Twins claim Beau Burrows off waivers; might actually be Ryan O’Rourke in disguise

Ryan O’Rourke is a mediocre reliever who is best know for vomiting. So is Beau Burrows. This is an appropriate metaphor for the Twins bullpen in 2021.

The former was a Twins for a couple seasons, and the latter is officially the newest Twin.

Burrows actually has a solid prospect pedigree—way back in 2015 the Tigers drafted him #22 overall as a high school pitcher. Since then, he has been toiling in the minors. Still only 24 years old, Burrows made his season debut for the Tigers a few days ago, and threw up on the mound. He threw 50 pitches in his one appearance, before being lifted due to heat sickness, after creating the aforementioned janitorial situation.

Burrows threw a total of 1.2 innings, giving up four earned runs on two hits, two walks, and striking out three. His ERA is 21.60, which means he should feel right at home in the Twins’ bullpen. He had previous pitched 6.2 innings for the 2020 squad. In his minor league career, he owns a 3.71 ERA over 485 innings. He’ll be assigned to the Saints for now, but the Twins will likely need to give him another shot in the bigs this summer.

The Tigers DFA’d Burrows to make room for Jeimer Candelario to return from the COVID list.