Two Free-Agent Relievers Who Address Twins Bullpen's Most Pressing Actual Need

[Matthew Lenz]

The Minnesota Twins have just two left-handed relievers on their 40-man roster. Despite a similar situation in 2024, their bullpen handled left-handed hitters very well compared to the rest of the league. Can they rely on similar outcomes in 2025, or do they need to add another reliever who can reliably get left-handed hitters out?

Image courtesy of Left: © Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images; Right: © David Butler II-Imagn Images

For the first time since 2018, the Twins' go-to southpaw reliever likely will be pitching somewhere else in 2025. Caleb Theilbar’s season was a bit of a roller coaster, but he was still serviceable against lefties with a .653 OPS and 18.0% K-BB rate. Theoretically, the Twins could bring back the Northfield native. That may be a cheap, viable route to go if they can’t move other contracts (i.e., Chris Paddack, Christian Vázquez, and/or Willi Castro) to open up some money. Steven Okert was another reliable option who faced 63 left-handed hitters in 2024, but he is now with the Astros after agreeing to a minor-league deal last month. Even with those two gone, the Twins still have some effective options to get lefties out.

Griffin Jax, Jhoan Durán, and Cole Sands were three of the best relievers for the Twins last year and, even as right-handed pitchers, they were very good against opposite-handed hitters. Facing 363 left-handed batters, the trio combined for a .630 opponent OPS, 23.7% K-BB rate, and a 2.73 FIP. The incumbent for Thielbar’s vacancy is Kody Funderburk, who has a career 3.13 FIP and 18.5% K-BB rate against same-handed hitters. Justin Topa is another name who can at least be serviceable against lefties. However, after those two, the Twins currently don’t roster anyone who can confidently be deployed to get a left-handed hitter out. Nick Nelson looked at a handful of names to fill this need earlier in the offseason, and I'm going to look at two more names I like. Instead of strictly focusing on left-handed relievers, I'll widen the scope to relievers who can get left-handed hitters out regardless of their throwing hand. The Twins will likely need to move at least one of the contracts mentioned above to put together a realistic offer for either of the names below.

Chris Martin
The 39-year-old has announced that the 2025 season will be his last, but he was still an effective option out of the Red Sox bullpen for the last two years. Despite being a righty, he held batters to a .668 OPS and posted a 27.7% K-BB rate against left-handed hitters in 2024, while being equally effective against right-handed hitters. Martin doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he has elite command of the strike zone, walking just three hitters and producing elite chase rates in 2024. While he limits quality of contact, my one concern about his fit would be that he is a ground ball pitcher. Minnesota's infield defense has quite a few question marks heading into 2025. On the other hand, maybe he can help with that.

If Aroldis Chapman is getting $10.75 million on a one-year deal, I’d expect Martin to get quite a bit less than that, given his age, lesser velocity, and less glamorous expected role.

A.J. Minter
From a cost perspective, Minter is a bit of a long shot to end up with the Twins, as MLB Trade Rumors predicted the left-handed setup man to get $16 million over two years. That said, a hip surgery in August may scare some teams off from the 31-year-old and (for better or worse) this regime has taken these types of risks again and again in their tenure. Minter has already been linked with a few other teams at the Winter Meetings, but it's not too late to swoop in.

Over his career, Minter has dominated lefties with a .602 OPS and 22.5% K-BB rate, while also neutralizing righties with his changeup. His mid-90s four-seam fastball has been one of the better pitches in baseball, with plus vertical movement and pinpoint control of his cutter. While he’s another ground ball pitcher, he’s a bit of a better fit than Martin as an actual southpaw who could be had on a one-year, “prove-it” deal.

While much ado has been made about the Twins' lack of left-handed options, I think we need to shift our mindset to the crux of the “problem”. While left-handed relievers provide a different look, they’re largely deployed to get out left-handed hitters. which is the root of what the Twins are missing as their bullpen currently stands. Instead of focusing on left-handed relievers exclusively, the Twins need to consider how they plan on getting left-handed hitters out in 2025, and either Martin or Minter would present a viable solution to that need.

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Are you interested in either reliever for the Twins bullpen?

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[tony&rodney]

Appreciate the effort to identify potential relievers. These two are pretty good. The issues remain: poor defense and adjusting salaries to stay below $130 million.

[Brandon27]

If twins are going to do anything is probably trade couple players to dump salary and add minor league players probably not going see in like three years 

[Patzky]

Say Thielbar is coming back without saying Thielbar is coming back.. 🥴

[DocBauer]

I really don't care if the pen is entirely RH, as long as a few of those arms can be successful against LH bats. But Thielbar was BAD against RH bats last year...and not nearly as affective against LH as he ahd been...and no thank you to another Okert LOOGY.

IF some $ is made available, I'm of the opinion the pen could be really good if they grabbed a solid LH pen arm that could be solid against RH bats. At some point in close games, 7th-8th inning, you're going to have 3 guys coming up and 2 of them are going to bat LH.  

My 2 targets, as of now, to fill that role are Andrew Chafin and Colin Poche. For their careers, both have been very affective against RH bats. I'm looking at $3-4M for either of them. That's more than the Twins would normally pay a pen arm that isn't a closer or primary setup man. But the market is what it is. At 31yo Poche is 4 years younger than Chaffin, so I might offer him a 2 for $6M-7M deal. Chaffin I'm looking at a 1 yr deal. It doesn't break the bank, but that ONE ARM does a lot to make the pen's job that much easier in crucial innings in close games.

Other arms like Funderburk, maybe Hendrick, and definitely Moran if he comes back strong from surgery, offer some potential, and could be a 2nd LH arm in the middle innings. But a Chafin or Poche really add that solid LH option for later innings. 

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

I really don't care if the pen is entirely RH, as long as a few of those arms can be successful against LH bats. But Thielbar was BAD against RH bats last year...and not nearly as affective against LH as he ahd been...and no thank you to another Okert LOOGY.

IF some $ is made available, I'm of the opinion the pen could be really good if they grabbed a solid LH pen arm that could be solid against RH bats. At some point in close games, 7th-8th inning, you're going to have 3 guys coming up and 2 of them are going to bat LH.  

My 2 targets, as of now, to fill that role are Andrew Chafin and Colin Poche. For their careers, both have been very affective against RH bats. I'm looking at $3-4M for either of them. That's more than the Twins would normally pay a pen arm that isn't a closer or primary setup man. But the market is what it is. At 31yo Poche is 4 years younger than Chaffin, so I might offer him a 2 for $6M-7M deal. Chaffin I'm looking at a 1 yr deal. It doesn't break the bank, but that ONE ARM does a lot to make the pen's job that much easier in crucial innings in close games.

Other arms like Funderburk, maybe Hendrick, and definitely Moran if he comes back strong from surgery, offer some potential, and could be a 2nd LH arm in the middle innings. But a Chafin or Poche really add that solid LH option for later innings. 

Great idea. Now the Twins just need to reduce the payroll to accommodate the additions. Dealing Paddack gets the team to budget ($130M) and then it gets creative after that, but it can be done. So to add Poche, Castro will need to go. It's all like a puzzle.

[DocBauer]

34 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Great idea. Now the Twins just need to reduce the payroll to accommodate the additions. Dealing Paddack gets the team to budget ($130M) and then it gets creative after that, but it can be done. So to add Poche, Castro will need to go. It's all like a puzzle.

Yes, it's absolutely a puzzle. But I'm not sure moving Castro is part of that puzzle. He might be of course.

I'm still not sure that $130M is some ABSOLUTE. In all things, subtle variations are usually accepted. If ONLY Paddack were moved, and a LHRP were added, $135M minus $7.5M and add another $3.5M, we're at $131M. Even the Pohlad's aren't going to balk at that. After all, it's just business. 

Anything MORE would depend on moving Vazquez and still adding a catcher somewhere else.

[terrydactyls]

If the Pohlad's had any baseball business acumen (just regarding baseball and not their other business ventures - which I have no idea what they are - I've not lived in Minnesota in over 40 years), they should look at this offseason as the time to improve the Twins in order to raise the selling price.  Everyone seems to think that the current roster at $130M (I just traded Paddock for a Juan Sota autographed jersey and tickets to the Dancing with Stars finale in 2025) has enough to be a post-season participatant.  If the Pohlad's opened up their purses just a little bit and brought in a RH outfielder and another strong reliever, the Twins might even make some noise in the postseason.  Anyone looking to buy the Twins would see a viable postseason contender with a payroll under $150M.  I would think that would look very good to a potential buyer.  It's like buying a house.  If I went to an open house and liked the house in general but saw green shag carpeting with holes and stains, I would offer a whole lot less than the asking price.  But if the sellers had torn out the carpeting and replaced it with nice hardwood floors, I might be willing to even go above asking price.

[Matthew Lenz]

8 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Great idea. Now the Twins just need to reduce the payroll to accommodate the additions. Dealing Paddack gets the team to budget ($130M) and then it gets creative after that, but it can be done. So to add Poche, Castro will need to go. It's all like a puzzle.

If they can find a way for a team to take Christian Vazquez, he's another guy that can free up $10M. Technically, if $130 million is a hard cap, dealing Paddack gets them about 75% of the way there.

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, Matthew Lenz said:

If they can find a way for a team to take Christian Vazquez, he's another guy that can free up $10M. Technically, if $130 million is a hard cap, dealing Paddack gets them about 75% of the way there.

So endless loop here, but the Twins cannot trade Vazquez until they have another catcher. You cannot play baseball without a catcher. Unlikely that any team pays all of the Vazquez contract as well. This is another challenge which has solutions if the Twins actually are interested in solving their puzzles.

[JD-TWINS]

A veteran Catcher, along with an All-star utility player and a young arm could net a MLB, experienced young Catcher. (Vazquez - Castro - Matthews)………guys leaving can be interchanged but the result (Catcher) coming this way has to be more than just a “prospect”!!

I do not believe that $130M is a ceiling that is in place other than as a “worst case scenario” for fan’s sake. I don’t think it’s open ended, but I am in the camp that believes the Team has much more Total Value in a sale if they are currently very competitive! So, I believe that $130 - $143M is in play (still a low $$ number). The Team spent $154M in ‘23………can’t cut your nose off and put the Team up for sale and expect best return.

From me for about the 5th time in this off-season, the PEN is fine with the current budget constraints in play. Not SURE Chafin is any better than anyone we already have in system. $$ need to be spent on filling 1B void and need for power/performance upgrade and possibly some depth in OF, but that is lowest priority. Catcher in trade - 1B -OF (2 of 3) can be solved via trade.

PEN: Headrick - Funderburk - Moran - Alcala - Sands - Blewett - Henriquez - Tonkin - Varland - Paddack - Jax - Duran……..probably a couple I’m missing……..Canterino or Prielipp or Raya by late August are all possible (not likely but possible). Obviously, a couple of these guys could be traded to help with other roster objectives……to me, Duran in a package could be pretty attractive for a trade partner.

[DJL44]

40 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

So endless loop here, but the Twins cannot trade Vazquez until they have another catcher. You cannot play baseball without a catcher. Unlikely that any team pays all of the Vazquez contract as well. This is another challenge which has solutions if the Twins actually are interested in solving their puzzles.

I think they can get Matt Thaiss for cash from the Cubs.

[tony&rodney]

15 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I think they can get Matt Thaiss for cash from the Cubs.

Need to start somewhere. Is that an improvement for the future? Aren't there any other options? 

[LambchoP]

Maybe see if Theilbar will come back on a minor league deal. I'm betting the Twins don't make a single major league free agent signing 

[Coach]

This is the new Twins lefty from the Bosox that we need

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