MN Twins Promising Young Starter Going on IL

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Mick Abel, Minnesota Twins
Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

On Sunday night, the Minnesota Twins began a wave of substantial moves to shuffle around their pitching staff, after rookie Andrew Morris imploded in the second inning of his relief outing Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds.

First, news broke that Kendry Rojas was being called up from Triple-A St. Paul. Moments later, news broke that Connor Prielipp was on his way up, as well, as part of the team’s “Taxi Squad”. Rojas is taking the spot of of Kody Funderburk, who’s going on the paternity list.

Mick Abel lands on injured list for Minnesota Twins

By Monday morning, we found out who Prielipp is coming up to replace, when the MN Twins placed flamethrowing young starter Mick Abel on the injured list with elbow inflammation.

Thanks to a strong spring training (22.0 IP 5 R 4 BB 27 K), Abel beat out Zebby Matthews for the MN Twins final rotation spot. After a rough first outing, the 23-year-old found his footing and quickly displayed why he made the team out of camp.

Elbow inflammation is quite a scary diagnosis for Abel. Oftentimes, it can be a precursor for a longer-term injury. Hopefully, that’s not the case for Minnesota’s talented rookie. I’d imagine we learn more details on exactly what Abel is dealing with, in the days to come.

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Through his first four outings this season, Abel owns a 3.98 ERA (2.78 FIP) with a 23/10 K/BB through 20 1/3 innings. Since his first outing (a piggyback appearance out of the bullpen vs Baltimore), Mick has allowed just four runs in 17 innings.

He’s been especially dominant in his last two outings, tossing 13 scoreless with a 16 strikeouts and just three walks. In his last start, Mick Abel went 7.0 innings, allowing ZERO runs on 4 hits, while striking out 10 and walking NONE.

MN Twins rotation has an opening

With Abel vacating a rotation spot, manager Derek Shelton will need a new arm to make at least three turns around the rotation. With Connor Prielipp already on the taxi squad, he’d make a ton of sense in that fifth and final starting slot.

Prielipp is the Twins’ 5th-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, and he has yet to make his major league debut. To this point in his career, he’s compiled just 36 2/3 innings at Triple-A, due to injuries. In fact, Connor has pitched only 156 1/3 innings since graduating high school in 2019.

This season for the Saints, Prielipp has been great — posting a 2.30 ERA across 15 2/3 innings, allowing just 11 hits while striking out 22 opposing batters and walking 8. and has allowed 11 hits. A lefty, Prielipp throws 94.8 mph with his fastball, and pairs it with a sinker, curveball, slider, and changeup.

Kendry Rojas is also a starter, but is being used in relief, to replace Funderburk. It’s possible that Andrew Morris could move from the bullpen into the rotation, but he didn’t make a very good case for that during his two relief appearances, where Morris allowed four runs on nine hits across 4 1/3 innings.

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