Tyler Robertson

 

Tyler Robertson was a relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins in 2012-13.

Tyler Patrick Robertson was born December 23, 1987, in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles. His father, Jay, had been a minor league pitcher; he then became a scout, then a front office guy; he is currently a special assistant to the general manager for the Washington Nationals. At some point the family moved to Fair Oaks, near Sacramento, where Tyler attended Bella Vista High School and was a star pitcher. From the March 16, 2006, Sacramento Bee:

Pitcher on radar for big success

The Bella Vista High School baseball schedule is a popular item these days among Northern California major league scouts.

That’s because 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior left-hander Tyler Robertson is considered one of the top pro prospects in the area.

So on March 8 at the Gary Dreher Classic in Elk Grove, the stands were filled with guys sporting radar guns, laptops and video cameras when Robertson—who already has accepted a scholarship offer from Cal State Fullerton—matched pitches against Sheldon ace Corey Hamilton, another athlete on the scouts’ watch list who has committed to UC Irvine.

Although neither went the distance because of pre-determined pitch-count limits, Robertson outdueled Hamilton in the Broncos’ 3-1 victory.

“Half of the major-league teams were represented,” Bella Vista coach Bill Richardson said.

Richardson has been coaching high school baseball for 18 seasons, the last two at Bella Vista, so he understands how the recruiting process works.

He just hopes it doesn’t prove a distraction for Robertson or his teammates…

Tyler finished the season with a 9-1 record and 0.76 ERA with 143 strikeouts in 74 innings, and batted .434. In June he was drafted by the Twins in the third round and was given a $400,000 bonus to sign. The Twins sent him to their Gulf Coast League rookie class team in Fort Myers, Florida, where he had a 4.25 ERA in 48 2/3 innings in 11 games, ten of them starts, and had an excellent ratio of 54 strikeouts and 15 walks.

For 2007 the Twins moved Tyler to the Beloit Snappers of the Class A Midwest League. I didn’t find an explanation, but he didn’t make his first appearance until June 3; he had an excellent season after that, though, with a 2.29 ERA in 102 1/3 innings, with 123 strikeouts and 33 walks. He was named the Minnesota organization’s pitcher of the month for July, and in September the Minneapolis Star Tribune named him number one on their list of the Twins’ top ten prospects, saying “Has a 93-mph fastball and excellent curve.” He was named to Baseball America’s Class A All-Star team.

For 2008 Tyler went up a step to the Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League, class Advanced A. Just before the season started the Star Tribune ran another list of top Twins prospects, and this time Tyler was number two: “Good sinker and slider and solid pitching acumen”—sounds like he changed into a different pitcher over the off-season. He got off to a good start but developed shoulder problems and was shut down for the season in July and began a rehab program. In 15 starts he had a 2.72 ERA in 82 2/3 innings. At the end of the season he was ranked number five in the Star Tribune’s prospect list, with the comment “…the Twins were relieved to learn rehab was all he needed. Throws in the low 90s with a good curveball.” The fastball/curve pitcher was back…

 Tyler returned to Fort Myers for 2009; his manager announced before the season that his injury was behind him. He had a 3.33 ERA in 143 1/3 innings in 26 starts, with 103 strikeouts and 51 walks.

In 2010 Tyler was promoted to the New Britain Rock Cats of the Class AA Eastern League, where he spent the season except for one start in AAA Rochester in May, which he lost, giving up three runs on six hits in five innings. I didn’t find any explanation but I assume Rochester was just short on pitchers and needed him to plug a gap. He had an off-year for New Britain, ending up with a 4-13 record and 5.41 ERA in 144 2/3 innings in 27 starts. After the season ended he was sent to the Arizona Fall League to work as a reliever; on October 11 the Star Tribune reported:

…the Twins have decided to move him to the bullpen, where his 90-91 mph fastball and curveball could be more effective. He used to have the best curve in the organization, but the Twins will debate if he needs to go with a slider in order to thrive as a major league reliever.

Tyler spent 2011 back in New Britain, as their closer. He had a 10-3 record (more wins than he had had in one season as a starter) and 16 saves, with a 3.61 ERA in 89 2/3 innings in 55 appearances, with 88 strikeouts and 29 walks. After the season the Twins moved him to their 40-man protected roster to prevent his being drafted by another team.

Tyler went to spring training with the Twins in 2012, and on February 20 he was quoted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in an article on Eddie Guardado’s return to the team as a training camp instructor:

“He keeps it so simple, and he preaches that,” said Tyler Robertson, 10-3 with a 3.63 ERA for Class AA New Britain last season. Robertson has known Guardado for a long time—his father, Jay, scouted Guardado when Guardado was a pitcher at Delta College in his native California—and has had many occasions to pick his brain…

In mid-March Tyler was optioned to Rochester, where he had a 3.77 ERA in 33 games, with 33 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings, by June 25, when he was called up to the Twins. He made his debut the next night, and St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Tom Powers wrote about it:

Minnesota Twins rookie Tyler Robertson blows them away, for starters

Perhaps a star was born at Target Field. If not, it was still great fun to see such a bright light shoot past us like that.

Lefty reliever Tyler Robertson made his major league debut for the Twins on Tuesday night, June 26. He took to the mound for the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox and admittedly was a bit jittery. Who wouldn’t be? He’s 24 years old and pitching in front of 35,000 people for the first time. His mom, dad and sister were in the stands.

Most important, his manager and pitching coach were watching him like hawks from the dugout. The pitching-starved Twins always are on the lookout for an able body. And Robertson had just been called up from Rochester on Monday. Now he was about to face the top of the White Sox order. Catcher Joe Mauer was waiting for him on the hill.

“He calmed me down and made me laugh a little bit,” Robertson recalled afterward. “He told me it probably would be wise to aim the ball down.”

Leadoff hitter Alejandro De Aza fanned on a slider. Kevin Youkilis took a called third strike on a wicked changeup. Adam Dunn swung and missed on another slider. Three up, three down, all whiffs. For the eighth time in history, a pitcher made his major league debut by striking out three straight in an inning of relief.

“I was nervous,” Robertson said. “You can’t really prepare for pitching in front of 30,000 plus. It was pretty special. I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better.”

“That was fun to see,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You never know what you’re going to get that first outing. We asked him after the fact if he was nervous, and he said ‘absolutely,’ But he maintained his composure. Three strikeouts—you can’t do much better than that as a pitcher.”

“I guess it’s really downhill from here for him,” Jamey Carroll said with a straight face. “Nah, it’s great to see. I love seeing that first game that guys have worked a long time for. To have that opportunity, and to see him get it and pay off like that, it’s a great thing about baseball.”

Obviously, Robertson was thrilled. But it wasn’t too long ago that he absorbed what he thought was a body punch from the Twins organization. Drafted in the third round out of his California high school in 2006, Robertson proceeded to work his way through the farm system as a starter. But after the 2010 season, he was told that he no longer was going to work out of the rotation. Instead, he was henceforth a reliever.

“At first I took that as a slap in the face,” Robertson said. “I think anybody would. But I looked at it wrong at first. I kind of looked at it as a demotion. You know, I guess things worked out pretty good.”

So the Twins were right.

“You know what? I’m too much of a competitor to admit I don’t think I could start,” he said with a laugh. “But for right now, it’s looking like they were right.”

The next day Tyler pitched again, coming in to start the top of the 8^th with the Twins down 10-2. He struck out De Aza again to make it four straight strikeouts, but then gave up four straight singles and a sacrifice fly before being removed. He stuck with the Twins for the rest of the season, making 40 appearances but pitching just 25 innings in his LOOGy role; he struck out 26, walked 14, and had a 5.40 ERA.

Tyler didn’t have a good spring training in 2013 but he made the Twins’ roster anyway. On April 4, the third game of the season, he pitched to just one batter, striking out Prince Fielder. The next day, in Baltimore, he came in to a tie game in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, and gave up a grand slam to Chris Davis, then retired the next two batters. This would turn out to be his last major league appearance; the next day he was optioned to Rochester. 

For the Red Wings Tyler had a 3.05 ERA in 20 2/3 innings despite walking 16, then on June 3 the Orioles placed him on waivers for the purpose of moving him from their 40-man roster to make room for another player. From the June 5 Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The Twins don’t know yet whether Tyler Robertson will clear waivers, which would enable them to keep him at Rochester, but considering he is only 25, has decent minor league statistics and, most importantly, is lefthanded, they assume he will be claimed…

“His velocity had gone down to 87, 88 mph,” Gardenhire said. “He could spin the ball, he could still get some people out. But even in spring training, he had no velocity.”

On June 7 Tyler was claimed by the Washington Nationals, the team his father was working for. They sent him to the Syracuse Chiefs, not far from Rochester and also in the International League. For Syracuse he had a 3.04 ERA, almost exactly the same as at Rochester, but had much better control while giving up more hits. Between the two teams he pitched 47 1/3 innings in 47 games, one of them being a start. On November 20 the Nationals designated him for assignment to clear a roster spot; this time he cleared waivers, and he was assigned to the Syracuse roster.

Tyler was invited to spring training 2014 by Washington but was assigned to the minor league camp on March 9. He went back to Syracuse, where he had a 4.08 ERA in 17 2/3 innings in 12 games through May 13, then disappeared from the newspapers; I found no indication that he pitched any more that year. In November he was granted free agency, and during spring training 2015 he signed a contract with the Miami Marlins. Supposedly he was assigned to their AAA affiliate, the New Orleans Zephyrs of the Pacific Coast League, but there is no indication that he appeared for them in a regular season game, and that was the end of his career. He lives in Roseville, California, near Sacramento.

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