Twins place Michael Pineda on injured list, select Luke Farrell

The Twins have placed right-hander Michael Pineda on the 10-day injured list and selected the contract of right-hander Luke Farrell from Triple-A St. Paul in a corresponding roster move. Pineda was scratched from his most recent outing after undergoing a procedure to remove an abscess from his thigh, and he’ll now head to the injured list to continue mending. The Twins had an open 40-man spot after designating righty Derek Law for assignment yesterday.

This will mark Farrell’s second stint with the Twins in 2021. Signed to a minor-league contract over the winter, the journeyman righty and son of former Red Sox skipper John Farrell tossed a scoreless frame earlier this year while the MLB roster was dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak. He’s pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate and allowed one run on two hits and two walks with nine punchouts.

Farrell, 29, has a 4.92 ERA, a 24.4% strikeout rate and a bloated 12.7% walk rate in 64 big-league frames compiled between five teams. He’s worked primarily as a starter in the minors, where he has a 4.15 ERA in 266 2/3 Triple-A frames and a 3.25 mark in 113 2/3 Double-A innings. The Twins have been using him as a reliever over in St. Paul, however, and that’s where he’ll be ticketed with the MLB club.

There’s no definitive word on how lengthy an absence Pineda is expected to require, but nothing right now suggests it’ll be a significant absence. Any absence at all is another blow to a reeling Twins team that is, rather shockingly, the worst in MLB so far in 2021. Pineda has been one of the team’s bright spots, pitching to a 2.79 ERA with the second-best strikeout percentage (25.3%) of his career and a characteristically strong 6.3% walk rate. If the Twins can’t dig themselves out of this hole — they’d need a 2019 Nationals-esque run to do so — the veteran Pineda could well find himself on the trade market this summer, as he’s slated to become a free agent at season’s end.