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Emilio Pagan gives up grand slam in first spring appearance

Originally posted on FanNation Bring Me The Sports
By Joe Nelson | Last updated 3/3/23

Emilio Pagan had the worst season of his career in 2022 with the Minnesota Twins, and his 2023 got off to a rocky start on Friday.

Making his first appearance of spring training, Pagan served up a grand slam to Boston's Reese McGuire – a 95 mph fastball down the middle that McGuire crushed over the fence in right-center field.

Twins relievers served up 78 home runs in 2022, the fourth most in the American League and the eighth most in all of baseball. Pagan was dinged for 12 homers, or an average of 1.7 long balls per nine innings.

Since 2020, the only reliever in the big leagues to allow more homers than Pagan (32) is Miami's Caleb Smith (37). Griffin Jax of the Twins is third on the list (30).

Despite the ugly home run numbers and an overall bad second half of the 2022 season, the right-hander posted a 2.16 ERA with 21 strikeouts over his final 13 appearance. And according to Baseball Savant he finished last season in the 90th percentile in strikeout rate, 84th percentile in whiff rate and 83rd percentile in chase rate.

He is signed to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Twins.

This article first appeared on FanNation Bring Me The Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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