It’s been well-established, both on this website and elsewhere on the internet, that Twins jack-of-all-trades Willians Astudillo is a national treasure. But if you’ve forgotten what a delight he can be, this ought to remind you.
The Twins were down big Friday night in Anaheim, so rather than further deplete his team’s pitching depth by summoning another reliever from Minnesota’s exhausted bullpen, manager Rocco Baldelli sought the help of his trusty Swiss Army knife Astudillo.
Making his second career pitching appearance, Astudillo took the hill for the bottom half of the eighth inning, where he would face the trio of Kurt Suzuki, Luis Rengifo and David Fletcher. The portly right-hander made quick work of the Halos, retiring the side on just seven pitches including a laughably slow 46-mph eephus to a frozen Rengifo, who took Astudillo’s unusual first-pitch offering for a called strike. The 29-year-old didn’t show much in the way of velocity, topping out at a pedestrian 73 mph. This was likely Astudillo’s attempt at a fastball, though MLB Gameday officially classified it as a changeup.
Friday’s clean sheet represented a marked improvement on Astudillo’s previous pitching performance back on July 14, 2018. The Rays, who were already leading 14-6 at the time, went to town on Astudillo that night, bombing the novice pitcher for five runs on five hits including a pair of home runs in a disastrous ninth inning at Target Field. By setting down the Angels in order (depriving us the matchup of a lifetime between Astudillo and Shohei Ohtani, who was next up to bat after Fletcher), Astudillo effectively cut his ERA in half, lowering his career figure from a ghastly 45.00 to a slightly less repellent 22.50.
Astudillo has now appeared at every position except shortstop since debuting for the Twins in 2018. A cult hero who can’t help but do something amazing every time he steps on the diamond, Astudillo pitched well enough Friday to warrant future mop-up opportunities should Minnesota ever find itself on the wrong end of a blowout.
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