CHICAGO — In a key spot Saturday night, one of the biggest questions facing Mick Abel surfaced and sent his debut spiraling out of control.

One reason the Philadelphia Phillies were willing to trade Abel to the Minnesota Twins for closer Jhoan Duran is concerns about his command. He’s taken a clear step forward this season, but Abel produced high walk rates in the first four years of his professional career.

Making his Twins debut at Rate Field, Abel couldn’t escape those issues, and it cost him dearly. Abel walked two batters, including one with the bases loaded, and also yielded a grand slam as the Chicago White Sox downed the Twins 7-3 at Rate Field.

Abel allowed six earned runs and seven hits in three innings with two walks and two strikeouts.

“I could have been a lot more greedy,” Abel said. “I think that could have been the case with a couple of the 1-2, 0-2 counts I had. The overarching thing is getting 0-1 (in the count) and not falling behind 1-0 and letting the at-bat get away. It’s something I know and was able to recognize in the moment. It was frustrating not being able to execute like I should.”

Gifted with excellent stuff, including four pitches with 50 or better grades on MLB’s 20-80 scouting scale, command is the one thing that has always been a question for Abel.

Entering the 2025 campaign, Abel walked 5.3 batters per nine across 375 professional innings. Abel improved those figures drastically this season, lowering the number to 3.8 walks across 89 1/3 innings between Triple A and the majors.

Following the July 30 trade that sent him and catching prospect Eduardo Tait to the Twins, Abel showed well at Triple-A St. Paul, decreasing the figure to 3.5 walks. He struck out 23 batters and walked only six while posting a 1.76 ERA in 15 1/3 innings at Triple A.

“It’s more of a mentality than anything,” Abel said. “I’m back to trusting my stuff.”

Mick Abel walked two batters and yielded a grand slam in his Twins debut, a 7-3 loss to the White Sox. (Matt Marton / Imagn Images)

The Twins are enamored with Abel’s arsenal and believe they can help him enhance it.

As part of their onboarding plan, the Twins suggested a sweeper would pair nicely with the curveball Abel’s thrown throughout his career. While the curveball’s whiff rate against lefties is very good, Abel doesn’t generate as many swings and misses against righties, something the sweeper potentially would do.

Though he had yet to throw it in a game, Abel had already begun work on a sweeper earlier this season at Triple-A Lehigh. When his new club asked, Abel agreed and threw it in a bullpen session, and the Twins instantly liked what they saw.

“The shape looked great, the movement looked great, the velocity looked great,” said Twins pitching development director Tommy Bergjans. “We asked him to integrate it. He still needs to dial in on the execution. But we’re really encouraged and excited about how that pitch can perform as he gets comfortable with commanding and executing it.”

Abel’s also made strides with his changeup after changing the grip, a pitch the Twins intend to use more over time.

Already at Triple A at the time of the trade, the Twins elected to keep Abel in the minors to allow him and Sunday’s starting pitcher, Taj Bradley, a chance to get their footing underneath them. Not only was each pitcher surprised by the news, but the Twins also didn’t want to instantly expose either to a team that ripped apart its roster by trading 10 players at the end of July.

“We wanted both Mick and Taj to simply settle into the organization as opposed to coming to the big leagues and worrying about pitching immediately and worrying about numbers and results,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I want (Abel) to go out there and simply be able to relax and show us what he can do.”

Nothing about Saturday’s start appeared relaxing for Abel.

Abel recorded an out on his first pitch, but that’s as easy as it would go.

With one out, left fielder James Outman misplayed a Miguel Vargas fly ball into a double and White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery lined a 2-0 fastball off Abel’s leg — the “meat part,” he said — for a single. Abel escaped the jam one pitch later with an inning-ending double play, but the night only sped up on the rookie.

Working with a 1-0 lead, Abel worked ahead to the first four batters he faced in the bottom of the second inning. However, it didn’t prevent Andrew Benintendi from opening the inning with a single, nor did it stop Luis Robert Jr. and Chase Meidroth from also singling, the latter bringing in the tying run with one out.

What bugged Abel about the Meidroth single was that it occurred on a 0-2 curveball that caught too much of the zone. Abel responded by striking out Michael A. Taylor on three pitches. However, he immediately fell behind each of the next three batters, and it resulted in more runs, including Montgomery ripping a middle-middle fastball 412 feet to make it a 6-1 game. Abel threw 39 pitches in the inning.

“I was just letting them hit in some pretty good hitter’s counts,” Abel said. “I thought I executed a couple pitches (early), and typically, I get a little more comfortable as the outing goes on. To get comfortable in the 1-0, 2-0 counts, that’s not what I should be comfortable in. It starts 0-0 and it starts with getting strike one.”

Abel returned in the third inning and worked around a two-out single to put up a zero. Though he fell behind Montgomery 1-0 again with two outs, Abel followed with three strikes, including a fastball called for strike three to end the inning.

Though he described the six-spot as a tough inning, Baldelli saw enough glimpses from Abel to be encouraged.

“I like a lot of what I saw,” Baldelli said. “You can clearly see the ability shine through. … We talk about a lot, knowing what to try to do and how to execute pitches with two strikes, that’s much different than early in the count. When he realizes exactly what he’s going to try to do with those pitches, he’s going to get some swing and miss — and a lot of it. That inning was obviously a tough inning, but I think a lot of it was just having to work so hard and not being able to put away a few hitters.”

(Top photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)