Colt Hynes Promoted to San Antonio

Left-handed reliever Colt Hynes, 25, continues to shuttle between High-A Lake Elsinore and Double-A San Antonio. He earned his third callup to San Antonio, where he’s thrown two scoreless innings this year, yesterday. Hynes replaces left-handed starter Cory Luebke, promoted to Portland, on the Missions’ roster.

A control/groundball specialist, Hynes had a 63.3% groundball rate in Lake Elsinore, which helped him post a 2.37 ERA in spite of the hitter-friendly conditions in the Cal League. He only struck out 38 batters in 51 1/3 innings, but walked merely seven hitters, which more than balances out the mediocre K rate.

He’s almost impossible to lift for lefty batters, who have a 68.2% groundball rate off Hynes in his career, lending hope that he can be an effective Joe Thatcher-type pitcher in the majors. Like Thatcher, he throws from a low arm angle that isn’t quite sidearm.

At 25 and still bouncing to Double-A and back, Hynes needs to take advantage of the first extended upper-minors opportunity he gets.