Twins designated pitcher Matt Shoemaker for assignment

CHICAGO – Matt Shoemaker pitched in 16 games for the Twins. The Twins lost 12 of them.

In 11 starts, Shoemaker posted a 7.28 ERA. In five relief outings, his ERA was 12.10.

Shoemaker gave up eight earned runs three times, including Wednesday during a 13-3 loss to the White Sox.

The Twins decided it was time for a change.

On Thursday they designated the righthander for release or assignment, potentially ending a relationship with a veteran arm they had hoped would stabilize the back of their rotation.

Shoemaker doesn't throw hard and has to be perfect with his control to make his split-fingered fastball effective. Sometime, even perfect wasn't enough as opponents batted .297 against him and hit 15 home runs in 60 ⅓ innings. He was 3-8 with an 8.06 ERA.

"It's of course a difficult and emotional time for any player, getting news like that," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "So it was hard. But Matt has been very professional from the day he came into the Twins organization. He understands the game. This isn't a process he's gone through before. This was new to him. And obviously, hard."

Shoemaker will be on waivers until Friday morning. If he clears, which is expected, the Twins can either release him or see if he will accept an assignment to the minors. A release is most likely.

To replace Shoemaker on the roster, the Twins called up righthander Derek Law from Class AAA St. Paul. Law pitched 1 ⅔ innings in Thursday's loss to the White Sox, his seventh appearance of the season for the Twins.

Miguel Sano entered Wednesday's blowout loss as a replacement for Josh Donaldson. On Thursday, he made just his third start since June 19.

Sano's lack of production and propensity to strike out have kept him out of the lineup, but he entered Thursday batting .417 with a homer, two RBI and no strikeouts over his past 14 plate appearances. Still, Baldelli has been picky about when and how to use him.

"This is a guy that we've talked about many, many times and the types of runs that he can go on and what it looks like. We've seen some of those runs this year," Baldelli said. "We've seen him get hot, but he's going to have to sustain that and limit some of that swing-and-miss and make some of the adjustments that we've talked about."

Sano's assignment wasn't easy. White Sox lefthander Carlos Rodon is having a good year and lefties have given Sano trouble.

But every White Sox pitcher whom Sano faced gave him trouble on Thursday. He struck out four times: with the bases loaded in the first inning against Rodon; with two on against Rodon to end the fifth; with the bases loaded against Garrett Crochet to end the seventh; and against Liam Hendriks with a man on for the final out of the game.

Sano left nine men on base and struck out four times for the 17th time in his career.

Baldelli said Sano has to continue to be prepared to play and will get time when he earns it. For now, he's pretty much a platoon player.

Twins designated hitter Nelson Cruz said Sano has to stay positive.

"It's tough," Cruz said. "Especially he's a slugger, a power hitter. To come off the bench, be off two days, then play. For any hitter it is difficult, especially for a slugger. So he's in a really tough situation. So I try to give positive advice and stick with the process."