Twins place Robbie Grossman on DL, recall Johnny Field

It was rather puzzling late Sunday when Logan Morrison entered the game to pinch-run for Robbie Grossman. We learned after the game that Grossman strained his right hamstring, hence why SloMo LoMo was sent in, and then it was announced that Grossman was sent to the 10-day DL for said hamstring strain. In his place, the Twins recalled the recently-claimed Johnny Field.

Field, 26, started the season in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and was called up early in the season. He accumulated 179 plate appearances while hitting .213/.253/.373 (70 wRC+) and seeing time at all three outfield positions. He’s even pitched in one game! (It went well.) He was designated for assignment in July and was picked up by the Cleveland Indians, who sent him directly to Triple-A. Field never returned to the majors with them and joined the Twins organization just a few days ago when he was claimed off waivers.

Since Field is a righthanded hitter, I imagine that he’ll draw some starts against lefthanded pitchers in place of Jake Cave or Max Kepler. The FanGraphs projection systems seem to think that he’ll provide similar offense to Cave (keep in mind that Cave is outperforming his projections right now) and a significantly better hitter than Ryan LaMarre, the righthanded outfielder that started the season with the big league club. Also, if this is relevant to your interests, Field immediately becomes the third-fastest runner (28.1 ft/sec) on the Twins when he joins the team.