I’ve seen some interesting content here about position players ready for promotion, trading specific guys, and some potential position changes, but I don’t remember seeing much that solves the real problem for this year’s Twins – fixing the Bullpen. You hear talk about trading for relief pitchers at the deadline, but that’s going to be very expensive this year in terms of prospects and only has about a 50/50 chance of success. History is littered with trades for relievers that didn’t work out. I want to fix the problem internally, not hope we get lucky externally unless Boston will trade us Chapman for a decent AA prospect and an A ball lottery ticket. Good luck with that. I’d love to see some analysis on the guys in our system who we think could come up and help the bullpen now. And by now, I mean, call them up today or tomorrow and give them a month-long run before the deadline to see if they can be part of the answer. 
 

I start with the premise that there are a minimum of three open spots. Voth will be DFAd today if he hasn’t been already, Adams doesn’t look ready and may never be ready, and painful as it is to say our old friend Taylor Rogers should either go on the IL or retire. He’s cooked. There are three open spots minimum. I leave Preilipp, Rojas, and Paredes to cover the fourth and fifth starter/long man reliever spots and I think Orze is very shaky, but I leave him for now to be replaced when Sands is ready to pitch. Gomez, Banda, and Morris are the late inning guys. I also don’t think Ober or Able will be ready in the next month to either help in the bullpen or hold down a starting spot and kick Paredes into the pen. I actually think when Able is ready to come back that the bullpen may be the better place to put him for the rest of this year given his elbow issues and I would seriously think about making him the closer.
 

I have one other criteria. No pitcher over 30 with no options. I want guys 28 or younger that can be part of a long-term bullpen, not Band-Aids we grab off the waiver wires. Even though the Gomez experience turned out to be positive, most of them aren’t.

Based on all that, I say we promote Funderburk, CJ, Culpepper, and John Klein to replace Voth, Adams and Rogers. Today or tomorrow. Funderburk was very good the second half of last year and his slow start this year may be the result of his wife’s illness and the new child as much as anything to do with his pitching . I think Culpepper and Klein are the best of the rest at AAA, although Roznek is intriguing.

That’s my attempted solution to our biggest problem, but some of you guys know a lot more about what’s available in the system that I do. What does everybody else think?