The Mets claimed him for a West Coast road trip, pitched him twice in Los Angeles and waived him before they even got home. It’s been tough on his wife and two children, baseball nomads who have followed him to Japan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic as Tonkin looked for a place to call home.
He thought Yankee Stadium might be it, especially after he gave up only four earned runs over his first 31 innings there. But his ERA is 6.98 since the All-Star break, and he was taken by surprise when the Yankees let him go last weekend.
But it made him a Twin again. “I was happy. This is definitely on the short list of places I’d like to be,” said Tonkin, who is free to grow his usual beard again after leaving the clean-shaven Yankees. “I feel like I’ve done my job this year. My goal is to be here the rest of the year and next year, too.”
While the Twins try to repair a bullpen frayed by a heavy workload — over the past two weeks, Twins relievers have pitched 66 innings, the starters only 60⅓ — Baldelli said he might expand Griffin Jax’s role as the games get more important.
Perhaps the occasional two-inning stint, he suggested — but only if he’s well-rested.
“I would bet in September, it’s going to happen. You always want to keep pitching your guys, and you want to keep pitching your best pitchers even more, especially when you’ve lost some games recently,” Baldelli said. “Two-upping Griff in the middle of [pitching in] four of five, we wouldn’t do that. We wouldn’t do that to anyone. But I can see him going back out there in a lot of situations in September.”