Twins DFA Marquis - Who Fills In?

Yesterday, I wondered what the Twins were going to do with the struggling Jason Marquis. Late last night, the Twins answered my questions by announcing that the veteran starter had been designated for assignment by the club. The Twins now have 10 days to try to trade Marquis or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers, the team can assign him to AAA Rochester.

It doesn’t appear that is going to happen, however. If (or, essentially when) Marquis clears waivers the Twins are expected to give Marquis his outright release. It’s a disappointing end for Marquis to say the least. It would be a large understatement to say that Marquis was a failed signing by the Twins this offseason.

The team avoided chasing the more expensive free agent pitchers, leaving last season’s sub-par pitching staff largely intact. The one answer the team did pursue, much to the fan’s dismay, was Jason Marquis. At $3 million for one year, Marquis was viewed as a solid stop gap replacement that would be able to eat innings at the back of the rotation. At his best, the Twins hoped to get a “Pavano-like” effort from Marquis (innings eater, 3.5-4.0 ERA)  at his worst the Twins expected the Jason Marquis of the past few years (higher ERA, but reliable every 5^th day starter).

What the Twins did get was completely unexpected. Marquis made 7 starts for the Twins, posting an 8.47 ERA and a 2-4 win/loss record. Over his past 3 starts, Marquis has looked abysmal. Ron Gardenhire and the Twins front office preached patience with Marquis, hoping they could find what was wrong with his approach. Nothing seemed to work, however, and finally the Twins decided to cut their losses and jettison Marquis from the roster.

Marquis joins Luke Hughes, Sean Burroughs, Matt Maloney and Clete Thomas on the players DFA’d by the Twins this season. (A good indicator of a poor year is the number of players kicked off of your roster prior to June).  

What’s Next?

The Twins do have some options available for Marquis’ replacement, including players already on the MLB roster as well as AAA options. Let’s evaluate the pros and cons of the most likely options:

In order from most likely to least likely:

Cole DeVries: DeVries is currently pitching in AAA Rochester and is the most likely candidate for promotion. While he hasn’t been posting the numbers that Scott Diamond or PJ Walters were in Rochester (1-4, 4.24 ERA) he has shown the ability to strike out batters (37 over 46.2 innings) which is more than can be said of Marquis.

Jeff Manship: Manship is currently being utilized as a long reliever in Rochester, but his past few outings seem to point to the Twins stretching him out for starting work. (He has pitched 4 innings, 5 innings, and 7 innings over his past three appearances). Manship is 3-1 with a 3.51 ERA and has struck out 25 batters in 38 innings. If he doesn’t get a call-up for the White Sox series, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take the place of another struggling pitcher (Jeff Gray, Alex Burnett) within the next few weeks.

Anthony Swarzak: Since moving to the bullpen, Swarzak has looked like a much better pitcher. He is allowing fewer fly balls, letting fewer batters reach base and seems to have better control over his pitches. This could indicate that Swarzak is ready for a return to the starting rotation or that Swarzak is simply more comfortable as a long reliever. I’d wager the second option to be true. I think the Twins know what they have with Swarzak, he is a great situational pitcher who can take the mound for long stretches if needed, but he’s not cut out to be a starter. With his success at long relief, I don’t think the Twins will promote him.

Liam Hendriks: Hendriks started the season as the Twins third pitcher and looked like he was going to be an early surprise with strong outings against Baltimore and Texas. Shortly after that, however, things began to fall apart for Hendriks. He started leaving pitches up and was absolutely shelled against Boston and Los Angeles. Hendriks looks to be one year away from being major league ready. I would wager the Twins will let him stay most of the year in Rochester to better work on his pitches. He’ll be a starter for the Twins next season, but he’s not ready for the spotlight again just yet.

Francisco Liriano: Had Liriano responded to his demotion by being absolutely lights out and dominate from the bullpen, there is little doubt in my mind he would be moving into the void Marquis is leaving in the rotation. Instead, Liriano has continued to look shaky and unreliable, struggling with location, walking too many batters and looking all around “off”. Liriano is relegated to bullpen duty until he can fix what ails him, no matter how big the need for starting pitching is for the Twins. At this point, I think the team is really only interested in building value for the one time ace. He’s a free agent at the end of the year and I have little faith in the Twins trying to bring him back. As such, they’ll try to move him for something at the deadline – the value of that “something” is entirely dependant on how well Liriano pitches from the bullpen.

Sentiment from Twins reporters and beat writers is that the team will likely call up DeVries and see if the magic of AAA pitching can continue. If I were running the show, I think I’d give Jeff Manship a call first and let him have another crack at starting.

Regardless of my opinion, we’ll find out sometime today or tomorrow what move the Twins are going to make to fill in for Marquis. Hopefully the promoted pitcher will follow the precedent set by Diamond and Walters and help this team put together another nice win streak.