St. Paul – The Minnesota Twins received eight pitchers back in their deadline deals last week. However, none of them is as highly ranked as Mick Abel, their return for Jhoan Duran.

Abel is just under two weeks from turning 24 and is the Philadelphia Phillies’ first-round pick from the shortened 2020 MLB Draft. He’s consistently been ranked as a top 100 prospect since being drafted and has worked relentlessly to get his fastball up to 99 MPH.

He had a dominant start to the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Abel posted a 2.53 ERA, striking out 51, walking 19 batters, and holding them to a .215 opponents’ average through 46 ⅓ innings over eight starts. It earned him a call-up to the majors on May 18, where he debuted opposite Paul Skenes.

The Phillies immediately sent Abel back down, but he came up to make five more starts from June 4 to July 2. He has been back at Triple-A since then, working on building up his strengths as a pitcher.

“There were some things I strayed away from, some strengths that I strayed away from, not on purpose, but more just out of curiosity of other things,” said Abel. “And so the main objective was getting back to doing those things and just keeping doing my thing. Get back to being consistent and get back to baseline.”

Abel had reached that baseline and more, allowing only five runs in 17 innings over three starts. The Phillies were buyers at this deadline, and Abel knew his name was in trade rumors as they tried to add major-league talent.

He was ready for departure. Abel had his apartment packed up before the Pigs left for Worcester. However, when his phone rang with a call from Phillies GM Preston Mattingly in the early evening on Wednesday, July 30, all the planning and preparation weren’t enough to prepare him for the emotional shock of hearing the news.

“We had a really good conversation about it,” Abel said. “I could have prepared all I wanted to for it. I packed my apartment before we left for Worcester, just in case, just to make it a little easier if it did happen, but mentally, it was really tough. I was not expecting it to be that tough mentally.”

Within the next 24 hours, Abel packed his bags and was off to Toledo. The mental challenge for him was saying quick goodbyes to many players, coaches, training staff, and all the people he’d come to know as a member of the Phillies organization over the last five years.

“You’re leaving those relationships of the last five years with a lot of different people, top to bottom of the organization,” said Abel. “Thankfully, it’s more of a see you later, and baseball is small, so we’ll see them again down the road, I’m sure.”

On Thursday, the Saints clubhouse welcomed Abel into the clubhouse in Toledo as if he’d been there all year, which made the adjustment meaningfully easier.

“He’s a great guy,” said Saints catcher Patrick Winkel. “I mean, he came into the clubhouse and immediately was meshing with everybody. Went out of his way to meet everyone, shake their hand, and introduce himself.”

Abel left a strong impression immediately. He’s only made six starts in the majors. Still, the way he carries himself shows the maturity he has for someone younger than most of his competition.

“For a 23 or 24-year-old, he’s really polished mentally,” said Saints pitching coach Jonas Lovin. “He knows who he is, and he’s coachable. There’s a nice balance that he’s coachable, but he still understands what makes him really good and understands what works for him.”

“He’s great,” added Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. “I mean, he’s nasty, he’s got great stuff. You can definitely see what we saw in him with the trade situation, and the guy really throws it, man. He’s pretty polished. I totally foresee him being in the big leagues sooner rather than later.”

Polished mentally and as an arm on the mound, Abel’s reputation preceded him in his first start with the Saints. He threw five scoreless innings, allowing just two walks and one hit while striking out seven Toledo Mud Hens.

It was his sixth scoreless outing of the season. Before the start, Winkel told him that he was open to however Abel wanted to execute his pitches and would follow his lead. Fortunately, Abel and Winkel clicked almost immediately with their communication on calling pitches, and things locked into order for the new battery mates.

“We were both thinking the same way, and the way he thinks about pitching and the way that he attacks hitters and kind of his sequencing is similar to how I wanted to kind of call the game,” said Winkel. “But also just the ability to command, too. Execute pitches and set up on a spot that, chances are, that’s where he’s going to throw the ball. It makes my life a lot easier, and it makes the game more fun.”

“I’m a simple guy, so I feel like it could be easy for anybody, but I think the vibe here with pitching is fairly similar to what I’m used to,” Abel said. “It was honestly a really seamless transition. The pre-game went as expected. It was very similar to what I would have done with the Phillies.”

Abel dominated Toledo’s hitters with his fastball and changeup all afternoon in his last start, but he’s ecstatic about using his curveball for the rest of his season. He doesn’t have the traditional grip of a curveball as he uses his index finger to pinch the ball rather than a typical two-finger grip. Abel calls the grip the hitchhiker, because its release point to hitters looks like he’s sticking out his thumb for a free ride.

“I love my curveball. I just think it’s effective, so I’m comfortable with it,” Abel said. “I like using it at the bottom of the zone; I’ll snipe on the outer half to some lefties. I think that’s my strongest secondary.”

Abel is one of four players the Twins acquired at the trade deadline that they assigned to Triple-A St. Paul. His arrival there gives Twins fans plenty to be excited about for the future, as they will have an easy time getting out to see his starts at either CHS or Target Field, while the Twins play spoiler in the American League playoff race.