When news of the Twins’ selection of Terry Doyle in the Rule 5 Draft, it’s hard not to think ‘What a Twins move.’ Minnesota has had success in the Rule 5 before (Johan Santana), but this move doesn’t have that kind of upside. The Twins are a team in need of pitching and Doyle can add some depth there.
The funny part about this is the last post on the blog was about how good Doyle was in the Arizona Fall League. Now we see him leave pretty much for free. Doyle throws strikes and had a terrific AFL, but he’s still 26 with no experience above AA and his stuff doesn’t grade out very well despite good control. It’s a good pick for the Twins to take a gamble when they need pitching, but I don’t think Doyle is a loss worth bemoaning.
That said, it’s confusing why Doyle couldn’t be protected on the 40-man roster. The White Sox could use every bit of pitching depth available to them with Mark Buehrle now gone and had room to spare to protect Doyle. Doyle snuck in at 22 on our 2011 midseason rankings to break the top 25 for the first time and due to his AFL he was going to receive a bump in the upcoming rankings (moves like this and the Sergio Santos/Nestor Molina trade, Molina analysis coming, are why we wait until the Winter Meetings are over to come out with our offseason rankings). The Sox could still get him back if the Twins are unable to keep him on their 25-man roster.
Doyle throws strikes and has good durability. He could be a fourth or fifth starter. Good luck to him with the Twins.
Larry at South Side Sox has his take up as well as some stats about the lack of production from recent Rule 5 picks.
Also of note: Outfielders Brandon Short and Jordan Danks were available for selection, but were not taken. That says quite a bit about the value of those two.