Initially when the Twins placed J.J. Hardy on the disabled list they thought he’d return after the minimum 15 days and called up 28-year-old, light-hitting utility man Matt Tolbert rather than a legitimate prospect to replace him on the roster.
However, now Hardy’s wrist injury is proving more serious than originally thought and he’s not expected to return until at least next week, so the Twins have called up 24-year-old former first-round pick Trevor Plouffe and he’ll be in the starting lineup at shortstop tonight against the Brewers.
Plouffe was the 20th overall pick in the 2004 draft and the Twins pushed him very aggressively through the minors, but he never cracked even a .750 OPS at any level and hit just .256 with a .704 OPS in nearly 3,000 plate appearances prior to this year. He ranked just 27th on my annual list of the Twins’ top prospects this offseason, but Plouffe has finally shown some pop at the plate in his third crack at Triple-A, hitting .303 with 18 extra-base hits and an .860 OPS in 38 games prior to the call-up.
Obviously six weeks of solid hitting at Triple-A doesn’t cancel out six years of poor numbers at every level, but Plouffe is still just 24 and the Twins seem confident that the strides he’s made this season are legitimate. Minnesota has had trouble developing young middle infielders for basically Ron Gardenhire’s whole tenure, so with Hardy perpetually banged up and Orlando Hudson manning second base on a one-year contract Plouffe taking a step forward would be huge.
Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN on opening day
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Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.
Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.
“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”
Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.
Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.
“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.
Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.