You thought your week was busy?
The Minnesota Twins fell 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays in 10 innings on Sunday at Target Field, dropping their record to 3-6 on the young season.
Tampa Bay improved to 4-5 after Richie Palacios launched a two-run homer in the 10th to break the game open.
Simeon Woods Richardson pitched well for Minnesota, allowing just one earned run over 6 2/3 innings, but the offense could only muster three hits for the second straight game.
Matt Wallner provided the lone run with a solo homer in the second inning.
It was a tough loss for a team that is still trying to find its footing, but buried in all of that was a pretty good story.
Right-hander Garrett Acton, who had just been called up to the big league roster on Saturday, summed up his wild few days in a postgame interview.
"It's been a whirlwind week, a lot going on," Acton said. "But ultimately I'm just happy to be here."
A Week Nobody Could Have Scripted
And he is not kidding about the whirlwind part.
Acton was pitching for Triple-A Jacksonville in the Marlins organization just a few days ago before Miami designated him for assignment on March 29.
Then on April 2, the Twins traded for him and sent minor league pitcher Logan Whitaker to the Marlins in return.
Minnesota placed injured starter David Festa on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot, and just three days after the trade, Acton found himself on the active roster after the team optioned Zak Kent to Triple-A St. Paul.
That is a lot of movement for a 27-year-old who has only seven career big league appearances between the Oakland Athletics in 2023 and the Tampa Bay Rays last year.
His major league numbers are not pretty either, with a 10.80 ERA across 6 2/3 innings at the highest level.
But the Twins clearly saw something in his minor league track record that made him worth the move.
Last season at Triple-A Durham, Acton posted a 3.68 ERA in 58 2/3 innings and struck out 71 batters while sitting mid-90s with his fastball.
Why Minnesota Needed the Help
The reason Acton got the call so quickly ties directly into one of the biggest concerns about this Twins roster heading into the season.
The bullpen has been leaky early on, and the pitching staff as a whole took a massive hit when ace Pablo Lopez went down for the year with a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery.
That loss rippled through the entire pitching plan, and first-year manager Derek Shelton has already had to start shuffling arms in and out of the relief corps just nine games into the season.
Minnesota did not build a deep bullpen this offseason, and the early returns have confirmed that worry.
Acton is the type of pitcher who will likely bounce between the majors and minors throughout the year, and his fastball and slider combination gives him a real chance to stick if he can throw strikes consistently.
The Twins are 3-6 and hitting just .192 as a team, so there are problems well beyond the bullpen.
But getting reliable arms into the relief mix is one area where the front office can actually make moves right now, and that is exactly what they did with Acton.
For a guy who went from being DFA'd to traded to promoted in about a week, the gratitude in his voice was real.
Whether Acton becomes a meaningful part of this bullpen or just a short-term fill-in, the opportunity is there.