The Twins were well aware of the shoulder injury Tyler Mahle sustained last July while with the Cincinnati Reds, just weeks before they traded for him.
But they still felt confident in the information they had at the time, making the decision to part with three prospects — more on them later — to bolster a rotation for a then first-place team that needed pitching help. Mahle, the Twins hoped, would help pitch them to a playoff spot and would be an important piece of this year’s rotation, as well.
Of course, it didn’t work out that way.
The Twins announced Thursday that Mahle, who is a free agent after this season, will undergo Tommy John surgery. With that announcement, it’s very likely that Mahle has thrown his last pitch as a Twin. But while the Twins didn’t get anywhere near the production from Mahle they had hoped for, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey expressed confidence in the team’s process.
“Our view of Tyler was that there was some shoulder strain and things going on there that we evaluated, saw and ultimately took on that risk,” Falvey said. “My view of this is that when you’re trading for anybody, particularly pitching at the big league level, there’s risk associated with that.”
Mahle will undergo the surgery in the upcoming days and it will keep him out into next season. While the Twins could theoretically try to sign him to an extension while he rehabs, like they did with Chris Paddack, Falvey said that’s not something they’re “really thinking about … right now.”
If Mahle’s Twins career is over, the team got nine starts from him — three of which he left early with injury. Shoulder problems cropped up shortly after last year’s trade, and while Mahle was unavailable during the stretch run, he reported to spring training feeling good about where his shoulder was at.
The elbow injury popped up after five starts, during which he posted a 3.16 earned-run average, giving the Twins a brief glimpse of the pitcher they believed they were trading for.
“These things happen over time. It’s chronic use. … You have wear and tear in a guy’s arm,” Falvey said. “ … At the time of the trade last year, obviously he had some shoulder history. We checked that out and continued to get him in a good place around that, having a good offseason around his shoulder care. And that never presented as an issue. Felt really good about where he was at with that. It’s unfortunate for him that something else crops up.”
To make the trade, the Twins parted with Spencer Steer, who has split his time between third and first base this season for the Reds, pitching prospect Steve Hajjar, who was subsequently traded to the Guardians and is on the injured list with shoulder issues himself, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who looks to be the best player in the trade and has established himself as an exciting prospect. Entering Friday, the infielder was hitting .352 with a 1.096 OPS and eight home runs in 16 games at Triple-A after a slightly delayed start to his season.
Making matters tougher for the Twins, they could have offered Mahle a qualifying offer and recouped a draft pick had he signed elsewhere this offseason. But now, with him on track to miss the beginning of the season, a qualifying offer — it was a one-year deal worth $19.65 million this season and will be somewhere in that range next season — would not make sense.
While his Twins’ tenure was characterized by injuries — the Twins and Mahle seem to believe that the shoulder and elbow injuries were not connected — Falvey expressed confidence in the process and the fact the team took a risk when it believed it was the right time to do so.
Even if the risk didn’t work out.
“We didn’t get a chance to see him pitching well, strong, at his best. We had some moments where we got a chance to see him out there competing, where he was still able to go out there and pitch, and pitch reasonably — you know — pretty decently. I don’t think we saw him with his best stuff while he was here at any point. And that happens,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. ” … He’s a trouper. He competes well and he’s tough but pitch through what he was dealing with.”
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Injury makes Tyler Mahle trade a flop for Twins, but Derek Falvey confident in team’s process - St. Paul Pioneer Press
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