Front Office Flops As They Fail Twins Bullpen

[Ted Schwerzler]

Coming into the 2023 Major League Baseball season the Minnesota Twins front office had made a plethora of moves to help the roster. They largely ignored the bullpen though, and then doubled down with that mistake at the trade deadline.

 

Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

This winter, everyone saw the Carlos Correa saga play out. They landed Pablo Lopez for Luis Arraez. Joey Gallo got a change of scenery, and Christian Vazquez would start behind the plate. Kyle Farmer and Michael A. Taylor looked like solid complimentary pieces, and Rocco Baldelli had plenty of healthy talent returning from 2022.

The bullpen, however, had no additions.

As they have done routinely throughout their tenure leading the organization, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine punted on the bullpen. They made a few waiver claims and had Danny Coulombe and Jeff Hoffman in on minor-league deals. Despite both arms looking good through spring training, the insistence of rostering Cole Sands as a long man won out and had them both out of the organization by Opening Day.

Fast forward to where we are now, and those decisions look poor. Despite spending most of July with Minnesota, Sands recorded just five outs, relegated almost entirely to mop-up duty. He went an entire week on the roster, during a significant daily game stretch, without being used. Coulombe has a 2.92 ERA with the Orioles, and Hoffman owns a 2.51 ERA for the Phillies.

With the trade deadline looming outside of a right-handed bat, nothing was more obvious to add than bullpen help. It was an opportunity for the front office to right their previous wrong. 

They needed to give Jhoan Duran some help. Griffin Jax had crazy usage, and Caleb Thielbar had just returned from the injured list for the second time dealing with an oblique issue.

They did nothing and accepted the failure of the Jorge Lopez trade with Baltimore, sending him to Miami for Dylan Floro in hopes a change of scenery could suit both players.

For months we had heard a similar refrain from the front office, and it often comes to the tune of players in the clubhouse being talented enough to get it done. That is fair when looking at an underperforming lineup. Considering the bullpen, though, doing nothing for that group is a slap in the face.

Not only has Duran underwhelmed during July, but it came out on deadline day that Brock Stewart (who also was acquired through a minor league deal) had a setback with his arm, and the timetable for his return is unknown. Thielbar is no sure bet to stay healthy; from there, it's a bunch of dice rolls.

Floro is an upgrade over the version of Lopez Minnesota employed, but his improved production relies on the peripherals playing better. Emilio Pagan has been solid this year but is less than 12 months removed from being an absolute disaster. Jordan Balazovic and Josh Winder are both failed starters with little-to-no track record, and Jovani Moran looks every bit the command mess his numbers suggest he is.

The front office failed to show up for Baldelli and his group of relievers that could've used their help.

Acquiring relief arms is not rocket science, and while a lefty made sense for Minnesota, anyone performing at a relatively positive level with a pulse should've been an option. They were never going to spring for Aroldis Chapman, but plenty of possibilities were available. To do nothing is simply unacceptable.

The Chicago White Sox highlighted the perils of trying to buy a bullpen. Grabbing Kendall Graveman, Liam Hendriks, Joey Kelly, and Craig Kimbrel in the same stretch still didn't save them. No one asked the Twins' front office to plop down Edwin Diaz-money on relief arms, but with $5 million or a mid-level prospect enough to move the needle, they chose neither.

When the dust settles on this season, the Twins will have to win the division if the front office wants to save face. Only Cleveland represents a threat, and it remains to be seen if even they are trying. Ending the 0-for-18 postseason stretch has to happen, and winning a series would be nice. No matter what happens from a results standpoint, consistently ignoring the bullpen is a broken process.

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[Dman]

Nice article!  Pretty much sums up my feelings on the bullpen from the start of the year to the deadline.  I will say it looked like they were going to be able to stash Coulombe until the Orioles came calling.  Hoffman was a dice role but it seemed like a lot of people on this forum had him penciled in to make the team.

If I had to half defend the FO it would be that they must have believed Moran was ready after he put up decent numbers the year before.  They felt Sands might be ready to turn the corner and probably thought they had Winder to back him up, but Winder started the year hurt and took half the year to get going.  They had a lot of young arms that they needed to not be 40 man wasters. I guess they thought they might be able to rely on the young guys, but like most things with this FO whatever they choose it seems to be the wrong decision.  If they would have kept Hoffman and Coulombe they would have likely been been ineffective or injured.  They rely on vets and fail, rely on the young guys and fail.  It just seems to work that way more often than not these days.

[Blyleven2011]

Your quess is as good as mine ...

[Kenny Powers]

This bullpen is interesting.  Depending on what stats I look at, they rank either middle of the pack at worst or top 5 at best in MLB.

2nd - FBv

2nd - WHIP (tied)

11th - ERA

12th - K/9

14th - LOB%

15th - WAR

16th - Holds

 

One thing did stand out to me though... and that was saves/save opportunities.

Duran is 20 out of 24.

The rest of the BP is 6 out of 23.

Maybe we have to go back to the old timey designated closer.

 

 

[Althebum82]

They certainly had a basis for hope that Alcala's return from last year's injury would make an impact, but it appears that year #2 will be mostly a wash as well.  At this point, it is hard to envision him has ever making a meaningful contribution to this bullpen again.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Kenny Powers said:

One thing did stand out to me though... and that was saves/save opportunities.

Duran is 20 out of 24.

The rest of the BP is 6 out of 23.

Maybe we have to go back to the old timey designated closer.

Part of that is the save stat itself. You can't get a save in the 8th inning but you can get a blown save in the 8th inning. The rest of the bullpen has 55 holds which would mean they have 61 Saves + Holds against 17 Blown Saves.

[Minny505]

But we all know, based on the comments here on TD, getting Brooks Raley at the deadline would have cost Brooks Lee & Jordy Blaze. That's too high of an asking price. It was smart of the team to pass on those type of deals 🙄

[Whitey333]

Typical mystifying decision by this inept front office.  Keep Sands and let Hoffman and columbe go?  That alone should get them fired.

[RJA]

You can never have enough bullpen arms, so my biggest complaint is that they did nothing in the off-season when players were available in free agency and would not cost anything in the way of prospect capital. Signing Gallo was a huge mistake—even if they thought he would bounce back some.  He is left handed for gosh sakes. Why add him to Kirilloff, Kepler, Wallner, Gordon  and Larnach?  His salary alone could have netted 2 relievers. But, no worries, Luplow is going to solve our southpaw issue. 

[darin617]

There were so many bullpen options available in January and the Twins were too cheap to add an arm or 2.

[Linus]

The most frustrating part for me is that this isn’t a new problem. They frequently end up with subpar bullpens because their “process” doesn’t work. I started posting in spring training that the bullpen was going to be a problem by the all star break. They didn’t even make to the fishing opener. If your plan is everyone will be healthy and every young pitcher will turn out then you are planning to fail. 

[DocBauer]

I had actually forgotten about Hoffman. Just looked him up and he's having a very good season with the Phillies. 

What I don't understand about the FO is doubling down on veteran, corner LH bats to the degree that young players like Larnach and Wallner have been forced to spend most of the year in AAA, Gordon had limited opportunity as a reserve before getting hurt. But they refused to do the same thing in the pen.

I had high hopes for Alcala to be back and be a, potentially, important part of the pen. I may be wrong, but I think he has an option left. If so, why bank on him coming back all the way right off the bat? Why not Sands starting in AAA and bring him up later if needed? 

Now, Pagan is a lightening rod of debate, but so far, keeping him has looked like an OK decision. (We'll see how the rest of the year plays out). But the Gallo signing at $11M or not, re-signing Fulmer wouldn't have broken the bank. I have a lot of faith in the potential of Moran and he's definitely flashed at times this year. But why not keep Coulombe who has had some injury issues, but performed well for the Twins when healthy, and was having a good ST. Why not keep 3 LH in the pen? You sign veteran fliers like Hoffman and Stewart in hopes of uncovering some gold. And they got that! (Even DeLeon looked promising before blowing out his arm).

They should have re-signed Fulmer, and kept Coulombe and Hoffman to begin the year. What's the worst thing that could happen? You spend a few $M on Fulmer and you could always drop the vets if they stunk and bring up one of the AAA arms. Someone gets hurt? Bring up someone from AAA. 

The pen has largely been solid most of the year, sitting about middle of the pack depending on what ranking, what numbers you look at. But how great would it have looked with Fulmer, Coulombe and Hoffman and STILL get the contributions that they have from Stewart and even DeLeon. I'd take that kind of depth in a heartbeat! And all they had to do was expand the payroll a few more $M on Fulmer and keep a pair of veteran arms you already had at low salaries. 

Huge missed opportunity. 

[IndianaTwin]

From the OP: "They did nothing and accepted the failure of the Jorge Lopez trade with Baltimore, sending him to Miami for Dylan Floro in hopes a change of scenery could suit both players."

 

Isn't "sending [Lopez] to Miami for Dylan Floro" a refuting of "They did nothing"? It may not have been the kind of needle-moving splash some clamoring for, but based on the extremely small sample size, it looks like it was an addition, even if just being by subtraction.

And I take them at their word that the price was too high to pay for what actually ended up being available, so I'm fine with their not doing more. Stark had an interesting article in The Athletic, where a bunch of front office guys talked about the difficulty of doing anything this year.  

[Doctor Wu]

Looking back, a week ago, it seemed like adding another arm to the bullpen was a no-brainer. With the injuries to Alcala, Stewart and DeLeon (the latter two weren't even expected to contribute at the start of the season, but they ended up being good pickups, however briefly), we are looking a bit thin for reinforcements at this point. But I can also understand not trading for some sort of rental arm and giving up a valuable prospect. Meanwhile, we wait and hope. Maybe Dobnak can be called up and perform well in relief? At this point I'm not sure what, if any, backup plan they have in case of yet another injury.

[DJL44]

17 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Typical mystifying decision by this inept front office.  Keep Sands and let Hoffman and columbe go?  That alone should get them fired.

It wasn't even an either/or decision. They had the chance to keep Coulombe and Sands. For some reason they kept the young relievers with options on the Opening Day roster instead of sending them to AAA. That's just foolish. A team will need 10-15 relievers to get through the season. The younger pitchers will get plenty of opportunities. Stockpile depth in the bullpen to start the season.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Doctor Wu said:

At this point I'm not sure what, if any, backup plan they have in case of yet another injury.

I don't think it would hurt Varland, Headrick or Woods-Richardson to spend the rest of the year in the bullpen. Varland is at 110+ innings pitched on the season. They could give Ortega another chance and add Funderburk if they need a lefty. Beyond that it's probably watching the waiver wire.

[Doctor Wu]

24 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I don't think it would hurt Varland, Headrick or Woods-Richardson to spend the rest of the year in the bullpen. Varland is at 110+ innings pitched on the season. They could give Ortega another chance and add Funderburk if they need a lefty. Beyond that it's probably watching the waiver wire.

Some good suggestions, especially Headrick, who looked impressive during his other stints on the team. Ortega seemed like he had something to offer too. And I'm also high on the potential of Funderburk. Call him up? Okay, there may be a question of too many healthy arms at some point, but why not!

[John Belinski]

It doesn't appear Moran should be on the team. When a RP walks 3 batters in 9th inning they do not belong on the team.  Bring up another RP that will help Twins. The only game that Moran can pitch in is if the Twins are 10 runs ahead so why waste a spot on him. I could understand walking one batter or maybe even two batters, but not three batters in one inning.

[Minny505]

5 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Stewart and DeLeon (the latter two weren't even expected to contribute at the start of the season, but they ended up being good pickups, however briefly), we are looking a bit thin for reinforcements at this point. But I can also understand not trading for some sort of rental arm and giving up a valuable prospect. 

No offense to Cody Lewis, but I hardly consider him a valuable prospect.

[Minny505]

4 hours ago, DJL44 said:

It wasn't even an either/or decision. They had the chance to keep Coulombe and Sands. For some reason they kept the young relievers with options on the Opening Day roster instead of sending them to AAA. That's just foolish. A team will need 10-15 relievers to get through the season. The younger pitchers will get plenty of opportunities. Stockpile depth in the bullpen to start the season.

[Althebum82]

1 hour ago, John Belinski said:

It doesn't appear Moran should be on the team. When a RP walks 3 batters in 9th inning they do not belong on the team.  Bring up another RP that will help Twins. The only game that Moran can pitch in is if the Twins are 10 runs ahead so why waste a spot on him. I could understand walking one batter or maybe even two batters, but not three batters in one inning.

Mr Belinski, your wish is granted.  Moran is down, and welcome back Headrick.  Not sure that Headrick has actually earned a call-up, either, but he is left handed I guess.    It is a move that most certainly reinforces the message of the original post.