. This will be Austin’s first time in the big leagues for Minnesota.

Austin is taking Fernando Rodney’s vacant spot on the active roster, meaning the Twins are now carrying 12 pitchers and 13 position players. Despite having only 12 pitchers, the Twins still have eight in the bullpen, because they now only have four starters — meaning another move will probably be made before Sunday’s game. Fernando Romero or Zack Littell seem like probable choices.