The Twins’ Bullpen is Already Full. How Does Danny Coulombe Fit?

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

So effectively this move and the extra $5 million came out at the same time, or very close together.  

That was my impression, yes. Maybe a day or two apart? Close together.

[IndianaTwin]

Too many relievers is not that difficult to resolve...

• Too good to send down: Duran, Jax, Sands, Alcala, Coulombe.
• No options remaining: Stewart, Tomkin, Henriquez, Castellano (Rule 5). 

That's nine. One will be hurt and goes on the IL. In the amazing scenario that one isn't, you either waive the one you think you can sneak through waivers (perhaps Tonkin with his $1M salary) or return Castellano. If Castellano has proved himself unworthy, you return him.

At the second and following injuries, you start churning through those guys, who have all begun the year in St. Paul. 

• Guys on the 40-man with options: Topa, Varland, Funderburk, Headrick and any others.

And then after they are used up (or have proven themselves unworthy at St. Paul) and more IL moves are needed, you start churning through these guys, knowing they will require 40-man moves as well:

• Guys on minor league contracts: Blewett, et. al. 

If I've got anyone in the wrong category, move them, but the concept is the same.

 

(That would have been a much shorter article.)

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Obviously, adding a lefty reliever fits the platoon heavy profile of the Twins' strategy, and I'm fine with Coulombe.

As far as where he fits in, Brock Stewart is pretty likely to open the year on at least the 15 day IL, Topa's been constantly injured across his slow moving and lengthy career. It's unlikely the Twins come out of ST with no players on the IL.

I don't think the Twins are attached to Topa as much as people around here seem to think. He's 34, and he has 1 successful year in his 5 year MLB career. He's never pitched more than 7.2 innings in an MLB season except 2023.

Don’t disagree a bunch on Topa but Stewart doesn’t exactly have a lengthy string of successful seasons either.

The Rule 5 guy is certainly expendable.

Fingers crossed for a trade to open some spaces on 40 man.

[bean5302]

5 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Don’t disagree a bunch on Topa but Stewart doesn’t exactly have a lengthy string of successful seasons either.

The Rule 5 guy is certainly expendable.

Fingers crossed for a trade to open some spaces on 40 man.

I didn't intend to imply Stewart does have any successes. I should have clarified "As far as where he fits in, Brock Stewart is pretty likely to open the year on at least the 15 day IL," When I write "he" I was still talking about Coulombe, not Stewart. It was poorly written on my part.

[arby58]

5 hours ago, KnoblauchWasFramed said:

I don't know what is making me literally LMFAO more right now - the move itself, or the fact that two whole articles were written about this move.

Next we just need to add two more light hitting infielders and one more left handed hitting corner outfielder and we're set.  

Coulombe at least fills a need for a left-handed relief pitcher.

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I didn't intend to imply Stewart does have any successes. I should have clarified "As far as where he fits in, Brock Stewart is pretty likely to open the year on at least the 15 day IL," When I write "he" I was still talking about Coulombe, not Stewart. It was poorly written on my part.

No issues……I’m just stating Coulombe - Paddack - Topa - Stewart among others (Prielipp & Canterino) are all potential ????? Worrisome! Every Team has this issue on varying levels with their arms. It’s potentially, as you well know, how to get from “League best Pen” only on paper and #16 in reality at the end of a year.

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Sunflower seeds.

Davids. Festa and otherwise?

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

No issues……I’m just stating Coulombe - Paddack - Topa - Stewart among others (Prielipp & Canterino) are all potential ????? Worrisome! Every Team has this issue on varying levels with their arms. It’s potentially, as you well know, how to get from “League best Pen” only on paper and #16 in reality at the end of a year.

I'll predict they finish above No. 16 in the league. 

[rv78]

Outside of Duran, Jax, Alcala, and Sands, every other pitcher mentioned in this article either hasn't proven to be anything other than an average replacement level pitcher or a AAA pitcher that hasn't figured it out yet. Add in Brock Stewart not being able to stay on the field and Topa only having 1 season too.. Looks to me like there is plenty of room for Coloumbe. Do you guys even analyze what the Twins have before you write an article with all the fluff?

[stringer bell]

28 minutes ago, rv78 said:

Outside of Duran, Jax, Alcala, and Sands, every other pitcher mentioned in this article either hasn't proven to be anything other than an average replacement level pitcher or a AAA pitcher that hasn't figured it out yet. Add in Brock Stewart not being able to stay on the field and Topa only having 1 season too.. Looks to me like there is plenty of room for Coloumbe. Do you guys even analyze what the Twins have before you write an article with all the fluff?

Agree that there can and should be plenty of room for a good left handed relief pitcher. The fact of the matter is that except for the elite ones, relief pitchers are really tough to predict. Alcalá had pretty good success last year, but didn't sustain it for a whole year, Stewart was lights out in 2023 (in limited innings) and Topa was also very good in 2023. If they also hit their ceiling along with Sands, Jax and Durán, it will be a very good, perhaps elite, bullpen. 

The Twins have assembled a very high upside bullpen at a very reasonable price. I think the BP carries more injury risk than most, which should lower projections and expectations. 

[rv78]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

Agree that there can and should be plenty of room for a good left handed relief pitcher. The fact of the matter is that except for the elite ones, relief pitchers are really tough to predict. Alcalá had pretty good success last year, but didn't sustain it for a whole year, Stewart was lights out in 2023 (in limited innings) and Topa was also very good in 2023. If they also hit their ceiling along with Sands, Jax and Durán, it will be a very good, perhaps elite, bullpen. 

The Twins have assembled a very high upside bullpen at a very reasonable price. I think the BP carries more injury risk than most, which should lower projections and expectations. 

Alcala will be good if Rocco uses him correctly. Making him more than a 1 inning pitcher, which Rocco did multiple times last year, is what messed him up. All Stewart has done is proven he can't stay healthy and Topa has 1 year in the majors. That 1 year was decent but everyone knows you can't judge a pitcher or player by 1 good season. Which the so called experts are doing with him. He wasn't very effective for the Twins in 2024 was he? We can argue that Sands is also unproven. He had a good 2024. How many seasons did he have before that, that can be considered good? Zero. Jax and Duran are very possibly at the top of their game. Both could regress.......... a lot. The best bullpen in baseball is only on paper. Rocco loves his paper analytics. Now will he use his bullpen correctly? I doubt it.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, rv78 said:

Alcala will be good if Rocco uses him correctly. Making him more than a 1 inning pitcher, which Rocco did multiple times last year, is what messed him up. All Stewart has done is proven he can't stay healthy and Topa has 1 year in the majors. That 1 year was decent but everyone knows you can't judge a pitcher or player by 1 good season. Which the so called experts are doing with him. He wasn't very effective for the Twins in 2024 was he? We can argue that Sands is also unproven. He had a good 2024. How many seasons did he have before that, that can be considered good? Zero. Jax and Duran are very possibly at the top of their game. Both could regress.......... a lot. The best bullpen in baseball is only on paper. Rocco loves his paper analytics. Now will he use his bullpen correctly? I doubt it.

Uh huh, so you see the glass half empty and think Baldelli is terrible with bullpen management. Every bullpen has volatility and every year we see guys come out of nowhere to be huge contributors. There are precious few guys that can be counted on year after year and those guys make good money once they hit arbitration.

The Twins have two guys with great stuff who have been durable in the last three years (Jax & Duran). They have three guys who have lost a lot of time to injuries, but have been effective when fully healthy (Topa, Stewart & Alcalá), plus they have a guy who was very good a year ago (Sands). Adding Coulombe, who had two really good years with the O's after being satisfactory previously for the Twins and A's gives them seven guys who can pitch in late innings. In addition to that, they have quite a few more good arms who may or may not amount to anything.

I fully expect some missed time for the relief staff, particularly Alcalá, Stewart and Topa and wouldn't be surprised by regression from Sands or Coulombe, but there's a good amount of talent there to augment a solid starting rotation and there's depth in the minors. 

I said in an earlier comment that I think they've got a good BP with more than average injury risk. I'll stand by that. I have not tabbed them a the best bullpen in the majors or the AL or even the Central, but I think their BP will be a positive and I think adding Coulombe helps.

[Greggory Masterson]

4 hours ago, rv78 said:

Outside of Duran, Jax, Alcala, and Sands, every other pitcher mentioned in this article either hasn't proven to be anything other than an average replacement level pitcher or a AAA pitcher that hasn't figured it out yet. Add in Brock Stewart not being able to stay on the field and Topa only having 1 season too.. Looks to me like there is plenty of room for Coloumbe. Do you guys even analyze what the Twins have before you write an article with all the fluff?

The title wasn’t meant to be taken literally. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Of course there’s room for Coloumbe. This article highlights some of the potential roster implications of his signing, given the current personnel and roster rules. It’s going to necessitate tough decisions, or a series of unfortunate events will make it easy. You’ve correctly brought up concerns like injury and performance that were also mentioned in the writeup. 

[dxpavelka]

With such a wealth of riches maybe he was brought on board for his World Series parade planning skills.....

[JD-TWINS]

13 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

I'll predict they finish above No. 16 in the league. 

I’m not sure if you think better or worse with “above”. Assuming better? IMO, they have a great opportunity with Varland and Paddack in middle innings to be very good! Certainly they have more to like than those two…….pretty deep. Who’s going to be effective in ‘25?

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

I’m not sure if you think better or worse with “above”. Assuming better? IMO, they have a great opportunity with Varland and Paddack in middle innings to be very good! Certainly they have more to like than those two…….pretty deep. Who’s going to be effective in ‘25?

Sorry -- smart aleck comment on my part referring to there being 15 teams in the league. Given that, I think they'll finish better than 16th. 

 

But yes, I think they can be very good. Last year I was optimistic because they had numbers, but they had key injuries and some guys didn't come through. This year I think they have better quality in their numbers, so hopefully that's paired with better health and continued development from people.

[Rufus]

On 2/4/2025 at 9:15 AM, Rufus said:

They should never let him go two years ago.

Actually the Orioles taught him a couple of new pitches and changed his arm angle.  He is a different pitcher now than he was two years ago.  The Twins are getting a new improved version of him