Twins sign reliever Kyle Barraclough to minors pact

The Twins have signed reliever Kyle Barraclough to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A St. Paul, according to an announcement from the Saints. The right-hander was released from a minors pact with the Yankees earlier this week.

Barraclough has pitched in the big leagues in parts of five MLB seasons. A one-time setup man with the Marlins, Barraclough has always missed plenty of bats. The 31-year-old has struck out a lofty 29% of opposing hitters at the big league level, generating swings and misses on an above-average 12.6% of pitches. He’s always coupled that high-end stuff with poor control, however, walking batters at a higher-than-average rate in every season en route to a career 14.1% mark. Barraclough’s high-strikeout, high-walk tendencies were even more extreme with the Yankees Triple-A affiliate this year; he punched out 43.6% of batters while walking 20.0% across 14 innings of 3.21 ERA ball with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The 31-year-old Barraclough couldn’t crack a Yankees bullpen that has been among the league’s best, but there seems to be an easier path to the majors in Minnesota. Twins relievers have compiled a 4.89 ERA that ranks just 26th leaguewide. The Minnesota bullpen has been middle-of-the-pack in terms of strikeout/walk rate differential (15.2 percentage points) and SIERA (3.86).