FORT MYERS, Fla. — The start of the baseball season is still more than a week away, but the Twins’ rotation depth is already being challenged.
The Twins will be without Anthony DeSclafani for an undetermined period of time — he will visit Dr. Keith Meister in Texas in the coming days to assess the severity of his arm injury — which has opened up the door for Louie Varland to grab hold of a spot in the rotation.
“You know the depth is always going to be tested — in your market, on your team, but then across the game,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “We’re seeing that already. But I feel like Louie Varland came in in an awesome spot.”
It’s certainly a small sample size, but in the 11 innings he has thrown this spring, Varland, who is scheduled to start again on Wednesday, has yet to allow a run. He has issued just one walk while striking out nine batters. Opponents are hitting just .111 against him.
More importantly than the results, Varland, a North St. Paul and Concordia alum, said after his last start that the ball was moving how and where he wanted it to.
“We knew coming into this camp that he would be a guy that … he was going to help us this year at the big league level,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s just done nothing but work hard and keep his head down and not get distracted by his situation and other peoples’ situations.”
Varland looked to be in line for a rotation spot until late January when the Twins acquired DeSclafani in a trade with the Seattle Mariners. At that point, it seemed as if he was headed back to Triple-A to start the season.
Instead, DeSclafani had some elbow soreness crop up weeks ago. And though he had worked his way back into game action, appearing in one minor-league tilt, he felt something in his arm in that game that caused the Twins to shut him down.
The worst-case scenario for DeSclafani, who is dealing with a forearm strain, would be Tommy John surgery, which would wipe out his entire season. But even in a best-case scenario where he rehabs and works his way back to the major league level, the Twins aren’t expecting him back soon.
That means Varland, who made 10 starts for the Twins last year and then late in the season was a dominant reliever, should have plenty of opportunity to establish himself at the major league level.
“Louie does a really good job of just focusing on making good pitches, shows up every day, works his tail off, does all the things you want to see,” Baldelli said. “I know I’m happy with what I’ve seen. I think our pitching guys are very pleased with the adjustments he made this offseason and some of the additions that he has added to his repertoire.”
Behind Varland, Falvey said the Twins were very encouraged with what they saw from Simeon Woods Richardson this spring. He also mentioned Brent Headrick and top pitching prospect David Festa as those who could be called upon down the road if and when the need arises.
“Hopefully we can stay as healthy as possible with the group that we have. But ultimately always going to be tested and need that,” Falvey said. “You never have enough pitching depth. I’ve never felt that.”
