Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year: 2024

[Steven Trefz]

Today, we continue to hand out our proverbial Twins Daily hardware. Who were the top relief pitchers for the Twins minor-league ballclubs? 

 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

Yesterday, we named Zebby Matthews as the Twin Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year. Today, we will discuss the relief pitchers in the Twins minor leagues. 

Before getting into the 2024 crop of short-season pitchers, here are the previous recipients of this award:

Past Winners of the Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year Award
2023: Kody Funderburk
2022: Evan Sisk 
2021: Jovani Moran
2020: No Season
2019: Anthony Vizcaya
2018: Andrew Vasquez
2017: John Curtiss
2016: Trevor Hildenberger
2015: Trevor Hildenberger

The Twins saw their major-league bullpen collapse toward the end of the season, and the minor-league bullpen reinforcements struggled mightily in their attempts to stop the bleeding. That being said, the list of relief prospects on the rise through the minor league system is worth focusing on as Twins fans evaluate the whole organization in hopes of turning the ship around in 2025.

The Twins Daily minor league writers and video providers were asked to vote on these awards. Before getting into the top four, some others received votes.

 

Others Receiving Votes

• RHP Jarret Whorff, 26, CR/WICH/SP: 31 G, 5 GS, 2.62 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 68.2 IP, 53 H, 27 BB, 71 K
• RHP Mike Paredes, 24, FM/CR/WICH: 29 G, 3 GS, 3.06 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 61.2 IP, 56 H, 12 BB, 57 K

Minor League Full-Season Relief Pitcher of the Year
Here are the top four vote-getters for Twins Full-Season Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year

4.  RHP Nolan Santos, 23, Fort Myers/Cedar Rapids
43 G, 0 GS, 2.93 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 67.2 IP, 51 H, 26 BB, 80 K
With their seventh round pick in the 2023 draft, the Minnesota Twins selected RHP Nolan Santos out of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. The 201st overall pick began his career by climbing from rookie ball to Low-A. 2024 saw Santos continue his methodical climb. After 29 games with Fort Myers, he was promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids where he pitched in another 14 games. Santos held his opponents' batting average to just a .200 clip while continuing to lower his WHIP and increase his strike out percentage. At Fort Myers, Santos picked up eight saves. He continued to be used late in games for the Kernels, adding another three saves. At 6'1", 205 pounds, the 23-year-old should continue his climb up the organization. 

 

3. RHP Kyle Bischoff, 25, Cedar Rapids/Wichita
42 G, 0 GS, 3.19 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 59.1 IP, 43 H, 25 BB, 77 K
Bischoff certainly has an interesting background and story. In 2018, he started at the University of Toledo where he pitched for four seasons. Given an extra season, he pitched for Michigan State in 2022. He went undrafted and headed to the United Shores Baseball League where he pitched for Westside in 2022. He made two USBL appearances in 2023 before he signed a minor-league free agent contract with the Twins. He spent that summer in the FCL. In 2024, Bischoff rose all the way from the corn fields of Iowa to one call away from the big leagues in St. Paul. He pitched in 28 games with the Kernels, 14 games at Double-A Wichita and ended the season with three games with the Saints. The 6'2", 210 pound righty put up stronger numbers in Wichita than Cedar Rapids and held his own in St. Paul.   

 

2. LHP Samuel Perez, 24, Fort Myers/Cedar Rapids
38 G, 1 GS, 2.49 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 72.1 IP, 56 H, 24 BB, 82 K
Perez originally signed with the Angels in 2017 out of Venezuela. He pitched in the Dominican Summer League in 2018 and 2019. Like others, he didn't pitch in 2020, but he joined the Twins organization before the 2021 season after a brief stint in independent ball. He pitched 37 1/3 innings for the FCL Twins and went 4-2 with a 1.45 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. He also had 39 strikeouts to go with just five walks. Twins Daily named him the short-season pitcher of the year. In 2022, he pitched in 24 games for the Mussels and six games in Cedar Rapids. He spent the full 2023 season in Fort Myers where he went 6-2 with two saves. He had 63 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings with just 15 walks. 

In 2024, he made 35 appearances with Fort Myers before ending the season with five innings over three games in Cedar Rapids. Despite working with a fastball/cutter that sits around 85-86 mph, he has to pitch creatively to keep hitters off balance. However, a look at his strikeout rate and you can tell that he keeps batters off balance.  The 5'11", 205 southpaw will hope to spend most of the 2025 season in Cedar Rapids.   

 

1.  RHP Spencer Bengard, 22, Fort Myers/Cedar Rapids
19 G, 8 GS, 1.51 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 83.1 IP, 68 H, 14 BB, 72 K
Bengard brings home the trophy for top minor-league reliever this season, even though he started nine games. We decided that the criteria for whether a pitcher was considered a starter or reliever was based on game usage. Bengard made nine starts and 10 relief appearances. Of his 19 total appearances, only twice did he not record at least nine outs. He had starts that went six innings, and he had relief outings that went five innings. His season didn't start until the end of April when he joined the Mighty Mussels. In his first 10 games, he went 6-1 with a 1.32 ERA. Three outings later, he was promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids. When he didn't start, he was used as a bulk guy or in a piggyback situation. There isn't much not to like in Bengard's game, as he's proven that he can pitch with consistency whenever he's called upon during a game. His K/BB rate is really good, and it really needs to be. His fastball currently sits right around 89-91 mph range, but he's got good movement and terrific control. Bengard was the Twins 15th round pick in 2023 out of California-Baptist where he was teammates with Twins pitching prospect C.J. Culpepper . 

 

What can or should we hope for from Bengard in 2025? Will he jump into a more typical starter role, or will his ability to be adaptable be considered valuable to the Twins organization?  

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Relief pitching performances across the Twins minor league system had plenty of ups and downs in 2024. Congratulations to the pitchers we discussed today on great showings. For 2024, Spencer Bengard earned and deserved our choice for Twins Daily Minor-League Relief Pitcher of the Year. 

 

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[FlyingFinn]

I thought this would be a very hard pick. But if we are including Bengard, that makes it really easy. Great choice.

[cheeseheadgophfan]

Wow....that is not an inspiring list.....

 

[mikelink45]

Past winners are any indication this is not much of an award. 

[dxpavelka]

17 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Past winners are any indication this is not much of an award. 

At least in terms of eventual contributions to the big league roster.  A lot of car salesmen on the list.

[LambchoP]

None of these guys will impact the big league club next year. If everyone is healthy we should have a decent relief group, as long as ownership can fill it out with some capable arms, especially a couple lefties.

[Steven Trefz]

As I spent most of the year wondering "Where is our bullpen help?" this research reminded me of just how much we needed Topa and the free agent lottery tickets to pay off. I wonder how much the Jorge Lopez experience prevented our jumping into the trade scene again as well.  This better be a draft mine for the coming seasons.

 

[twinstalker]

Bengard is the only one who could really have a chance to impact the Twins, and he comes with an asterisk!  Honestly, almost all major league relief is failed major league starting pitching, and almost zero of major league relief is minor league relief.  That makes this category pretty uninteresting.  I think I'd just lump all pitchers together and only rank that one reliever every five years who has stupid numbers.

[Linus]

The ages on this list are 22-25. None of these guys will be big leaguers.