Hughes sets MLB record, but misses $500K bonus by 1/3 inning

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Brad Rempel / USA TODAY Sports
Minnesota's Phil Hughes set the record for best strikeout-to-walk ratio, but needed to pitch 8 1/3 innings to reach 210 for the season and trigger a half-million dollar bonus. He fell oh-so-short.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Twins pitcher Phil Hughes could have achieved two big milestones in Wednesday's start against Arizona. Hughes was poised to set the single-season mark for the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in baseball history. He was also destined to make a cool $500,000 if he went 8 1/3 innings to achieve a bonus in his contract of 210 innings for the season.


Thanks to the rain, Hughes had to settle for just one of the two -- and it wasn't the one that filled his wallet.


After Hughes finished a scoreless eighth inning, the game between the Twins and Diamondbacks was delayed for more than an hour. Hughes needed to record just one more out to trigger the bonus in his contract. But he didn't come back after the delay to finish out Minnesota's 2-1 victory, and now he'll miss out on half a million dollars.


Sure, Hughes is making $8 million this year as part of a three-year, $24 million deal he signed with the Twins before this season, but $500,000 is still a good chunk of change. After Wednesday's win, though, Hughes said all the right things about coming so close to the bonus.


"I was very aware of it, but some things just aren't meant to be," Hughes said. "That's the case this time. I'm very proud of my season regardless of that."
Hughes needed 96 pitches to get through eight innings as he struck out five and scattered five hits. If not for the lengthy rain delay, manager Ron Gardenhire said he would have put Hughes back out for the ninth.


But once Hughes and the Twins sat on the bench for an hour, there was no chance he was going back out, even with a half a million dollars on the line.
"He was going back out, but Mother Nature said no," Gardenhire said.


Regardless of his contract bonus, Hughes did set the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in a single season in baseball history. In his 209 2/3 innings, Hughes struck out 186 batters and walked just 16 for a K/BB ratio of 11.63. That tops the previous record of 11.0 set by Bret Saberhagen in 1994.


Hughes knew he stood in relation to that mark, nothing that it was brought to his attention about four or five starts ago. His five strikeouts and zero walks Wednesday solidified his place at the top of that impressive list.


"It was certainly something I thought about," Hughes said. "I've always taken a lot of pride in throwing a lot of strikes and not walking guys. Finishing that out today is a pretty cool way to do it. It's something I'm very proud of and you look back at those names and it's a pretty elite group."


According to Baseball-Reference.com, Hughes is the only major-league player in the modern era (since 1901) to throw 200 or more innings and walk 16 or fewer batters. In fact, the last big-league pitcher to do it was Denny Driscoll way back in 1882.


For all the attention that was given to Hughes' contract bonus, the strikeout-to-walk ratio he ended his season with deserved plenty of talk, too.


"Incredible. A lot of things are amazing in what he's done, and that's probably the most unique. That's unbelievable. You just don't see things like that," Gardenhire said. "Sixteen walks in 200-plus innings or whatever it is, that's incredible. And going again today and just pounding the strike zone, he's done it against all the teams in baseball that we faced."


Gardenhire made it clear after the game that Hughes' season was done; he won't use Hughes out of the bullpen in Detroit this weekend, even to get that one final out he needs.


Twins general manager Terry Ryan was asked earlier this week if he'd ever had a scenario in which a player came very close to reaching a contract bonus but fell short, yet the team still gave it to him anyway.


His answer was simple.


"No," Ryan said. "If a person earns them, he gets it."


Hughes didn't seem terribly concerned with it after the game, knowing full well what his contract stated. Despite the impressive season he's had -- he won 16 games and posted a 3.52 ERA in 32 starts -- he didn't reach the 210 innings needed for the bonus.


"It wasn't 209 2/3. It was 210," Hughes said. "That's the way it goes sometimes. I have a lot of other things to hang my hat on this season, and that's not one of them."
 

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500,000 ONE OUT AWAY...

And they wont give it to him. I understand 500k isnt same to him as it is me, but
Twins general manager Terry Ryan was asked earlier this week if he'd ever had a scenario in which a player came very close to reaching a contract bonus but fell short, yet the team still gave it to him anyway.


His answer was simple.


"No," Ryan said. "If a person earns them, he gets it."

that's bullshit. You are saying he earned it if he gets 1 more out.
 

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Hughes (16-10) finished his first year with the Twins with the same number of wins and walks. With 186 strikeouts, his 11.63 ratio became the best of all time for pitchers with a qualifying amount of innings. Hughes beat Bret Saberhagen, who had 143 strikeouts and 13 walks for the New York Mets in 1994 for an 11.00 ratio.
 

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500,000 ONE OUT AWAY...

And they wont give it to him. I understand 500k isnt same to him as it is me, but
Twins general manager Terry Ryan was asked earlier this week if he'd ever had a scenario in which a player came very close to reaching a contract bonus but fell short, yet the team still gave it to him anyway.


His answer was simple.


"No," Ryan said. "If a person earns them, he gets it."

that's bullshit. You are saying he earned it if he gets 1 more out.

That makes you sick to your stomach?

It makes me sick to my stomach to think of that poor girl who went missing in North Carolina and they can't torture the son of a bitch who was with her. That poor girl might be somewhere suffering or starving to death right now.

A guy who signed a three year $24 million dollar deal not receiving an extra 1/2 million on top of it doesn't "make me sick to my stomach"
 

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The Twins should bring him in to get the final out of the season...it would be worth $500,000 in good publicity.
 

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Well, I guess I spoke too soon. Hughes has turned down the opportunity to get the bonus:

DETROIT (AP) — Minnesota Twins right-hander Phil Hughes turned down a chance to pitch again this weekend, even though one more out would have earned him a $500,000 bonus.
Hughes’ half-million-dollar bonus kicks in if he reaches 210 innings this year, but he is set to finish with 209 2-3 after a rain delay forced him out of his final scheduled start Wednesday.
Manager Ron Gardenhire said Thursday the Twins were prepared to let Hughes pitch again before the end of the season.
“I just didn’t think it was right,” Hughes said before the game against Detroit. “If I were fighting for a playoff spot, I’d 100 percent be available. But given the circumstances, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.”
Hughes is 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA in his first season with Minnesota, which signed him to a three-year deal in the offseason. He spent seven seasons with the New York Yankees before that.
Hughes has already triggered a pair of $250,000 bonuses for reaching 180 and 195 innings this season, on top of his $8 million salary.
“I owe too much to this organization for the next two years to risk getting hurt for an incentive,” Hughes said. “For whatever reason it wasn’t meant to be. There’s a lot bigger problems out there. I’m proud of my season.”
Hughes is 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA — with 186 strikeouts and only 16 walks. His strikeout-to-walk ratio of 11.63 will be a major league record, breaking the mark of 11.00 set by Bret Saberhagen of the New York Mets in 1994.
If Hughes were to pitch again and walk one more hitter without a strikeout, he would fall short of that record.
 

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I believe he should take the Twins up on the offer and donate the 500k to some charity such as The Fisher House or some other worthy charity if he does not want to do it for his own financial gain.
 

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500,000 ONE OUT AWAY...

And they wont give it to him. I understand 500k isnt same to him as it is me, but
Twins general manager Terry Ryan was asked earlier this week if he'd ever had a scenario in which a player came very close to reaching a contract bonus but fell short, yet the team still gave it to him anyway.


His answer was simple.


"No," Ryan said. "If a person earns them, he gets it."

that's bullshit. You are saying he earned it if he gets 1 more out.


some teams didn't let the player play in similar situations in the past, or at least one team didn't

in the not to distant past, a player was benched / shut down for that very reason, to save the team from paying a bonus clause (I don't remember who off the top of my head)

but a contract is a contract, and you can't set a "legal precedence" by making an exception. If you do, then they'll be future legal battles about "coming so close" or "unfortunate circumstances".

the Twins were giving him a legit opportunity, they shut him down for the right reasons, and they're paying him 8 million dollars per year, more than anyone else would. Can't go off on the organization here, they did and are doing the right thing.
 

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some teams didn't let the player play in similar situations in the past, or at least one team didn't

in the not to distant past, a player was benched / shut down for that very reason, to save the team from paying a bonus clause (I don't remember who off the top of my head)

but a contract is a contract, and you can't set a "legal precedence" by making an exception. If you do, then they'll be future legal battles about "coming so close" or "unfortunate circumstances".

the Twins were giving him a legit opportunity, they shut him down for the right reasons, and they're paying him 8 million dollars per year, more than anyone else would. Can't go off on the organization here, they did and are doing the right thing.


Phil hughes agrees with you
 

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Can't go off on the organization here, they did and are doing the right thing.
Especially after reading that he also had incentives for 180 and 195IP. Imo would have been different if the one for 210IP would have been the only one.
But either way offering him to pitch in relief was fair enough, both sides doing the right thing even though it wouldn't hurt publicitywise if they just went ahead and donated the money for some cause.
 

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He wants the record only reason he won't pitch they should put him in now and call for a international walk then take home out so he can't get either
 

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He wants the record only reason he won't pitch they should put him in now and call for a international walk then take home out so he can't get either

Why would you want them to do such a classless thing when he has shown himself to be nothing short of being 100% first class about the situation?

Gee wiz. Why can't we reserve our hate for someone like ray rice instead?
 

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Why would you want them to do such a classless thing when he has shown himself to be nothing short of being 100% first class about the situation?

Gee wiz. Why can't we reserve our hate for someone like ray rice instead?

It is the real reason why he doesn't want to pitch, don't fool yourself.
 

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It is the real reason why he doesn't want to pitch, don't fool yourself.

First off all he needs is 1 out.
Every good competitor at the highest level will feel line he can get the out vs a walk.

#2 you are fooling yourself if you think he cares more about an obscure record that none of us knew even existed or even cared about 2 days ago over 500k.

We are not talking about the equivalent of a 56 game hitting streak or anything like that.



Did you know or even care that Brett saberhagen had the record before Hughes?

Thats what I thought.
 

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