Unless you were paying very close attention Thursday, you probably didn’t notice that the Twins sent Louie Varland back to Triple-A St. Paul.
Varland, the 24-year-old reigning Twins minor league pitcher of the year, was demoted one day after making mince meat of the New York Yankees in his MLB debut on Wednesday.
The Twins were leading 3-1 in the sixth inning when Varland gave up a single and then struck out the next batter before manager Rocco Baldelli walked to the mound and replaced him with Griffin Jax, who allowed the game-tying home run to Gleyber Torres two batters later.
The only blemish in Varland’s debut was surrendering a solo homer to Aaron Judge, who oh by the way has smashed 55 homers and is in a two-player race with Shohei Ohtani for the American League MVP award.
The big question is what the Twins are planning to do with Varland? Did they send him down and recall right-handed pitcher Cole Sands to add another fresh arm to the bullpen?
As of this writing, the Twins have not penciled in a starting pitcher for Sunday’s game against the Guardians. Dylan Bundy is pitching Friday and Chris Archer goes Saturday. Varland probably isn’t an option for Sunday since it would be on just four days full rest, so that could be the reason Sands is up now.
If Varland doesn’t pitch Sunday, then it will be up to the Twins to decide either to keep him in the minors or recall him on Monday (off day) and start on six days rest against the Royals on Tuesday. That would also give Joe Ryan a sixth day of rest before he starts Wednesday.
Varland proved worthy of helping the Twins down the stretch, but it’s on the Twins to decide what to do with him.
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