How Cole Ragans Offers Hope for a Similarly Talented Twins Southpaw

[Vanimal46]

On 2/18/2025 at 8:55 AM, chpettit19 said:

Turning into Ragans would be awesome and isn't a far-fetched idea.

[Riverbrian]

On 2/18/2025 at 12:32 PM, jorgenswest said:

The Rangers did not have enough patience or trust in his health with Ragans. They would not have traded a top half of the rotation starter if they saw that in his near future. Is this a lesson for the Twins?

 

Traded a top half of the rotation starter for a bullpen rental. They do not do this trade if allowed to turn back time. They trade the player the Royals probably originally asked for instead. 

If anybody has any thought that the front offices of any club has this assessment thing down. They don't. 

Aroldis Chapman was a rental. 2023 was a year of Chapman needing to rehabilitate his reputation. He was left of the Yankees playoff roster in 2022. He dropped from 16 million AAV to a 3 million deal with the Royals. 

What did the Royals think of Ragans? He wasn't enough to acquire a bullpen rental. The Royals required the Rangers to also include an outfielder by the name of Roni Cabrera. 

We can look back and say... Boy those Rangers sure blew this one. The Royals also didn't know what they had because they required another player to get the deal done for a bullpen rental. 

Assessment is hard. There is no reason to be afraid of youth. I'll be hoping for the health of our young lefthander. 

 

And the Royals were probably asking for somebody else. 

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

10 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

So if he became an elite pitcher that wouldn't be awesome?  The second part said it wasn't a far fetched idea,  its not a baseline,  but he has the ceiling that could achieve that.  I don't know where he will end up.   His stuff is ridiculous though, especially for a lefty.  

[Vanimal46]

43 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

So if he became an elite pitcher that wouldn't be awesome?  The second part said it wasn't a far fetched idea,  its not a baseline,  but he has the ceiling that could achieve that.  I don't know where he will end up.   His stuff is ridiculous though, especially for a lefty.  

His ceiling hasn’t dropped an inch after all of his injuries? 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

4 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

His ceiling hasn’t dropped an inch after all of his injuries? 

He hit 98 mph on the fastball just the other day,  and his slider still has the crazy spin that is having horizontal and vertical drop,  with a wicked change-up.  that is 3 pitches all coming from the exact same arm slot causing major tunnel issues for a hitter.  15 strikeouts in 9 innings pitched  would tell you high A ball or not is crazy. If he can maintain his stuff, as he goes longer outings and remain healthy,  that upside is absolutely still a #1 type pitcher.   

That is what he did AFTER the injuries.  What you worry about injuries is that it saps the velocity or movement or the major risk here is that he will continue to have injuries.  My viewpoint is it was 1 big injury,  yes there is some future risk of injury, but that up to this point it doesn't seem affect his velocity and thus his upside.  Maybe in your view it does.  However, like Ragans who had significant time off for injuries and inconsistency at that MLB level, that caused him to  traded from Texas to Kansas City in the Chapman trade,  it doesn't negate the ultimate talent there.  The talent just has to be healthy enough to stay on the field and execute.  .  

[Fatbat]

On 2/18/2025 at 10:12 AM, bean5302 said:

Since he ended last year at 3.0 inning outings, I'd think he'd pick back up there for maybe April.
April 3.0 inning, 50 pitches max
May 4.0 inning, 60 pitches max
June 4.0 inning. 70 pitches max
July 5.0 inning. 75 pitches max
August 5.0 inning. 80 pitches max
September 6.0 inning. 85 pitches max
100 innings-ish total

Something like that is what I'd expect to see, though obviously not that steady on a start to start basis. I think a lot of it depends on whether or not Prielipp can remain healthy. It's a tall call since Prielipp has mostly been out of action for so long. Will his conditioning hold up or will he start having fatigue during the long season? That 98mph in mid-Feb isn't necessarily a great thing if he's pushing like it's a tryout and risking his arm.

I also don't think there's almost any chance of seeing Prielipp out of the 'pen at the MLB level. He's not on the 40 man and he doesn't need to be added until this offseason. The Twins shouldn't need to manage his innings late in the year, and while he'll probably start off in AA, that's still a lot of ground to cover where he'll have to A) be outstanding B) remain healthy where the Twins C) have a real need for a reliever and D) will trust an unproven MiLB player to provide those reliever innings.

If CP is lights out the 1st 90 days and can work 4 innings, he will be added to the 40 man as soon as an injury happens and the twins need a lefty.  He has the highest ceiling of all the LHP depth. He may just knock the door down.