CLEVELAND – Another day, another couple of pitching moves for the Twins. They could use their 26th and 27th different pitchers of the season by the end of the weekend after calling up righthanders Trevor Hildenberger and Dillon Gee.
It wasn't likely to come to this for Hildenberger. He said he pitched just 12 innings over his first three seasons at the University of California.
"I threw 85-88 [miles per hour], super straight. No break. No changeup," he said. "I didn't pitch a lot."
At the suggestion of a coach, Hildenberger tried throwing sidearm. That put him on the path that brought him to Progressive Field on Friday as a member of the Twins.
He now throws 88-93-mph fastballs with that sidearm delivery, plus a curveball and slider. He will try to throw hitters off by occasionally reverting to an conventional delivery.
"Try to keep the ball down in the zone and pitch to contact," he said.
His numbers are impressive: In 124 minor league games, he has a 1.57 ERA and 52 saves. In 171⅔ innings, he's given up four home runs (two to the same guy, he thinks), walked 26 and struck out 200. He was drafted by the Twins in the 22nd round in 2014 and started his career as a 23-year-old in rookie ball.
Hildenberger had a 2.05 ERA in 21 games at Class AAA Rochester. Will his style work against major league hitters? He, along with the Twins, are about to find out.