A two-hour and 6 minute rain delay before last nights Twins game at Target Field started was no biggie for Twins starter Yohan Pino. After all, he has toiled in the minors for 10 years and waited 30 years and 175 days before making his Major League debut against the White Sox on Thursday.
The right-hander went seven innings, giving up two runs and five hits and one walk while striking out seven, but was lifted after 7 innings with the score knotted at 2-2. His seven strikeouts were the second most in franchise history in a debut, tying him with Darrell Jackson and Bert Blyleven, and trailing only Boof Bonser‘s eight strikeouts set in 2006.
Pino also became the oldest starting pitcher to make a big league debut in Twins history, passing Andrew Albers, who was 27 years and 304 days old when he made his debut with the Twins just last season. The Twins released Albers this past January allowing him to sign with a South Korean team. Albers ended up signing with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. The oldest pitcher in franchise history to debut in the big leagues was Alex McColl who pitched in his first game for the Washington Senators in 1933 at the age of 39 years and 151 days.
Oldest Twins rookie pitchers to debut in big leagues and have at least one start
| Rk | Player | G | GS | Year | Age ? | W | L | SV | IP | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yohan Pino | 1 | 1 | 2014 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 7 | 2.57 |
| 2 | Les Straker | 31 | 26 | 1987 | 27 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 154.1 | 76 | 4.37 |
| 3 | Jerry Crider | 21 | 1 | 1969 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 28.2 | 16 | 4.71 |
| 4 | Cole De Vries | 17 | 16 | 2012 | 27 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 87.2 | 58 | 4.11 |
| 5 | Mark Wiley | 15 | 3 | 1975 | 27 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 38.2 | 15 | 6.05 |
| 6 | Andrew Albers | 10 | 10 | 2013 | 27 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 60.0 | 25 | 4.05 |
| 7 | Tom Klawitter | 7 | 2 | 1985 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 5 | 6.75 |
| 8 | Dennis Burtt | 5 | 2 | 1985 | 27 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 28.1 | 9 | 3.81 |
| 9 | Matt Fox | 1 | 1 | 2010 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.2 | 0 | 3.18 |
| 10 | Ed Hodge | 25 | 15 | 1984 | 26 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 100.0 | 59 | 4.77 |
| 11 | Brian Duensing | 24 | 9 | 2009 | 26 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 84.0 | 53 | 3.64 |
| 12 | Albert Williams | 18 | 9 | 1980 | 26 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 77.0 | 35 | 3.51 |
| 13 | Francisco Oliveras | 12 | 8 | 1989 | 26 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 55.2 | 24 | 4.53 |
| 14 | Greg Brummett | 5 | 5 | 1993 | 26 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 26.2 | 10 | 5.74 |
| 15 | Jay Pettibone | 4 | 4 | 1983 | 26 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 27.0 | 10 | 5.33 |
| 16 | Dave Gassner | 2 | 2 | 2005 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.2 | 2 | 5.87 |
If you look at the list of pitchers on the list above you will see that none of them were a starter for the Minnesota Twins for very long and in most cases most of them did not pitch for the Twins or anyone else for any length o time. Les Straker did start two World Series games for the Twins in 1987. History seems to indicate that if you do not debut in the big leagues before your 26th birthday (at least with the Twins), the odds are very much against you. We can hope that Yohan Pino has better luck but don’t bet the farm on it. Kyle Gibson just missed being on this list because his big league debut occurred in 2013 at the age of 25 and 249 days.