It’s been a long road back to the major leagues for Brock Stewart, but the veteran right-hander has one big thing going for him.
“This is better than I’ve ever been,” he said.
Stewart had his contract selected by the Twins before Tuesday’s 6:40 p.m. first pitch against the New York Yankees and was at Target Field, available for his first big-league game since Sept. 24, 2019, with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“Our last series was against Baltimore, and I remember walking off the field, after a tough year, and I was thinking to myself, ‘This could be it. This could be the last time I’m on a big-league field,’ ” Stewart said. “So, to be here now, it’s definitely special for me.”
The Twins have gotten big early production from veterans signed this offseason, from Joey Gallo to Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Farmer to Willi Castro. The team is hoping Stewart, 31, follows suit. He signed a two-year, minor-league deal with Minnesota last July.
Stewart was coming off Tommy John surgery on May 13, 2021, and arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow on March 24, 2022, when he signed. But he also was working with Tread Athletics in Charlotte, N.C., which he credits with refining his mechanics and adding 5 mph to a four-seam fastball that was topping out at 91 mph in Toronto.
Now, he said, he has a five-pitch arsenal that includes a sinker, slider and changeup. In seven games with Class AAA St. Paul, Stewart posted a 2.08 earned-run average with two saves, two walks, 17 strikeouts and a 1.04 WHIP. He takes the open spot on the Twins’ 26-man active roster.
Manager Rocco Baldelli called Stewart “more of a versatile piece for us, with big stuff, more so than a guy where the main objective is to get him throwing strikes and let him go for three or four innings.”
Stewart, 31, has appeared in 46 major-league games, going 6-3 with a 6.05 ERA (105⅔) and a save with the Dodgers and Blue Jays.
“A lot of hard work on my part, but I think the main thing is just a healthy arm, and then some things with my delivery that (Tread Athletics) kind of unlocked, and it just — those unlocks allow me to transfer energy down the mound,” he said.
Farmer progressing
In Baldelli’s estimation, infielder Kyle Farmer is ahead of where the manager thought he would be in his rehabilitation from a serious mouth injury suffered when he was hit in the face by a pitch on April 12.
“Probably pushing the envelope a little bit in some ways, but we expected that with him,” Baldelli said.
Farmer, beaned by a 91.6-mph fastball from Chicago White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito, had emergency surgery after that game to repair teeth and lacerations to his chin. But he’s taking batting practice, Baldelli said, and taking grounders in the infield.
“We’re not babying him,” the manager said.
But Farmer, who still has a fat lower lip and a deep cut that hasn’t healed, still needs more oral surgery. When he has recovered from that, Baldelli said, Farmer will go out on a rehab assignment of about a week.
“I think the at-bats, the reps, they’re needed,” Baldelli said. “But also just taking the field and being out there and everything that comes with that, I think will help him.”
Megill DFA’d
To make room for Stewart on the 40-man roster, the Twins designated right-handed pitcher Trevor Megill for release or assignment.
After signing a minor-league deal in December 2021, the hard-throwing right-hander was 4-3 with a 4.80 ERA in 39 relief appearances last season but had a 13.70 ERA in 9⅔ innings with St. Paul this season.
Briefly
Alex Kirilloff, on a rehab assignment with St. Paul, went 2 for 6 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored in the Saints’ 14-1 victory Tuesday night at Rochester, N.Y. The first baseman rehabbing from wrist surgery hit two home runs on Sunday night.
