The Real Story on Luis Ayala

I posted a piece on the Twins’ decision to designate Luis Ayala for assignment a few days ago, although he really wasn’t pitching that badly.  It turns out that one of my readers was right: the Twins were unhappy with Ayala’s attitude.

According to this article by Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Ayala hanked the Twins off when he demanded a trade three weeks ago, because manager Ron Gardenhire had refused to make Ayala the 8th inning set-up man to Joe Nathan after Ayala blew his first three late game leads.

Reports have it that the Pirates are interested in Ayala, so there’s a good possibility of a trade to resolve the Ayala situation.