Dyson to IL; Smeltzer to start against Royals

The Twins are going for a sweep of their three-game series against Kansas City.

August 4, 2019 at 6:10PM
Twins starting pitcher Devin Smeltzer
Twins starting pitcher Devin Smeltzer (Brian Stensaas — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

I take a couple games off and all hell breaks loose.

Shocker No. 1 was when I entered the ballpark and saw Devin Smeltzer heading for the clubhouse. Shocker No. 2 was when it was announced that Smeltzer was starting today against the Royals. No. 3 came when it was learned that Sam Dyson was placed on the injured list with biceps tendonitis.

(Shocker No. 4 was walking into Rocco Baldelli's office and discovering that it had been completely remodeled into some sort of contemporary cool/Bradley Cooper's den type of room).

Phil Miller didn't warn me of any of this.

Seriously, who saw this coming? Dyson apparently reported some soreness after his outing on Friday, so the Twins want to be proactive and get him as close to 100 percent as possible. Then Baldelli said that Dyson has been pitching with it for a while, which set off all sorts of alarms. But the Twins don't appear to be ready to file a grievance against the Giants for shipping them damaged goods.

"Every pitcher goes through some maintenance through the course of the year," Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey said. "Sam was pitching right up until the deadline and had been dealing with some soreness that probably a lot of the pitchers in that room are going to deal with. He didn't have any open injuries, and from our medical review and otherwise, we felt good about where he was. This is something that has probably popped up for him more recently, and I'm not saying just the days he's been with us, but something that he had to work through."

Dyson struggled in his first two appearances with the Twins since being dealt from San Francisco on Wednesday.

Dyson, Byron Buxton and Michael Pineda have landed on the IL since the team has returned from Miami. Rough weekend.

Smeltzer takes Dyson's place on the roster, and the club is starting him today so they can push the other members of the rotation back a day. That might be true, but it sure doesn't hurt to hold Jake Odorizzi back a day to face the Braves on Monday.

As for today, the Twins are lookong to sweep Kansas City in this three game series - without Dyson and Bucton.

ROYALS


Whit Merrifield, DH
Alex Gordon, LF
Hunter Dozier, 3B
Jorge Soler, RF
Cheslor Cuthbert, 1B
Bubba Starling, CF
Humberto Arteaga, SS
Nicky Lopez, 2B
Cam Gallagher, C

Brad Keller, RHP

Max Kepler, CF
Luis Arraez, 2B
Nelson Cruz, DH
Eddie Rosario, LF
Miguel Sano, 3B
Ehire Adrianza, SS
C.J. Cron, 1B
Jason Castro, C
Jake Cave, RF

Devon Smeltzer, LHP

about the writer

La Velle E. Neal III

Columnist

La Velle E. Neal III is a sports columnist for the Star Tribune who previously covered the Twins for more than 20 years.

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