The Twins are adding journeyman starter Jhoulys Chacin on a minor league deal. He would be nonroster invite to spring training in two weeks.
Veteran starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin to sign with Twins
The veteran righthander will be a spring training on a minor league deal.
February 2, 2020 at 2:43PM
The 32-year-old righthander has been in the major leagues for 11 seasons but had a forgettable 2019 season, going 3-12 with a 6.01 ERA with Milwaukee and Boston.
In 2018 he led the National League with 35 starts, when he was 15-8 with a 3.50 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 192 innings.
Chacin, a native of Venezuela, has also pitched for the Rockies, Diamondbacks, Padres, Angels and Braves. He is 72-79 in 220 career appearances, 204 of them starts.
The Twins' top two starters figure to be All-Star righthanders Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi. Righthander Michael Pineda, re-signed as a free agent, will miss the first 39 games of the season because of a suspension for using a drug-masking diuretic.
Free-agent starters Homer Bailey and Rich Hill have signed, but Hill is recovering from surgery and might not be ready until midseason.
The Twins do have minor leaguers Devin Smeltzer, Randy Dobnak and Lewis Thorpe, all of whom had big-league starts for the team last season.
The Twins are finalizing their list of nonroster invites to spring training; another pitcher they could add is 27-year-old righthander Taijuan Walker.
Walker has thrown just 14 innings over the past two seasons because of Tommy John surgery in April 2018. He is 31-31 with a 3.95 ERA in 97 career games, 94 of them starts, with Seattle and Arizona.
A former second-round pick of the Rangers, Alex Speas has pitched in four major league games.
