Twins call up Graterol, take Buxton off IL
September has arrived and with it comes a bunch of minor leaguers who join the Twins for the final playoff push.
Among the minor leaguers to make the jump to the big leagues is 21-year-old pitcher Brusdar Graterol. He's Minnesota's top pitching prospect, and although he projects as a starter when he's a full-time MLB pitcher, he'll help the Twins as a hard-throwing right-hander out of the bullpen.
Graterol has been groomed the past few weeks as a reliever in the minors, where he allowed three runs (all on a homer) while striking out 11 batters in 10.1 innings. What's most exciting about Graterol is that he throws heat. He had a pitch clocked at 103.8 mph in a game with Double-A Penscola in August, and his fastball can pretty much live at 100 mph for innings.
If Graterol lives up to the hype, he'll be a big-time arm in the bullpen alongside the likes of Sergo Romo, Sam Dyson, Taylor Rogers, Trevor May and Tyler Duffey, all of whom have been pitching well of late.
The Twins also activated center fielder Byron Buxton from the injured list.
Buxton's been sidelined since Aug. 1 with a shoulder injury. He also had a setback in his rehab assignment last week when he felt some discomfort in said shoulder. In 82 games this season, Buxton is slashing .262/.314/.513 with 10 home runs, 30 doubles, 46 RBI and 14 stolen bases.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic notes that Buxton is available as a defensive replacement and a pinch runner but isn't able to hit yet.
Joining Graterol as September call-ups are:
- Ian Miller (OF)
- Willians Astudillo (IF/OF/C)
- Zack Littell (RHP)
- Devin Smeltzer (LHP)
- Kohl Stewart (RHP)
- LaMonte Wade Jr. (OF)
Meanwhile, the Twins have placed starting pitcher Kyle Gibson on the 10-day injured list with ulcerative colitis. His roster spot has been taken by left-handed pitcher Lewis Thorpe.
The Twins enter September with a 4.5-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. Minnesota is 5 games behind the Yankees for the best record in the AL.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.