If you’ve checked out of baseball for the summer because the Twins aren’t competing for a playoff spot, you might want to check back in to see them play the White Sox on Monday night at Target Field.
That’s because it will be the MLB debut for left-handed pitching prospect Stephen Gonsalves, the fifth-best prospect in the Twins’ organization, according to MLB Pipeline.
The 24-year-old southpaw isn’t overpowering, but he’s been extremely efficient in the minors. This season, he’s gone a combined 12-3 with a 2.76 ERA, 120 strikeouts and 65 walks in 120 2/3 innings.
Despite not throwing much harder than 90 mph, Gonsalves has a respectable 8.5 K/9 rate in 100 innings at Triple-A Rochester this season.
“Hopefully, it’ll be like just any other game,” Gonsalves said on Sunday, via MiLB.com. “The conditions are the same: 60 feet, six inches.”
Gonsalves got the call up to replace Ervin Santana in the rotation, who has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with another finger problem. Santana missed the first three-plus months of the season rehabbing a finger injury that he had surgery on in February.
Gonsalves has been very good in the last two months at Triple-A, going 5-0 with a 1.27 ERA in 63 2/3 innings.
