3 Dark Horse Candidates to Claim Bullpen Roles in 2023

[Lou Hennessy]

The Twins emphasized depth when making their additions over the off-season. Even with a deeper roster, there are bound to be opportunities for players currently on the outside looking in. Which arms could be dark horse candidates to establish themselves in the big league bullpen at some point in 2023?

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

As spring training winds down, we’re starting to get a better picture of what the Twins’ roster is going to look like when the team heads north to Kansas City on March 30th. Piece by piece, the depth chart is being whittled down. However, not every player that gets chipped off in March is bound to remain in the minor leagues all season long. 

As much as everyone is sick of hearing about health concerns to key contributors, injuries are inevitable. So are under-performances from players that make the big league roster on Opening Day. When these inevitabilities happen, a successful Twins team is going to need some unexpected characters to step up and claim effective roles on the club while they can. That’s especially true when talking about the relief corps. 

Jhoan Duran, Jorge Lopez, Caleb Thielbar, Griffin Jax and Emilio Pagan are seen as near-locks to make the club out of spring training, and other arms including Jorge Alcala and Jovani Moran are other current front-runners to claim bullpen spots right off the bat. Beyond that group, there are a handful of players that could find their way up to the big league club when given the call. Here are three dark horse candidates to make a name for themselves out of the Twins’ bullpen in 2023.

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Jose De Leon
After signing the 30-year-old Jose De Leon to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training, the Twins finally got their longtime target. He was the headliner in a rumored trade proposal with the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2018 when the club was shopping second baseman Brian Dozier.

DeLeon is no longer the prized starting pitching prospect that he was back then, but he could still provide value to a Twins’ bullpen that has sorely lacked an effective multi-inning weapon. 

His upside was clearly evident in an appearance for team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, where he dazzled through 5 2/3 perfect innings in his lone start. In that outing, he racked up 10 punch outs without walking anyone and without giving up a single hit. While the competition that De Leon is bound to face in the season is probably much better than that of Team Israel, the results were still encouraging. Even more eye-opening than that outcome was the quality of pitches that De Leon was featuring. Eno Sarris of The Athletic noted that the righty displayed the third-best Stuff+ among starters in the WBC. “Stuff+ looks only at the physical characteristics of a pitch,” as stated in Fangraphs’ definition of the metric. “Important features include, but are not limited to, release point, velocity, vertical and horizontal movement, and spin rate.”

If De Leon and the Twins are amenable to seeing how that stuff plays in a relief role, the righty could be among the first arms to be called up in-season. Maybe he fits the Jharel Cotton mold of 2022, where he is called to mop up some innings if a starter has to leave a game early. Perhaps he gets the ball in extra innings and is tasked with finishing it out. No matter the role, if De Leon can maintain this quality of stuff in his pitches, he could get ample opportunities at the big league level.  

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Oliver Ortega
The Twins claimed Oliver Ortega off of waivers from the Los Angeles Angels in early-January, and were enticed by his mix of hard fastball and big slider. Does that sound familiar? The club has shown an affinity for this kind of repertoire in their pitchers (especially relievers) over the last few years. From Jax, to Alcala, to Matt Wisler, this front office just can’t get enough of this pitch combo. Ortega was outrighted off of the 40-man roster later in the off-season, and has two option years remaining. This could play into his favor as a potential taxi squad regular, or someone that can shuffle between the major leagues and Triple-A multiple times over the next two seasons. Remember how often the Twins would have someone walk the plank to eat up innings before being switched out with a fresh arm immediately after the game? Keep that formula in mind when trying to map out an opening for Ortega. 

What will determine the lean right-hander’s ability to establish himself into an MLB role is his sky-high walk tendencies. Yes, the Twins love his upper-90s heat and slurvy breaking pitch, but this repertoire only goes as far as his ability to get swinging misses and avoid walks. Last season, he had an unsightly 12.2% walk rate and a good-not-great 11.1% swinging strike rate. His strength is in his strikeout rate, which was fantastic in the upper-minors over the last two seasons (33% in Double-A, 24% in Triple-A). He started to show that in the big leagues with the Angels last season when he struck out 22.3% of batters faced in 34 innings pitched. If Ortega can rein in those walks while continuing to develop swing-and-miss stuff, he could claim a low-leverage role in the major-league bullpen.

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Cody Laweryson
A 14th-round draft pick in 2019, Laweryson is often overlooked when scouring the Twins’ depth chart. He was limited to 45 innings pitched in 2019, missed all of 2020 due to the pandemic and then underwhelmed in 2021 at High-A where he had a 4.91 ERA in 59 innings across 14 starts. It should be noted that a .340 batting average on balls in play likely inflated that shaky earned run total. Still, after a strong showing in the Arizona Fall League, the Twins had faith that he would straighten things out in 2022, and he did just that. 

Cody Laweryson made 16 appearances at High-A to start the 2022 campaign, 14 of which were out of the bullpen. He had a much more encouraging 2.57 ERA this time around, with a 29.4% strikeout rate and a serviceable 8% walk rate. He got promoted to Double-A midway through the season, and continued to flourish with similar results. At Wichita, he held opposing hitters to a .196 batting average and had a promising 10.4 K/9. His swinging-strike rate dipped from 15.2% to 14.1%, but so did his walk rate (8.4% to 6.7%). 

The Twins don’t seem in a rush to give up on Laweryson as a starter. He made eight starts at Double-A in the second half of last season, and finally showed some success in that role. However, he is entering his age-25 season and is well down the list of starting pitcher options on the Twins’ depth chart. It’s going to be hard to find starting opportunities at the Triple-A level with prospects such as Louie Varland, Simeon Woods Richardson, Jordan Balazovic, and maybe Cole Sands all occupying spots in the Saints’ rotation. Not to mention, there’s a slew of veterans on minor-league deals that are vying for opportunities. Maybe a permanent move to the bullpen can yield more solid results from Laweryson while creating a clearer path to the major leagues.

What do you think? Can any of these three establish themselves in the Twins' bullpen? Who are some other lesser-known arms that could claim a relief role for themselves in 2023?

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[Dman]

I sure hope Deleon is back to his old self.  He could make the Twins bullpen really good.  I think Hoffman has the inside track though as I believe he has an opt out. DeLeon was a little wild early this spring and gave up a HR would need to see more especially against MLB bats to see where he really is at.  Out of the list I like him best as the arm to make it.

[Fatbat]

Deleon would be exciting to watch!!! I’d lean towards guys on the 40man first. Sands, Henriquez and Maeda if he cant get back to pitching 6-7 innings without giving up more than 2-3 runs. 

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Fatbat said:

Deleon would be exciting to watch!!! I’d lean towards guys on the 40man first. Sands, Henriquez and Maeda if he cant get back to pitching 6-7 innings without giving up more than 2-3 runs. 

Henriquez is hurt - hasn’t thrown for 3-4 weeks due to soreness above elbow.

Sands is a good long relief option.

”…….Maeda if he can’t get back to pitching 6-7 innings w/o giving up more than 2-3 runs……..” I don’t know if he’s ever been this good?? Pretty tall order! 6 1/3 innings pitched and 2 runs = 2.84 ERA & 7 innings pitched and 3 runs = 3.85 ERA……hope he can approach this type of success.

[Major League Ready]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

I sure hope Deleon is back to his old self.  He could make the Twins bullpen really good.  I think Hoffman has the inside track though as I believe he has an opt out. DeLeon was a little wild early this spring and gave up a HR would need to see more especially against MLB bats to see where he really is at.  Out of the list I like him best as the arm to make it.

According to MLB trade rumors Sanchez is the only twins player with an opt out.

Players with opt outs

[Dman]

11 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

According to MLB trade rumors Sanchez is the only twins player with an opt out.

Players with opt outs

I am going off of this article on Twins Daily\  So somebody is wrong.

[Major League Ready]

7 minutes ago, Dman said:

I am going off of this article on Twins Daily\  So somebody is wrong.

Looking a little deeper, according to the star tribune (Phil Miller) Hoffman has several opt outs.   I am pulling for DeLeon.  He could soak up some innings and protect the rest of the BP.

[Dman]

6 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Looking a little deeper, according to the star tribune (Phil Miller) Hoffman has several opt outs.   I am pulling for DeLeon.  He could soak up some innings and protect the rest of the BP.

I don't necessarily disagree but they essentially already lost Santana in favor of Hoffman so I have to believe they are going to give him first crack.  DeLeon doesn't have an opt out so guessing they stash him and see what Hoffman has. Otherwise he will opt out and they will get no shot.  I haven't been overly impressed to this point but the metrics paint a nice picture.  Hopefully more chances to see both this spring and see if one or the other can separate themselves.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

According to MLB trade rumors Sanchez is the only twins player with an opt out.

Players with opt outs

The way I read the article in mlbtraderumors.com was that players with a certain amount of service time who finished the previous season in the majors, but then signed minor league contracts are guaranteed an opt-out. Sanchez meets those criteria.

It's been reported that Hoffman has opt-outs and several others might as well. 

[stringer bell]

I like Oliver Ortega's chances of helping the club at some point this year. Like Willi Castro, Ortega would have an option to use so that he could go to St. Paul without the risk of being claimed. 

[DocBauer]

Agree Hoffman has a leg up on DeLeon to begin the season. While not classic middle men or long relievers, Hoffman and Pagan fill an early 2 IP role. IMO, it comes to either showing enough to warrant their roster spot. I'm hoping the FO has learned from their previous mistakes and won't stick with either too long.

DeLeon has had some injuries, and has never capitalized on his stuff. But I could see him embracing a bullpen role and being an easy option to slide in to the 7th or 8th spot in the pen. I may have missed it somewhere, but does he have any options left? I'm betting not. That could have an effect at some point as the Twins like the last couple of spots to have options to run a St Paul shuttle.

Ortega fits the Twins profile. Still only 26 and coming off an OK season, I was surprised the Angels let him go. With his stuff, and youth, and options, he could be a real surprise. For future consideration, I like him better than DeLeon, but the control has to be better. He has milb starting experience, but DeLeon has more time being being stretched out. So if the Twins are looking for innings, he might not fit as well.

Call it a gut feeling, but I think Lawyerson has a future in this pen. Despite less than tremendous stuff, he's deceptive, and has shown the ability to get guys out in various roles. I see Lawyerson as a perfect middle man in the pen who can throw 2-4 IP as needed. In my fantasy bullpen I see him and maybe Headrick as a RH/LH pair to control the middle innings before turning things over to the back end 6 of the pen. Not necessarily now, but maybe 2024. Lawyerson needs a little more AAA time before I'm ready for him to make his mark. I see him more for next season, but he might make a contribution late this year.

Interesting that Coulombe isn't included here. Is that because he's a "given" to contribute this year? I'm guessing so.

This is all fluid. And its up to each pitcher to establish themselves and contribute and prove their worth. But when I step back and look long term, I see Sands, Henriquez, and even Winder as perhaps better options for the future. Ortega has a shot. Lawyerson is the one name here I like the most for fit and future contribution. 

[Fatbat]

12 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Henriquez is hurt - hasn’t thrown for 3-4 weeks due to soreness above elbow.

Sands is a good long relief option.

”…….Maeda if he can’t get back to pitching 6-7 innings w/o giving up more than 2-3 runs……..” I don’t know if he’s ever been this good?? Pretty tall order! 6 1/3 innings pitched and 2 runs = 2.84 ERA & 7 innings pitched and 3 runs = 3.85 ERA……hope he can approach this type of success.

He does have a career era of 3.87 in mlb and probably better when he was in japan. He went 5 innings today with 2 earned runs so maybe he can put the surgery behind him and have a 2020 type season (2.40 era) 

[saviking]

I'd take any of them over Pagan

[Major League Ready]

5 minutes ago, saviking said:

I'd take any of them over Pagan

That's a low bar.

[twinfan]

I would trade Pagan for a bag of (used) balls but maybe we can get a low A player for him.

[troyjuhn]

Damn De Leon gave up 6 Runs today in his outing against Atlanta

[DocBauer]

1 hour ago, troyjuhn said:

Damn De Leon gave up 6 Runs today in his outing against Atlanta

I saw that. Sanchez got equally lit up in the other game. Frankly, I'm not very high on either one. Always felt they were signed simply for AAA depth and not much more. De Leon just never put it together and Sanchez lost it somewhere along the line. Sanchez did seem to rediscover himself in 2022 somewhat in the minors. I believe both are 30yo right now and their ticket back is probably embracing a pen role, though each may end up in the St Paul rotation at some point. 

Even then, there time in the rotation should be limited if there is good health in play at both levels. (He said crossing his fingers). Varland, SWR, Balazovic, Winder, Dobnak, Henriquez, possibly Sands,  should be the primary starters, even though Jordy Blaze and Henriquez are out at the moment, and Sands may convert to the pen sooner than later. And there's going to probably be some mid season promotions from AA as well.

[stringer bell]

Cole Sands looks like he’s the last man standing. Not a huge fan, but he can provide multiple innings and can be optioned. Also, if Sands is the long man, they still will have one 40-man space available to add either Garlick or Castro. 

[Doctor Wu]

I was rooting for DeLeon, especially after his excellent contribution to Puerto Rico's perfect game last week, but after yesterday's shellacking ... ouch! Maybe Ortega has can be the dark horse savior?

[stringer bell]

2 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

I was rooting for DeLeon, especially after his excellent contribution to Puerto Rico's perfect game last week, but after yesterday's shellacking ... ouch! Maybe Ortega has can be the dark horse savior?

Ortega was sent down to minor league camp. I think he'll be one of the first recalls to the Twins when they need bullpen help.