Dean gets called up to Majors

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Pat Dean
Pat Dean

In his seventh year in professional baseball, Pat Dean finally realized his dream of a trip to the major leagues.

The Minnesota Twins called the Naugatuck native up to their big league roster Saturday in the latest of a series of roster moves.

The 26-year-old lefthander had been with Triple-A Rochester for the last two seasons. He went 12-11 with a 2.82 ERA last season and started this spring 1-3 with a 3.00 ERA in six starts with the Twins’ top affiliate.

Minnesota drafted Dean in the third round of the 2010 draft out of Boston College, and he’s been steadily climbing through the organization ever since. He led Triple-A in innings pitched last season with 179.

Dean spent all of 2014 and parts of 2011 and 2013 with the New Britain Rock Cats. His biggest splash with the Twins came in 2013, when he was a late-season call-up to Rochester and went 3-2 with a 2.013 ERA in six starts for the Red Wings.

His call-up to the majors is the latest in a string of moves for the Twins, who are the worst team in the American League through the first month-plus.

Dean, a 6-foot-1, 195-pounder, will wear No. 64 for Minnesota. The Twins begin a three-game homestand against the Orioles on Monday.

The next time Minnesota will be in this area is June 24-26, when the Twins play at the New York Yankees.

Dean’s fastball sits in the low 90s, and he mixes in a slider, a curveball and a changeup. His strikeout-to-walk ratio has been above-average in the minors — it’s been about 3-to-1 this year and has been closer to 4-to-1 during his Triple-A career.

Dean was an All-State pitcher during his career at Naugatuck High from 2004-07.

In 2009, he led Boston College to its first NCAA tournament in 42 years and made a seven-inning start in a regional game against Texas that eventually went a record 25 innings.

He was placed on the Twins’ 40-man roster in December and spent much of spring training in Minnesota’s big league camp.