Revolving Door

The Twins revolving door at fifth starter continued to turn, as Boof Bonser's latest call up lasted all of one game. Bonser was sent back to Rochester after his poor performance yesterday, and in his place the Twins called up Mike Smith.

Smith was in the Major Leagues with the Blue Jays back in 2002, and went 0-3 with a 6.62 ERA in 14 games. Since then, he's bounced around the minor leagues. This season, he's pitched very well for Rochester, with a 9-4 record and a 3.52 ERA to go along with an outstanding 94-43 K-BB ratio. I admit that I didn't see this coming, largely because I thought that Baker or Bonser would establish themselves in the fifth starter's spot and there would be no need to go beyond them. Smith's call-up makes sense, however, and he will be starting on Sunday unless plans change.

I don't see Smith as a long-term solution for the Twins; he's more of a stopgap measure who hopefully will perform well and earn himself the job for the remainder of the year, but I suspect that we're going to continue to have some fifth starter woes. Hopefully Matt Garza can figure out how to balance his pitches better, because if Smith doesn't claim the job, we're going to need Garza down the stretch (with a hope and a prayer that he can take it at the MLB level).