First Pitch (CT): 8:45 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN/830 WCCO/102.9 The Wolf /Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe: McCovey Chronicles
The Twins were officially eliminated from playoff contention yesterday, but they’ve been emotionally eliminated for a few weeks now. Honestly, being eliminated this late in the game is truly a testament to how milquetoast the entire American League has been this year. Even the “good” teams (Rays, Yankees, Red Sox) have some pretty glaring holes due to injuries. Someone will get hot
and make a run to the World Series, but I have to imagine whoever emerges from the NL gauntlet will be heavily favored in the Fall Classic.
But onto today. Minnesota has fully transitioned to 2027 evaluation mode, meaning there’s some weird stuff going on such as Bailey Ober pitching out of the ‘pen yesterday. Today, that means 27-year-old former first round pick Aaron Sabato will make his major league debut.
Sabato is similar to Ben Ross, who was called up a few weeks ago. Not in size, stature, or skillset, but just by way of likely being more of a Quad-A type hitter rather than an actual MLB contributor. That being said, he’s a right handed bat with a ton of power who has crushed lefties the past two seasons, albeit with bad swing-and-miss numbers. Sabato has a .937 OPS against lefties vs a still respectable .857 mark against righties (keep in mind the average International League OPS is around .800). But the real difference comes from his strikeout and walk numbers. Against righties, Sabato has struck out in 26% of his PAs and walked just 6.2% of the time. Against southpaws, those numbers drastically improve to 23% and 17%, respectively.
It’s possible Sabato hits well enough to carve out a bench role, but if you asked me right now, I would assume he’s dropped from the the 40-man in the offseason. It’s possible the big righty is a late bloomer, but this is likely the Twins giving the nod to an organizational warrior as they wrap up the season.
But hey, I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong!
The Giants, meanwhile, have had so many injuries they’re running out an entire roster of organizational warriors. They currently have 9 position players and 13 pitchers on the Major League IL. Those players collectively account for $133.08M of their $196M payroll this season, so there are a lot of 25-28 YO rookies even the most baseball-obsessed bloggers have never heard of before. It’s been a rough year in the Bay, both on and off the field.
UPDATE: I made this post before Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge were placed on the IL prior to the game today. The Giants now have exactly 0 opening day starters remaining and don’t have a single player on the active roster making more than $1M. It’s bad, folks.
