Here’s How the Twins Can Develop the Next Dominant Bullpen

[JD-TWINS]

17 hours ago, cjm0926 said:

One thing I think that could be interesting is possibly trading one of these young arms to the White Sox for one of their young catchers. They have Teel and Quero, with Korey Lee in AAA (albeit much less value). Maybe the Sox would be interesting in adding a young pitcher with similar team control instead of holding onto multiple young catchers and trying to split reps. If possible, I'd try to trade SWR (5 years of control) and a mid-level prospect for Edgar Quero (6 years of control). I'm sure the Sox would value some guys over others in our system, but I think it would be wise to find a way to maximize the value of our abundance of young arms and add to a position of long-term need.

Gotta trade for a Catcher - somehow - a guy that’s ready, no “prospects”!!

[Major League Ready]

54 minutes ago, Chembry said:

LOL!  Did you read anything else in that post or anything else I posted?

I never said saying they are going to replace all of our previous relief pitchers with starters...I stated many times that given no trades/injuries our top 4 in the rotation are more than likely Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Matthews.  That leaves the other 6 potential candidates fighting for 1 rotation spot.  

Then I said it wouldn't take much convincing to convert 1 or maybe 2 of those starters to a bullpen role... never once did I mention converting them all to RP roles

You missed the point by a country mile.  Their actions are quite clear.  They are going to rebuild in 2026.  You are approaching this as if they will keep Lopez/Ryan and Ober while tweaking the roster to contend in 2026.  Is that the message you got at the deadline?   I think it's far more likely 2 of Lopez/Ryan/Ober are traded.  I also think it's far more likely that the two corner OFers that end 2026 will be different than the ones that started the season unless Roden blossoms.  Same is true for SS.  

[Chembry]

25 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

You missed the point by a country mile.  Their actions are quite clear.  They are going to rebuild in 2026.  You are approaching this as if they will keep Lopez/Ryan and Ober while tweaking the roster to contend in 2026.  Is that the message you got at the deadline?   I think it's far more likely 2 of Lopez/Ryan/Ober are traded.  I also think it's far more likely that the two corner OFers that end 2026 will be different than the ones that started the season unless Roden blossoms.  Same is true for SS.  

No I didn't miss the point...this thread was about building a dominant bullpen and not about an entire rebuild.

I didn't say they were going to keep Lopez/Ryan/Ober.  I said IF they keep Lopez/Ryan/Ober...I think it's likely they trade at least one, but I am not making any judgements until it happens.  

I also agree that the Twins probably trade Larnach or Wallner, but again I am not making judgements until it happens.  It would be fun to see Emmanuel Rodriguez (if he can stay healthy), Walker Jenkins, and Kaelen Culpepper...In fact, I would rather see them in 2026 than what we currently have...

I never said anything about rebuilding or competing in 2026...I said IF the rotation remains the same, converting 1-2 starters that are competing for the #5 spot in the rotation would help build that bullpen.  That is all I said...

[Otaknam]

3 hours ago, David Maro said:

Easy!! Fire the fools in the office and dugout. You don't trade arms that you have years of control. They had a couple of years to develop replacements,but blew up the one thing this team had.

We all saw what happens when you have no BP the last two nights in NYC. They went there with the Yankees not playing well and are getting smoked.

Whether a trade makes sense depends on a lot of factors, not just years of control. I was shocked that they traded both Jax and Varland, but once they traded Correa it was clear that they wouldn’t compete anytime soon, and certainly not this year or next. So I understand the Varland and Jax trades, hoping they got value. The lefty Rojas they got from Toronto in the Varland trade has the potential to be an excellent trade. He is in AAA and has a very good minor league track record for ERA, walk/strikeout ratio. And he’s a lefty, which would really help. I am cautiously optimistic on the Bradley and Abel trades, Abel more than Bradley. But it’s not easy to correct a command problem, so let’s hope the Twins pitching development process helps these starters. 

[David Maro]

They blow up the BP when its well past time that its the FO and Rocco that needed to go. It was fine to trade expiring contracts like Castro and France as well as Columbe. And as far as Correa goes he has not shown he was worth the money,and he seemed to have a foot out the door.

I did see a report that the Polhad's are bringing in partners,and not selling which is not good news. They really need to go,and a house cleaning needs to happen.

[Elliot]

9 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

So not sure if one game in relief in St. Paul in 21 counts as transitioned in the pen his final minor league season.

Semantics. Maybe he transitioned in Spring Training. Maybe it was an overnight decision by the FO or manager. The point I was trying to make was that he was a starter in the minors, but never started a game in the majors.  The others, regardless of age, had the opoortunity to succeed or fail as starters at the major league level. Duran has been a good bullpen weapon for the Twins, and now the Phillies. The legitimate question that remains is whether or not the Twins pulled the trigger too soon on making the move to the pen. With a little more patience would they have had a staff ace, or at least a front of the rotation starter for years., a much higher value asset than a bullpen arm, no matter how good.. Or maybe the managerial/training staff saw something in his style and delivery and the early move was made to save his arm and actually gave him a career. (As a side note, would an early move  to the pen have saved Francisco Liriano and his violent delivery from his eventual arm issues?) Then there is the question of the mental makeup of the individual. Are they equipped for the back end of the bullpen. It is starting to sound like at the end, or maybe all along, Jax struggled a bit with this aspect. Varland simply wanted to be a starter. Can't blame him for that.

It is a complicated set of questions for each individual. Mix multiple individuals into the equation and it gets even more interesting.  All I am saying is give it time; let it play out for each individual and the group as a whole.

[Twins33]

I’d put SWR and/or Festa in the pen way before I would Matthews. The rest I believe are future relievers, but I’m okay with giving Prielipp one more year