Kinney pleased to be with Brewers Former Bangor High pitcher in line for job as starter in Milwaukee

Bangor’s Matt Kinney received an early Christmas present this week.

The Minnesota Twins traded Kinney to the Milwaukee Brewers which, he feels, should give him a better shot to be a starter.

“With the Twins, I would have been battling for a spot as a long reliever or a sixth starter if somebody got hurt,” explained the 25-year-old Kinney. “The Brewers have told me I’ll have a shot to be a third-to-fifth starter depending on how spring training goes.”

The Twins have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball and that led them to the American League’s Central Division title and a berth in the AL championship series against the eventual World Champion Anaheim Angels.

The Brewers had the worst record in the National League (56-106). Ben Sheets was the only regular in the starting rotation with an earned-run average lower than 4.70 at 4.15.

“I’m pretty excited. I talked with the GM [Doug Melvin] and they don’t have as much pitching as the Twins. It looks like a good situation for me. I’ll have a lot better opportunity with the Brewers than I would have had with the Twins,” said Kinney.

Kinney was out of options. If he hadn’t made the Twins’ roster next spring, they would have had to put him on waivers.

“And if somebody had picked me up, I wouldn’t have been ready to pitch as a starter because I would have been pitching as a reliever,” said Kinney.

Kinney appeared in 14 games for the Twins this past season before tendinitis in his throwing shoulder sidelined him.

He was 2-7 with a 4.64 earned run average.

When his tendinitis subsided, he was sent down to the minors and wound up helping the Edmonton Trappers to the Pacific Coast League (AAA) championship.

Kinney notched the wins in their two series clinchers: 5-2 over Las Vegas and 10-7 over Salt Lake City.

Kinney was traded to Milwaukee with catcher Javier Valentin for Single-A pitchers Matt Yeatman and Jerry Oakes.

“We’re hoping Matt had an off-year,” said Melvin in a story on MLB.com. “Hopefully, he can come into spring training and compete to be a part of our rotation at the back end.

“We hope we got two guys who are right on the verge. We hope they can create more competition at the big league level,” added Melvin.

Kinney and Valentin have both been added to Milwaukee’s 40-man roster.

Kinney was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the sixth round of the 1995 draft and passed up a scholarship to the University of Maine to sign with the Red Sox.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder was traded to the Twins with pitcher Joe Thomas and outfielder John Barnes for pitcher Greg Swindell and first baseman Orlando Merced in 1998.

“I’d like to get settled down. It seems like I move every two years,” said Kinney, who added that his shoulder feels fine and is looking forward to spring training.

“What I’ll need to do is be consistent and throw strikes,” said Kinney who was 4-9 with a 4.82 ERA in 22 games for the Twins.