Michael Pineda arrived to the Yankees with a bum shoulder and will leave the club with a mending elbow, having signed a two-year, $10 million deal with the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.
The Twins hope that once Pineda recovers from the Tommy John surgery he had in July — either next season, when he will be paid $2 million, or in 2019, when he will be paid $8 million — he can more consistently find the form that tantalized and teased the Yankees over the last four seasons.
Pineda, 28, was dazzling at times — he struck out 16 without walking a batter against the Baltimore Orioles in 2015, and he was equally dominant in the Yankees’ home opener last season, losing a perfect game with two outs in the seventh inning in a win over Tampa Bay. Veteran teammates C. C. Sabathia and Carlos Beltran told Pineda in recent years that he had the stuff to win a Cy Young. Over all, he was 31-31 with a 4.16 earned run average as a Yankee.
But too often Pineda, who was acquired from Seattle in exchange for Jesus Montero before the 2012 season, was confounding. He gave up ill-timed home runs, occasionally lost control of his emotions on the mound and rarely strung together a series of strong starts. Then there was the episode in 2014, where Pineda, who had recently returned from shoulder surgery that cost him two seasons, was ejected from a game at Fenway Park and was suspended 10 games for illegally using pine tar smeared on his neck to get a better grip on the baseball.
This is the second year in a row the Yankees have lost to free agency a pitcher who had had Tommy John surgery. Nathan Eovaldi, who was injured in 2016, signed a two-year contract with Tampa Bay last season and is expected to pitch for the Rays this season.
Pineda is also the latest pitcher to leave New York for Minnesota, where he will join the former Yankee Phil Hughes, who is recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. In years past, the Twins had also acquired Carl Pavano from the Yankees and Mike Pelfrey from the Mets.
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