Phil Hughes has had a fantastic season for the Twins, potentially setting the all-time strikeout-to-walk ratio record, and entered his final start today needing to throw 8.1 innings to reach 210 for the year and trigger a $500,000 bonus in his contract.
Hughes has cruised through eight innings against the Diamondbacks, allowing just one run, but now it’s raining heavy in Minnesota and the tarp is on at Target Field.
Hughes needs one more out to get an extra $500,000.
Hopefully the Twins either give him a one-out relief appearance over the weekend and just hand him the $500,000 bonus either way. According to Fan Graphs he’s been worth more than $30 million to the team this season based on his performance.
UPDATE: After an hour-plus rain delay Hughes did not come back into the game, which means he’s officially one out short of reaching 210 innings for his $500,000 bonus.
UPDATE #2: Twins manager Ron Gardenhire says Hughes won’t pitch again, so he’ll finish short of the 210-inning mark. Hughes says he was “very aware” of the bonus, but “some things aren’t meant to be.”