2:50 p.m.: The teams have agreed to a trade, sending Male to the Twins, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. TwinsDaily’s Ted Schwertzler reports that Minnesota is sending prospects Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to the Reds, as well as lefty Steven Hajjar ( Twitter link ).
2:41 p.m.: The Reds and Twins are in “serious discussions” about a deal that would send right-hander Tyler Male from Cincinnati to Minnesota, The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans reports ( via Twitter ). Minnesota has been interested in Mahle since the offseason, when they also brought in another Reds starter, Sonny Gray, in a trade that sent 2021 first-round pick Chase Petty to the Reds.
Minnesota has focused on upgrading its pitching staff, both in the rotation and in the bullpen. Having already acquired Orioles closer Jorge Lopez in a deal with Baltimore earlier this morning, their focus appears to have shifted to Mahle, who will reunite with Gray and give the Twins a starter they can control for the remainder of the season. from the current season and for the 2023 campaign.
Male, who turns 28 next month, has shaken off a terrible start to the 2022 season and performed quite well over the past two months. He had a brief stint on the injured list with a shoulder strain in mid-July, but Male missed only minimal time and made two effective starts since his return. Dating back to May 29, he’s pitched to a 2.83 ERA with a 27.9% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in 57 1/3 innings.
After a breakout 2020 season, Mahle posted a 3.93 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate in 332 big league innings. He’s averaged 94 mph with his heater on the road and has relied heavily on a splitter and slider that have been graded as above-average pitches at times—recently favoring the splitter (especially as a means of neutralizing lefties).
Beyond Mahle’s solid era, it’s easy to be intrigued by how he might fare when he finally escapes the homer-happy confines of Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. He has worked to an unsightly 4.83 ERA and averaged 1.69 home runs per nine innings over the last three seasons while in the home field, but boasts an outstanding 2.93 ERA and just a 0.52 HR/ 9 road evaluation. He also has an above-average heater rotation and numbers in the 76th percentile or better, according to Statcast, in each of the following metrics: expected ERA, expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA.
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