The Minnesota Twins had to send down somebody from the active roster to make room for pitcher Cole Irvin, whom the club acquired off waivers on Monday, but the choice is a bit of a surprise.
Tuesday, the club officially optioned relief pitcher Jorge Alcala to Triple-A St. Paul to make room for Irvin.
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Of all active Twins relievers, Alcala trails only Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax in win probability added this season for Minnesota, although he’s had some struggles lately.
After carrying an ERA of 1.63 into August, Alcala began to struggle more. He gave up 11 runs over 10 innings last month, including five in the series finale against the Texas Rangers on Aug. 18 that started the abysmal stretch the Twins have been on for the past several weeks.
He did give up the grand slam to Elly De La Cruz on Friday, although only half of those runs were charged to him, but he’s also tossed 4.1 other scoreless innings this month. In the past two weeks, only Cole Sands has a lower batting average against than Alcala among Twins relievers, although his ERA is lower than only Duran and Louie Varland during that span.