Tyler Skaggs' former teammates on Twins team mourn his death from a distance

Cleveland – After the Twins defeated the Indians on Friday, righthander Mike Morin called his fiancée, Amy, seeking an update.

"I was just asking her, 'Hey, how is it? How was it?' " Morin said. "She's like, 'It's really awesome. They have a no-hitter going.' "

Amy Nece was at the Angels-Mariners game. Morin and Nece are close friends with Carli Skaggs and were close friends of her late husband, Tyler Skaggs, who passed away unexpectedly on July 1 while the team was on a road trip to Texas. Morin and Amy spent the All-Star break in California with Carli, and Amy was in attendance on Friday as the Angels honored Skaggs. Skaggs' mother, Debbie, threw out the first pitch, and the entire team wore Skaggs' No. 45 in the game.

The emotional night, the Angels' first game at home since the tragedy, was capped by a combined no-hitter. Morin had showered, changed and returned to the team hotel by then, where he watched the final outs on his phone. Then he watched as the Angels took off their Skaggs jerseys and laid them on the pitcher's mound.

"To see it kind of go down like that, with everyone to put their jerseys on the mound, that will be the snapshot that I would take from this," Morin said.

Morin, Blake Parker and C.J. Cron were Skaggs' teammates with the Angels. They all attended Skaggs' wedding in Malibu, Calif. And, like everyone who knew Skaggs, his passing has hit them hard. Morin is moving forward, relying on his baseball family for support while supporting Carli in any way he can.

Having Amy there, and being able to talk with her during the game, made him feel, in a way, that he was there as well.

"I've been able to kind of talk to a couple of my friends that are still over there," Morin said. "Cron and I and Parker have kind of been able to lean on each other. It's a little weird feeling a little disconnected being here but at least to have a couple of the guys here that are kind of going through the same thing — and everyone has been super supportive."

The Twins needed to make room on their active roster for Jake Odorizzi on Saturday. So they decided to designate lefthander Adalberto Mejia for release or assignment.

Mejia would have to clear waivers for the Twins to be able to send him to the minors, but someone is expected to take a chance on a 26-year old lefty. Mejia went 0-2 with a 8.80 ERA in 13 games for the Twins, his season slowed by a right calf strain that made him unavailable for 56 games.

When healthy, Mejia was an enigma. He touched 95 miles per hour with his fastball occasionally and showed a solid breaking ball. He could not throw strikes, however. He walked 12 batters in 15⅓ innings. He walked five more batters in 26⅓ fewer innings than Taylor Rogers. And when Mejia did get ahead of hitters, he struggled to finish them off.

"Obviously, we wanted to keep Mejia here," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's got a great arm, he's got a great arm from the left side. He's made some adjustments. He's done a nice job for us at different times this year. I just think it is one of those very challenging decisions that there's no real good answer here."

In recent weeks, the Twins have outrighted both Gabriel Moya and Andrew Vasquez off the 40-man roster, demoted Vasquez to Class AA Pensacola and have now designated Mejia for assignment. Rogers is the only lefthanded reliever on the major league staff.

Outfielder Eddie Rosario went through agility drills on Saturday as he works his way back from a sprained left ankle. He is scheduled to run the bases before Sunday's game, which is a sign that he's close to being activated off the injured list. That likely will happen Tuesday before a home game against the New York Mets.