The Minnesota Twins have activated reliever Casey Fien in time for Friday night’s series-opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Fien has missed 25 games because of a strained right shoulder. After tossing a scoreless inning in a rehab appearance with Triple-A Rochester Tuesday, he is headed back to Minnesota.
Casey Fien with a scoreless inning in Rochester, two strikeouts, no walks. Guessing if he feels fine you'll see him recalled this weekend.
— Derek Wetmore (@DerekWetmore) May 27, 2015
The Star Tribune notes that all three of Fien’s Triple-A outings were scoreless.
To make room for Fien on the 25-man roster, the Twins optioned reliever Michael Tonkin back to Triple-A.
“It’s a good problem to have,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor on Friday. “It gives us more of an upgrade and more depth.”
“…Casey has a nice track record,” he added. “So far, everything is on schedule for him to return here in the near-term.”
Despite that track record, Twins blogger Rhett Bollinger notes that Fien won’t be returning to the role he left.
Fien was the team’s top setup reliever in each of the last two seasons. He posted a 3.95 ERA with 124 strikeouts in 125 1/3 innings combined over those two seasons. He hadn’t faired quite as well out of the gate in 2015 though, recording just three strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings with a 4.35 ERA.
Furthermore, his eighth-inning role appears to have been taken over by Blaine Boyer, who has been lights-out in 23 2/3 innings.
“I like what Boyer’s done,” Molitor said. “I think a lot of people have confidence when he’s in the game late right now. Not to say it can’t change, but if I had to say right now in the short-term, most likely Fien would precede Boyer.”
