Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that Cody Allen will sign a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins.
Allen, 30, signed a one-year, $8.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in the offseason with the hopes that he would rebound from a rough 2018 season in which he registered a 4.70 ERA, 4.56 FIP, and 1.358 WHIP.
However, the right-hander actually regressed even further as he had a 6.26 ERA, 8.34 FIP, 1.913 WHIP, and 7.8 BB/9 before being DFA’d and eventually released by the Angels earlier in the week.
The Florida native’s career numbers tell a different story, though, as he’s recorded 153 saves over eight seasons in addition to having a 3.14 ERA, 3.43 FIP, and 1.225 WHIP.
One encouraging statistic for Allen is the fact that his SO/9 is still in line with his career numbers as he is still averaging 11.3 SO/9 as compared to 11.5 SO/9 for his career.
That being said, the walks are concerning over the past two seasons as he averaged 2.8 BB/9 in 2017 before seeing his BB/9 go up to 4.4 in 2018 and then reach an abysmal level of 7.8 BB/9 in 2019.
Nonetheless, Allen is a worthwhile gamble given the fact the Twins will only be responsible for paying him the major league minimum if he were to be added to the Twins’ MLB roster.
With the Mets’ bullpen ranking among the worst in baseball and the fact that his former pitching coach was Mickey Callaway, it would have made sense for the Mets to take a chance on him.
