Francisco Liriano struggled Sunday for the fourth time in four starts and the Twins have decided to make use of an off day on the schedule to skip his next turn in the rotation.
Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com reports that Liriano will remain on the active roster all week, but won’t see any game action. Instead he’ll throw bullpen sessions Thursday and Saturday in preparation for rejoining the rotation May 1 versus the Angels.
Liriano was a mess for most of last season, but he’s been even worse this year with an 11.02 ERA and more walks (13) than strikeouts (12) in 16 innings as his diminished velocity combines with his terrible command. Moving him to the bullpen or trying to force him to accept a demotion to Triple-A were the Twins’ other options, so skipping one turn in the rotation is certainly the least drastic measure ... for now.
