Twins designate SP Homer Bailey for assignment

The Twins announced that they designated right-hander Homer Bailey for assignment and selected fellow righty Edwar Colina.

This is a surprising outcome for Bailey, a former Red who revived his career between Kansas City and Oakland last year. The Twins, fresh off an AL Central title, then signed Bailey to a one-year, $7M guarantee last offseason. Minnesota only got two starts and eight innings from Bailey this year, though.

Bailey, 34, landed on the injured list with biceps tendinitis after his first start of the season July 28, and he returned from nearly a two-month absence on Tuesday. Bailey threw three innings of one-run ball in that game — a win over the Tigers — but it wasn’t enough to save his job with the playoff-bound Twins, who count Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Rich Hill and Michael Pineda as their top four starters.

Colina, meanwhile, is a hard-throwing 23-year-old who ranks among the Twins’ 20 best prospects at MLB.com (No. 16) and FanGraphs (No. 16). MLB.com writes that while Colina has a chance to turn into a major league starter, “an impact reliever” role may also be in his future. Colina divided last year among High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, where he combined for a 2.96 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 over 97 1/3 innings.