From A.J. Minter’s dominant relief appearances to Dean Kremer’s rotation struggles, evaluate the mixed results of Minnesota’s summer reinforcements as the club fights to salvage their fading postseason dreams.
The Minnesota Twins are 64-72 and 8.5 games back in the AL Central race. They are four games back in the AL Wild Card race. At this point in the season, they are not completely out of it. However, the past month has been a massive struggle for Minnesota: They are 8-15 since the trade deadline, which has turned them from an AL Central contender to a team on the outside looking in.
The Twins are 3-7 in their last 10 and 1-7 in their last eight. They fell 3-2 to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday afternoon as they haven’t been able to give starter Bailey Ober any offensive support in his last two starts. As mentioned before, the Twins were in it at the deadline with a 56-57 record on deadline day in a wide-open AL Central race.
How have the Twins' trade acquisitions performed since the deadline? Are they the reason for the falloff? Or is it a more macro issue for the Twins? Minnesota acquired three relievers: Tommy Nance, Jeff Hoffman, and A.J. Minter, while also adding a starter in Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles.
AJ Minter has been one of the best relievers in baseball since joining the Twins, posting a 0.77 ERA in 11.2 innings. He has nine strikeouts and four walks while allowing only six hits and one earned run in 13 appearances.
Nance was acquired earlier in July and has allowed four earned runs in 16 appearances with an impressive 19-to-6 K/BB ratio. Nance has allowed earned runs in back-to-back appearances, but prior to that, he had posted 11 straight appearances without allowing a run.
Jeff Hoffman hasn't had as much success in a Twins uniform, but his ERA has steadily declined since joining Minnesota. He has a 4.50 ERA in nine appearances with Minnesota, allowing four earned runs and seven hits with an 11-7 K-BB ratio. Hoffman has been unable to string together more than two appearances without allowing a run with the Twins.
Dean Kremer has also struggled, but that has been the trend since he returned from injury in early July. With the Twins, he has a 4.39 ERA, allowing 13 runs and 19 hits across 26.2 innings in five starts. Kremer has one quality start with Minnesota, which came against his former team, the Orioles, on Aug. 10. Kremer’s ERA since returning from injury on July 1 is 5.92.
