The Twins and righty Darren McCaughan agreed to a minor league contract earlier this month, per the group’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll presumably head to massive league camp as a non-roster invitee this coming spring.
McCaughan, 28, has spent the overwhelming majority of his profession with the Mariners, who chosen him within the twelfth spherical of the 2017 draft. He made his massive league debut with the 2021 M’s and in addition pitched briefly for Seattle in 2023. The Mariners traded him to the Marlins for money again in February, and McCaughan pitched a career-high 42 massive league innings between Miami and Cleveland this previous season.
In 56 main league innings, McCaughan has been hit laborious. He carries a profession 6.43 ERA with only a 15.3% strikeout charge. He’s executed a high quality job limiting walks (8.4%) and has averted laborious contact on a charge foundation, however the laborious contact he does permit is usually of the maximum-damage selection. He’s yielded a median of two.09 homers per 9 innings within the massive leagues.
Homers have been a problem for McCaughan all through his professional profession, as one may anticipate from a soft-tossing righty who averages about 90 mph on his fastball. He’s displayed respectable strikeout and stroll charges within the higher minors (21.7 Ok%, 6.4 BB%), however McCaughan has been tagged for 1.60 homers per 9 frames even in Triple-A. He posted a 4.73 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout charge and eight.2% stroll charge in 85 2/3 Triple-A frames final yr.
What McCaughan can carry is a few stability and sturdiness to the Twins’ Triple-A workers. He’s pitched a minimum of 127 innings in all of his professional seasons (and even in his 2017 draft yr, if combining his NCAA and minor league innings). McCaughan has considerably extremely by no means gone on the injured listing within the minors or within the massive leagues.
The Twins have sufficient starters that McCaughan isn’t prone to crack the roster this spring except it’s in a long-relief capability. Minnesota’s rotation consists of Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack and Simeon Woods Richardson, though Paddack was broadly thought to be a commerce candidate even earlier than the extraordinarily player-friendly marketplace for beginning pitchers this winter made his $7.5MM wage look all of the extra reasonably priced. David Festa, Zebby Matthews, Louie Varland, Marco Raya and Travis Adams are on the Twins’ 40-man already, giving them additional choices forward of McCaughan.
