The Twins may have the best bullpen trio in the league

[Rik19753]

In the series finale against the Tigers, the Twins deployed their three best relievers in the 8th, 9th and 10th to secure the win. Brock Stewart, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran combined for 3 hitless innings while striking out 4 and walking only one.

In recent weeks, this kind of performance has been par for the course for this trio. In the month of June, they have combined to pitch 27 innings (basically 3 full games) and have only given up 2(!) earned runs.

This got me thinking, where does this trio rank amongst the RP in the league? So I did a little research, and here is what I found.

ERA ranks (out of 175 qualified relievers)

Stewart: 1st

Duran: 10th

Jax: 93rd

xERA ranks (out of 151 relievers)

Duran: 10th

Stewart: 14th

Jax: 15th

WAR ranks (out of 175 relievers)

Jax: 8th

Stewart: 41st

Duran: 71st

 

These stats seem to indicate that the Twins have 3 relievers that are closer-caliber. We have come a long ways from depending on guys like Pagan and Colome to close out games, folks. The starting pitching has been great, but this may quietly be the biggest strength on the team. 

P.S. The team that may stake a claim to having the best RP trio is the Orioles. Going by ERA, their 3 best relievers rank 2nd, 5th and 38th. 2 of those pitchers are Cano and Coulombe. 

I want to give credit to the FO for building a great bullpen, but maybe I shouldn't. 

[Squirrel]

I agree that that trio is very good and is a big upgrade to what we’ve had in the past, so yay for us. However, who do we have beyond those three that we can regularly rely upon? Those three were never my issue with the BP, but that there is uncertainty when any one or two of those three are not available. And that issue is compounded when there is an inconsistency in run support, where a 1-run lead is on the line. We simply cannot rely on starters to go 7-9 innings every game.

But credit due … Brock Stewart is a BIG find and the FO gets all the kudos on him.

[FlyingFinn]

This is the area I see the Twins trading for at the deadline. And it usually doesn't cost more than a minor leaguer who the Twins can't protect anyway on the 40 man roster over the winter because they have too many guys, for a 4th best reliever.

[TwinsDr2021]

6 hours ago, Rik19753 said:

These stats seem to indicate that the Twins have 3 relievers that are closer-caliber. We have come a long ways from depending on guys like Pagan and Colome to close out games, folks. The starting pitching has been great, but this may quietly be the biggest strength on the team. 

P.S. The team that may stake a claim to having the best RP trio is the Orioles. Going by ERA, their 3 best relievers rank 2nd, 5th and 38th. 2 of those pitchers are Cano and Coulombe. 

I want to give credit to the FO for building a great bullpen, but maybe I shouldn't. 

The headline should read -The Twins may have one of the best bullpen trios in the league.

IMO, Houston and Baltimore are better, maybe the LAD and maybe some others as well I didn't do that much research. With a healthy Thielbar the top 4 is pretty good.

I really like this trio, I don't believe Jax is anything close to closer-caliber, he blows way to many chances.

For comparisons for the top 3 guys

Team-Saves-Hold-Blown Saves

MN - 14 - 18- 8

Balt - 25 - 59 - 9

Hou - 18 - 26 - 6

LAD - 16 - 23 -3

 

 

[CRF]

Stewart is definitely a "find". He's been very solid. A great pickup by our FO. Jax a closer? Nah, I don't think so, but he's been damn good recently. Duran is one of the best closers in MLB, and an absolute stud in the pen. 

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Props to Falvey and Levine. When they mess up, they get a lot of criticism and rightfully so. But, when one of their moves pays off, they deserve the credit and recognition. Seems like pitchers like Stewart have been their MO for a while - hard throwing with some control issues - hope being if they can tweak something to cut down the walks, you'll have a hard throwing, high-leverage arm. That's Stewart to-date.

This is also what makes the line-up woes so frustrating. With Stewart, Jax and Duran at the back-end of games, the Twins' pitching staff has the makings of one that could make a run in October. That's hard to do though when 3 runs might be too much for your offense to overcome.

[farmerguychris]

Sure, they have a good 3, but they also have a group competing weekly to be last man out of the pen.  Worried this will be considered a 'success story' for the F.O., proving the fact that they don't need to 'really invest' in the pen in the future.

 

[Nine of twelve]

3 hours ago, farmerguychris said:

Sure, they have a good 3, but they also have a group competing weekly to be last man out of the pen.  Worried this will be considered a 'success story' for the F.O., proving the fact that they don't need to 'really invest' in the pen in the future.

 

I think this plan IS a success story. It has long been thought by many baseball people that there are almost always enough good relievers available to construct an effective bullpen on a year by year basis. The key, obviously, is identifying and signing the right guys.

[farmerguychris]

14 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

I think this plan IS a success story. It has long been thought by many baseball people that there are almost always enough good relievers available to construct an effective bullpen on a year by year basis. The key, obviously, is identifying and signing the right guys.

Is it however?  Yes, this plan brought us Stewart.  But this plan has also put us in spots where Pagan and Colome and have blown how many saves and lost us games?  You can't have low leverage pitchers put in high leverage situations as often as we do and be considered a good pen.

Half of a good pen does not make it a great pen IMO.  I can't see how any pen with the worst reliever in the past 4 years (Pagan) can be considered  a 'good' bullpen.

We've certainly been worse, but I think today we're only halfway where we want to be.

[Riverbrian]

17 hours ago, farmerguychris said:

Sure, they have a good 3, but they also have a group competing weekly to be last man out of the pen.  Worried this will be considered a 'success story' for the F.O., proving the fact that they don't need to 'really invest' in the pen in the future.

 

You do have to invest in the bullpen but it is not necessarily money that you must invest. You must invest a talent commitment to every single spot in the bullpen.  

Twins are 26th in bullpen spending. Pagan is drawing over half of the bullpen payroll at 3.5 million.

Duran, Jax and Stewart are making the minimum. If you take a look at the best bullpens in baseball this year. It's not money they are investing to make them league best bullpens. They are investing talent from top to bottom. 

 

 

 

[Aggies7]

Talk about a jinx post