Can Daniel Duarte be This Year's Brock Stewart?

[Ted Schwerzler]

When the Minnesota Twins were working through their offseason it was clear that the bullpen was where they intended to add for the pitching staff. With Opening Day quickly approaching, a non roster invitee looks to be making a strong bid for a future roster spot.

Image courtesy of © Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Although Derek Falvey brought in Josh Staumont on a major league deal, and acquired Steven Okert through a trade for Nick Gordon, the Minnesota Twins also cycled through some waiver claims. Ryan Jensen was among those, but it has been Daniel Duarte that has stood out during Spring Training.

The 27-year-old Duarte was claimed off of waivers from the Texas Rangers at the beginning of February. Having spent time in the Kansas City Royals system prior to making a debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2022, it was last season that he got significant big-league run. Across 31 2/3 innings for the Reds, Duarte posted a 3.69 ERA. That’s where the good numbers stopped though as he struggled with command, didn’t generate strikeouts, gave up a ton of walks, and was hurt by the longball.

Clearly Minnesota saw something they liked though, and being able to keep him in the rotation while removing him from the 40-man roster was a nice come-up. Similar to last spring when Brock Stewart, Danny Coulombe, and Jeff Hoffman were vying for bullpen spots, Duarte is looking to crack a much better group. Of course, the Twins made a poor decision in allowing Coulombe and Hoffman to walk, but they saw Stewart become a high-leverage arm for Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen.

The Twins should be expected to have among baseball’s best bullpens this year, and that may mean arms like Cole Sands and Jorge Alcala could start out in Triple-A. Duarte is a run below them, but his performance this spring has definitely stood out. Through his first five innings he had faced 17 batters and allowed just a pair of hits. His 7/0 K/BB was impressive, and a much better show of command than he had shown a year ago. On Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays he finally suffered his first setback. Brandon Lowe tagged the Twins reliever for a homer, but the second run only scored on a bloop single.

There was never a reason to bet on Duarte cracking Baldelli’s group out of the gate as there just aren’t enough spots to go around. Rather than being jettisoned after Grapefruit League action though, his final option could be used to stash him with the Saints. He’d get a longer leash to establish what he has shown this spring, and working in a group with the aforementioned depth could prop up his value.

Most of the offseason pitching talk regarded the Twins needing to replace both Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda’s production from 2023. The hope would be that Chris Paddack and Anthony DeSclafani can do that, but the depth behind them may be tested early. Taking some pressure away from the rotation is something that can be accomplished by a lights out bullpen, and if Duarte can become part of a group that’s reliable in St. Paul, then the waiver claim would be another nice development for the organization.

Minnesota can use spring training as a launching pad for Duarte, and if the success continues in St. Paul, while still throwing 95 mph, he should find his way back to the big leagues. The Twins have made a habit of building bullpens without spending much money, and being able to get the most out of otherwise overlooked assets is a good way to accomplish that.

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[jkcarew]

It’d be great!

But I’m still busy hoping Brock Stewart can be this year’s Brock Stewart.

[Doctor Gast]

Daniel Duarte seems like the pitcher that the Twins take & make something out of, that's what the Twins do. But the FO isn't being our savior by putting together this BP to help us win the division, we'd have won it anyway. And this BP isn't going to help us advance in the postseason, that's why we needed a postseason SP, who they failed to pick up. This BP hype is to distract us from our losses, Gray, Maeda & Polanco.

[roger]

When I saw the title I thought, who?

Am I correct in understanding that he is on a minor league contract and can be sent to St. Paul?  If so, do you know if he has an opt out at some time early or during the season?

Sure like what the bullpen could be.  A bit concerned, however, with the results we are seeing from their top three starters.  Then again, none of us know what they are working on that leads to those results.

[Dman]

I had him as my sire of Fort Myers pick until his last game against real MLB players.  I got a chance to watch on MLB.tv and he didn't look all that great to me, but what do I know.  Still his results have been pretty good so I think there is a chance he could be a lower leverage reliever, but I don't see him being as dominant as someone like Stewart.  Will be interesting to see how he performs the rest of the way.  Right now it looks like he should be in the mix for that last spot in the Bullpen.  Hoping he turns into a dominant reliever, but I don't see it.  

[DocBauer]

He's definitely behind both Alcala and Funderburk, IMO. Is behind Sands? Is he behind Sands only because Sands is on the 40 man?

He's the kind of arm, still relatively young at 27, where he figures something out with the help of a good coaching staff and turns in to someone at least solid, if not good. 

But he might be nothing more than a AAA pen arm. But you build pens from "failed" starters in your system, and relievers in your system...who often are also former starters. But you also grab guys like him that are sometimes on the 40 man, but often are on milb deals, or waiver wire 40 man additions who you then pass through waivers for AAA. 

The Twins, over decades, and with our current FO have done a solid job in this practice. But they really, really miscalculated last year by not holding on to Coulombe and Hoffman. While the pen was stronger in the 2nd half of 2023, the 1st half pen would have been better with the OK Coulombe and the really good Hoffman. No disrespect to the guys brought in this year, or those already on hand, but the pen would look that much better and deeper if they had been smart enough to keep Hoffman, who had a really good spring, BTW.

Here's hoping they don't make a similar mistake this year, or in the future. But Duarte is going to be throwing in St Paul. He's got to pitch his way back up to the ML level by improved performance as I think he's about the 11th or 12th man right now.

[JD-TWINS]

He needs better command - his stuff is fine. 31 outings for the Reds in ‘23 with a 3.69 ERA. That’s reality. He only strikes out 6.5 guys per 9 innings. He walked 20 guys in 31 2/3 so he worked out of some jams for sure to have an ERA that reasonable. With better command his walks get closer to acceptable level……..nothing more frustrating than having a reliever come into a game and walk guys. See Jovani Moran. So he’s got that to work on in St. Paul - maybe see him up in July if he’s been more consistent?

[arby58]

19 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Daniel Duarte seems like the pitcher that the Twins take & make something out of, that's what the Twins do. But the FO isn't being our savior by putting together this BP to help us win the division, we'd have won it anyway. And this BP isn't going to help us advance in the postseason, that's why we needed a postseason SP, who they failed to pick up. This BP hype is to distract us from our losses, Gray, Maeda & Polanco.

Teams have won the World Series 'the bullpen way' so I wouldn't categorically reject the approach. Besides, Sonny Gray was a great pitcher last year and laid an egg in his last start against Houston in a 1-1 series. I'm thinking Lopez-Ober-Ryan is good enough to go into a post-season with reasonable confidence IF the bullpen is lights out.

[stringer bell]

The underlying numbers for Duarte don't scream breakthrough, but relievers have relatively small sample sizes, so that might change. He's been pretty healthy, which is a plus (that had/has been Stewart's major issue), but he walk/strikeout numbers aren't promising. 

So far, Stewart is a partial season wonder. The Twins have had others--I recall Juan Minaya coming out of nowhere and being very good for part of one season, for example. I think Duarte would compare more to him than Stewart.

[bean5302]

9 hours ago, arby58 said:

Teams have won the World Series 'the bullpen way' so I wouldn't categorically reject the approach. Besides, Sonny Gray was a great pitcher last year and laid an egg in his last start against Houston in a 1-1 series. I'm thinking Lopez-Ober-Ryan is good enough to go into a post-season with reasonable confidence IF the bullpen is lights out.

Alex Kirilloff laid an egg and Sonny Gray didn't catch it softly enough as I recall.

[stringer bell]

22 hours ago, DocBauer said:

He's definitely behind both Alcala and Funderburk, IMO. Is behind Sands? Is he behind Sands only because Sands is on the 40 man?

He's the kind of arm, still relatively young at 27, where he figures something out with the help of a good coaching staff and turns in to someone at least solid, if not good. 

 

 

 

Funderburk didn't help his cause today with a poor outing in Dunedin. I do believe Alcalá has improved his chances of making the team out of Spring Training and he's solidly ahead of Duarte. 

[Fatbat]

Alcala has a better shot at being this years Stewart… even tho he has been around here for awhile.