The Twins announced that left-hander Steven Okert was designated for assignment. The move was made to create space on the 26-man and 40-man rosters for right-hander Scott Blewett, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A St. Paul.
Acquired from the Marlins for Nick Gordon back in February, Okert’s first (and potentially only) season in Minnesota has been inconsistent. He had a 3.20 ERA in his first 25 1/3 innings and 29 appearances, but has since stumbled to a 9.90 ERA over his last 10 frames and 15 games. The lowlight was a four-run implosion over one-third of an inning pitched in the Twins’ 7-5 loss to the Padres last Tuesday, though Okert did bounce back with two scoreless innings two subsequent appearances.
Okert’s 20.6% strikeout rate is the second-worst of his seven-year MLB career, and his longtime issues with control have continued in the form of a 10% walk rate. While his hard-hit ball rate is one of the league’s best, his barrel rate is below average, resulting in six home runs allowed. Okert has long been a fly-ball pitcher, and thus problems have arisen whenever he has been unable to keep the ball in the park.
As The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman recently observed, Okert has been hit hard in high-leverage and even medium-leverage situations this season, leaving the Twins in a tough spot whenever they’ve had to call on Okert in any beyond mop-up duty. Okert had pretty even career splits heading into 2024, but right-handed batters have torched him for a .984 OPS over 95 plate appearances this season (while lefty swingers have only a .564 OPS in 65 PA).
While the three-batter minimum has ended the days of the true lefty specialist, Okert’s splits could be enough for a reliever-needy team to consider a waiver claim, if this team thinks it can either fix his issues against right-handed batters or simply do a better job of shielding him facing righty swingers. Okert is in his first season of arbitration eligibility is playing on a $1,062,500 salary, so picking up the last five weeks’ worth of that salary represents a pretty minimal hit to a new clubs’s payroll.
Because Okert has previously been outrighted in his career, he has the right to reject an outright assignment from the Twins if he clears waivers, and then opt into free agency. Okert is out of minor league options so the Twins had to DFA Okert before attempting to move him to Triple-A, and it could be that the two sides have an agreement in place about Okert accepting an assignment (if he clears waivers) and biding his time in St. Paul until a fresh arm is again needed in the big league bullpen.
Blewett faced a somewhat similar scenario when Minnesota designated him for assignment last week, as Blewett rejected an outright after clearing waivers, but then quickly re-signed with the Twins after first testing free agency. The right-hander first signed a minor league contract with the Twins back in January, and his time on the big league roster consists of a single game — a scoreless inning on August 12 in the Twins’ 8-3 win over the Royals. At Triple-A this season, Blewett has a 3.79 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate, with a .340 BABIP inflating his bottom-line numbers to some extent.
Prior to his lone game with the Twins, Blewett’s MLB resume consisted of eight innings over five appearances with Kansas City during the 2020-21 seasons. During the 2022-23 seasons, Blewett pitched in the minors with the White Sox and Braves, plus he spent time abroad pitching in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. It could be that this latest call-up will result in just another “cup of coffee” type of cameo for Blewett, but he’ll get some opportunity to show what he can do for a contending Twins club.