Best Rookie Campaigns by Position: Pitchers

[Matthew Lenz]

The Minnesota Twins just completed their 63rd season and in that time have had 117 rookie pitchers complete qualified seasons. Using that threshold, let’s create a 13-man pitching staff using the best rookie seasons in Twins history. Who made the cut? Who was snubbed? Let’s dig in.

Image courtesy of © Jason Bridge-Imagn Images

For this exercise, I’m only including players from 1961 to 2024 who qualified for end of year awards in their respective season and I excluded shortened seasons, such as 1972, 1981, 1994 due to player strikes and 2020 due to COVID. I also considered roster construction, specifically when it comes to the handedness of the pitcher and their ability to manage high lever situations. I included 13 players on the hitter version of this article, and thus will carry 13 pitchers. Without further ado, here is the best active roster of rookie pitcher seasons by position.

Ace - 2006 Francisco Liriano
Man, what could have been. Francisco Liriano’s rookie run was magical and had us feeling like the 2006 Twins were a team of destiny. Liriano exploded onto the scene with a 28% K-BB rate and a 2.55 FIP holding opposing hitters to a .202 batting average. He'd end up making the All-Star game and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, despite missing the last two months because his elbow exploded and Tommy John was needed. 

#2 Starter - 1990 Kevin Tapani
Before Kevin Tapani was earning Cy Young votes in 1991, he was earning Rookie of the Year votes in 1990. With precision control, the righty boasted a 4.4% walk rate and didn't allow a single free pass in 12 of his 28 starts. While strikeouts weren't his calling card, he had a miniscule Home Run rate and boasted a 3.10 FIP. He went on to be a reliable innings eater for the Twins, White Sox, and Cubs. 

#3 Starter - 1970 Bert Blyleven
At just 19 years old, Bert Blyleven quickly established himself as one of Major League Baseball’s best starting pitchers. A former third-round pick of the Twins, Blyleven established his ability to pitch late into games early on going seven innings or more in 11 of 25 starts. He finished his rookie campaign with a solid 20% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate, and a 3.18 ERA on his way to a Hall of Fame career. 

#4 Starter - 1978 Roger Erickson
Prior to his career getting derailed by a bum shoulder, Roger Erickson threw 265 2/3 innings for the 1978 Twins as a 21-year-old rookie right hander. A very low strikeout rate and .259 opponent batting average led to a 3.96 ERA, but he was able to limit free passes with a solid 7% walk rate. He went on to pitch three more years for the Twins before being traded to the Yankees and making his final major-league appearance in 1983. 

#5 Starter - 2022 Joe Ryan
It's not often you're on the winning end of a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, but the Twins can easily claim victory in the Nelson Cruz for Joe Ryan swap in 2021. His rookie year saw him throw 147 innings across 27 starts with a 3.55 ERA and a solid 17.2% K-BB rate. His deceptive delivery and unique fastball movement make up for the lack of velocity, and resulted in a .174 opponent batting average with a run value of 20 ranking as one of the best pitches in baseball. Since then, he's established himself as a mainstay in the top half of the Twins pitching rotation. 

Spot Starter / Long Reliever - 2012 Scott Diamond
Count me as one who would NOT have thought Scott Diamond would have cracked the Top 5, but here we are. After seven lackluster starts in 2011, Diamond managed a 3.54 ERA thanks in part to an impressive 4.3% walk rate, which was needed given his sub 90s fastball and opponent batting average of .271. He was never able to regain his 2012 form and threw his last pitch in Major League Baseball in 2013. 

Middle Relievers - 2005 RHP Jesse Crain, 2016 LHP Taylor Rogers, 2006 RHP Pat Neshek, 2017 RHP Trevor Hildenberger

Setting his postseason shortcomings aside, Jesse Crain was a pretty serviceable reliever and had a stellar 2.71 ERA and .209 opponent batting average as a rookie. What made his effectiveness even more impressive is that he had a NEGATIVE 1.2% K-BB rate, striking out just 25 hitters across 79 2/3 innings of relief.   

Appearing in mostly low and middle-leverage opportunities, Taylor Rogers provided 61 1/3 innings of relief as a rookie. Despite a solid 18.2% K-BB rate, he boasted a 3.96 ERA largely due to three appearances where he allowed 10 of his 27 earned runs. The lanky lefty allowed a lowly 3.9% barrel rate and held hitters to an average 7.8 launch angle as a groundball pitcher. 

At least for me, Pat Neshek will go down as one of my all-time favorite Twins. His unique side-arm delivery befuddled hitters to the tune of a 38.4% strikeout rate coupled with a 4.3% walk rate and an .174 opponent batting average. His dominance led to a 2.19 ERA across 37 innings, and he was a key piece to a phenomenal 2006 (regular) season for the organization. On an unrelated note, Neshek was an avid card collector and always welcomed fans to send him memorabilia to sign.   

#1 High Leverage - 2009 LHP Jose Mijares
From a pure performance perspective, Neshek deserves this spot, but from a roster-construction perspective we need a lefty reliever capable to handle high-leverage situations. The analytics of 2009 season suggests Jose Mijares wasn’t an overly-effective reliever in 2009, but with one of the highest win probability added (WPA) for a lefty reliever in Twins history (2.83) he made it work. Across 71 appearances, he donned a 2.34 ERA and a 21.7% strikeout rate with a .219 opponent batting average. Mijares had a little more success in his career with the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants and was suspended due to a positive drug test in 2015 and never pitched in Major League Baseball again.

#2 High Leverage - 1980 RHP Doug Corbett
A name I was not familiar with prior to this exercise was Doug Corbett who accrued 23 saves across 136 1/3  innings in 1980. Wait, he must have been a part time starter then, right? Nope. He had zero starts in 73 appearances and averaged roughly two innings and seven batters faced per appearance. His 1.98 ERA was vastly different from his 3.06 FIP but, regardless, he got the job done with a Twins reliever record 7.58 WPA and .209 opponent batting average. We need more swing and miss from our closer so, despite his impressive WPA, he's relegated to a high leverage role due to his 16.8% strikeout rate. 

Closer - 2022 RHP Jhoan Duran
Twins fans had long heard of Johan Duran’s electric arsenal and finally got to experience it in 2022. His 89.3% strand rate was good for sixth in baseball among qualified relievers, and he had a 77.2% strikeout rate on his fastball and curveball combined. Moreover, he limited opposing hitters to an excellent 6.0% walk rate and carried a 61.0% groundball rate. All this added up to the second best WPA for a reliever in Twins history at 4.56.

What does your rookie roster look like? Was anyone snubbed? Let me know in the comments!

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[nclahammer]

I have that vinyl Minnesota Twins jacket from 1978, still in the package.    Wow.  I saw Trevor Hildenberger's name mentioned above as one of the top rookie middle relievers, but nothing was written about him, so I'll add a few notes.   Trevor and his college roommate at California, Michael Theophanopolos, were both drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 2014.  Both would later be roommates again as teammates for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2015, I saw them both play that year in Iowa.  Trevor made his MLB debut with Minnesota in 2017 tossing 42 innings, 44 Ks, only 6 walks, a 3.21 ERA, and one save in 37 games.   Growing up a fan of Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry, I liked watching Hildenberger, also a submarine pitcher, on the mound.  Hildy threw 73 innings the next season (2018) and I remember him beginning that season fairly strong.  However, the strikeouts per inning went down that year (70) while the walks went up (26) and he was plagued by the longball giving up 12 taters.   The reason I remember being mentioned was batters figuring him out (his delivery.)    Any other Trevor Hildenberger memories?   I still have one of his home white Twins jerseys I bought at a discount at TwinsFest.

[Doctor Wu]

Another fun trip back through memory lane. I had totally forgotten about Scott Diamond and that one pretty good season he had with the Twins in 2012 (count me among those who think that year was a very recent memory!). Wasn't he a Rule 5 pickup?

[Parfigliano]

Erickson pitched for some really putrid TC teams.

If voting I say Liriano.

[old nurse]

Diamond had one good season  It was a mirage 

[jmlease1]

I think you picked the wrong Erickson: Scott Erickson should have made this list. Not his fault the team didn't call him up until July of 1990 (guess they "needed" to see more innings from the immortal Roy Smith and David West), but he was in AA. But Scott dropped an ERA+ of 145 in the second half as a rookie coming up without pitching an inning in AAA and previewed his 1991 that helped win a title. Roger threw a ton of innings (it was the 70's after all), but was below league average.

[TopGunn#22]

I would move Joe Ryan and Bert Blyleven up and ahead of Tapani.  Ryan had more wins and K's and a better ERA.  He's GOT to be higher than Tapani. 

A couple other rookie pitchers that could be mentioned are Dave Boswell (1965) and Tommy Hall (1968).  Ohhh, what COULD HAVE BEEN for Francisco Liriano !!  

[sweetmusicviola16]

4 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

I think you picked the wrong Erickson: Scott Erickson should have made this list. Not his fault the team didn't call him up until July of 1990 (guess they "needed" to see more innings from the immortal Roy Smith and David West), but he was in AA. But Scott dropped an ERA+ of 145 in the second half as a rookie coming up without pitching an inning in AAA and previewed his 1991 that helped win a title. Roger threw a ton of innings (it was the 70's after all), but was below league average.

I concur. I kept looking for Scott in the article and never found him. He was as dominant in 1990 and 1991 as Liriano was in '06. And he stayed healthy.

Edit: I'm not implying that Erickson's stats were as dominant as Liriano's. But that his impact on the 90 and 91 Twins was as dominant.

[Blyleven2011]

Was Allan Anderson still qualified for a rookie ????

Always love the reminders of past twins players ...

[lecroy24fan]

3 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Was Allan Anderson still qualified for a rookie ????

Always love the reminders of past twins players ...

1986 was his rookie year.