Well-traveled reliever Michael Tonkin hopes he’s here to stay with Twins

Michael Tonkin has been a Met, a Twin, a Met, a Yankee and now a Twin again this season. He has appeared in 45 games and thrown 65 innings, with a shot at eclipsing his career high of 80 innings set last year — as a Brave.

All of which raises an unusual question: Is he having a good season or bad?

“I’ve been DFA’d four times this year — and claimed four times. That tells me I’m doing something right,” said Tonkin, who was drafted by the Twins in 2008 and pitched for them from 2013 to 2017. “If you’re getting claimed, that means you’re still a big leaguer and teams believe you belong in the big leagues.”

His 3.74 ERA, which got as low as 2.23 midway through his four-month stint with the Yankees, suggests as much, too. Count Twins manager Rocco Baldelli as a fan.

“He’s had some good outings. There’s a reason that teams keep looking to him, that people are interested in him,” Baldelli said. “He can get outs. He’s been good against righties. He’s got some good stuff for that. He can give you a little length. He can do a lot of things. A versatile guy.”

If that’s the case, why did the Twins pitch him only once after claiming him two weeks into the season? Tonkin pitched two innings in Detroit and gave up two quick runs but then struck out five of the final six hitters he faced.

Then the schedule, and a rainout earlier in the week, got him cut.

“I threw 48 pitches and we had a doubleheader the next day, so I was unavailable,” the 34-year-old righthander said. “They had to bring in somebody who was.”

The Mets claimed him for a West Coast road trip, pitched him twice in Los Angeles and waived him before they even got home. It’s been tough on his wife and two children, baseball nomads who have followed him to Japan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic as Tonkin looked for a place to call home.

He thought Yankee Stadium might be it, especially after he gave up only four earned runs over his first 31 innings there. But his ERA is 6.98 since the All-Star break, and he was taken by surprise when the Yankees let him go last weekend.

But it made him a Twin again. “I was happy. This is definitely on the short list of places I’d like to be,” said Tonkin, who is free to grow his usual beard again after leaving the clean-shaven Yankees. “I feel like I’ve done my job this year. My goal is to be here the rest of the year and next year, too.”

While the Twins try to repair a bullpen frayed by a heavy workload — over the past two weeks, Twins relievers have pitched 66 innings, the starters only 60⅓ — Baldelli said he might expand Griffin Jax’s role as the games get more important.

Perhaps the occasional two-inning stint, he suggested — but only if he’s well-rested.

“I would bet in September, it’s going to happen. You always want to keep pitching your guys, and you want to keep pitching your best pitchers even more, especially when you’ve lost some games recently,” Baldelli said. “Two-upping Griff in the middle of [pitching in] four of five, we wouldn’t do that. We wouldn’t do that to anyone. But I can see him going back out there in a lot of situations in September.”

Jax, whose 11 earned runs allowed are the third-fewest in baseball among pitchers with at least his 58 innings, has pitched in two innings only once in the past two seasons, getting five outs May 8 against Seattle.

* Chris Paddack’s second MRI exam “showed complete resolution of his flexor strain,” the Twins said, and he will begin a throwing program that could have the righthander back in uniform in time for the postseason.

* Byron Buxton worked out on the field Wednesday, and the Twins will make a determination about whether to send the outfielder, out since Aug. 12, on a rehab assignment “in the next 24 to 48 hours,” Baldelli said.

* Louie Varland pitched five innings of scoreless relief to help the Saints win 3-2 over the host Omaha Storm Chasers.