Minneapolis – Thursday, June 5, started as any other day for Travis Adams when he knew he’d have a long relief appearance for the Saints. Adams did his pre-game routines in the bullpen and settled in at his locker after having his pre-game meal.
Then his pitching coach, Jonas Lovin, approached him with a ball and pen, which threw him off for a minute.
What came next were the words Adams had been waiting to hear all his life.
“I was just sitting at my locker, I think I was scrolling on my phone, and he hands me a ball and a pen, and he goes, ‘Hey, could I get a big-leaguer to sign this ball?’” Adams recalled during pre-game at Target Field on Friday. “And then I saw everybody behind me, they were all standing there, so they all congratulated me.”
It was far from the typical way minor leaguers find out they’re getting called up. But Saints manager Toby Gardenhire wanted to give Lovin and Saints fellow pitching coach Carlos Hernandez that opportunity, given their long, extended history with Adams throughout his minor league career.
“He’s done a great job this year. Anytime you get a guy going to the big leagues for the first time, it’s awesome,” said Gardenhire. “So it was really exciting for me and the pitching coaches, these guys Jonas and Carlos, they’ve worked with him a lot the last few years, so I actually let those guys tell him he’s going to the big leagues, which was really cool.”
It was a first for Lovin, who’s spent the last two seasons as the pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins’ High-A affiliate in Cedar Rapids. Still, it was more rewarding to hand Adams the ball and pen to get the front row seat to one of the best moments in his life.
“Being able to share a moment like that with any players is always special,” said Lovin. “But when it’s a guy like Travis, who has come up with the org, who has done everything asked of him along the way, and who is loved by his teammates. It just makes it all the more rewarding.”
Once the moment came and passed, Adams wasted no time calling his parents, friends from home, and teammates at Double-A, including fellow pitcher Jaylen Nowlin.
Adams has been used in a split starter and reliever role this season in St. Paul, spending most of his time coming into games as a long reliever. Typically, when a pitcher is in that role at Triple-A, they know what days of the week they’ll pitch in a six-game series.
However, that changes in the big leagues, where managers use long relievers like any other relief pitcher. There’s no predetermined plan on when they’ll be used. When the bullpen phone rings and their name is called, they do what they can to prepare for any situation.
“Yeah, I think it’s a little harder up here,” said Adams. “Down at Triple-A, you can just do spot starts and plan out guys, but up here it’s a little different depending on the situation of the game. I just need to be ready for whenever my name is called.”
Adams hasn’t earned his big league call-up because he’s a bulk inning relief guy. He owns a 3.43 ERA in 42 Triple-A innings. Adams has held opposing batters to a respectable .235 opponents’ batting average, struck out 37 hitters, equal to a 21.3% strikeout rate, and has an incredible 5.7% walk rate.
Having a bulk reliever with that kind of success will help Minnesota’s bullpen, which has not had a true bulk innings reliever this season. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli isn’t too worried about this rookie stepping up in the vacant bullpen role.
“When guys get called up, the vast majority of the time early on, they’re going to have to maybe give us some length,” said Baldelli, “and he can do that.
“He’s very fit to do that. He could end up pitching in a tight game and us needing to get one good inning out of him, and then we get him out of there. That could happen, too. Going into it open-minded is all we ask from these young pitchers when we call them up. Exciting for Travis and exciting for the organization to see him out there.”
Adams didn’t throw for the Saints on Thursday, so he’s fresh and ready to go whenever the Twins call his name in the Toronto Blue Jays series. He hadn’t stopped feeling the rush of his call-up to the big league on Friday, and he plans to ride that high out until he takes his first steps onto a major-league mound.
“When I got the news, I was shaking,” said Adams. “I didn’t really know how to react. Just a lifelong dream finally coming true, and still it really hasn’t set in yet until I get on that mound for the first time.”