Mick Abel Might Be Pitching His Way to the Twins' Opening Day Roster

[TopGunn#22]

What we're seeing from Abel does not appear to me to be fool's gold.  It's a continuation of how he finished last season.  Cody's opening line is spot on.  Abel has been the most encouraging development of Spring Training so far.  And Bradley didn't disappoint yesterday either.

As Abel has said, he's not so focused on his mechanics now.  That's happening naturally through all the hard work he's put in.  His primary focus now is the chess match between pitcher and hitter, and so far he's executing flawlessly.  

I'm in total agreement that the Twins should be focusing on the upside potential of players with an eye on being a team ready to seriously compete in 2028.  There are far too may things that have to break perfectly for the Twins to have a prayer to compete in 2026, and a key component, Pablo Lopez, has already gone horribly wrong.  

At some point this season we will see Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers traded, probably Ober if he doesn't completely flop in 2026.  There's a 50/50 chance or better that Byron Buxton is traded as well.  By the end of May, we will be seeing a Twins team probably 10 games under .500.  The teardown that began at last year's trade deadline will be completed at or before THIS year's trade deadline.  

It's important in this season to get a good look at the young pitchers, Abel, Bradley, Zebby, Prielipp, SWR, and the young hitters, Keaschall, Lewis, Lee, Rodon, E-Rod, Jenkins, Culpepper and Gonzalez.  When baseball games finally start getting played in 2027 the rotation is going to look completely different and the lineup will as well.  

 

[amjgt]

1 hour ago, UK Twin said:

My only slight reservation about Abel so far in ST is that he hasn't faced any MLB line ups in his outings to date. He's faced a bunch of fringe players and/or prospects. That should change tomorrow when he faces a split squad Orioles. With them being home, they should have most of their projected opening day line up facing him. Will be watching closely as his stuff looks great. Both him and Bradley are throwing in the high 90's already which is great to see. 

 

My rotation would be:

Ryan, Ober, SWR, Bradley, Abel. 

The Detroit lineup he faced in his first start was pretty close to their regular season lineup (as close as you're realistically going to get in Spring Training). It was much much better than the Atlanta lineup he faced

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/twins-vs-tigers/2026/02/23/831658/final/box

[Danchat]

Abel should absolutely be in the starting rotation, certainly over Taj Bradley. He's dominated AAA and looks great in camp, compared to Bradley who has been a replacement level starter in the majors for 3 years now. Given the durability of starters Bradley will be starting in the majors sooner than later anyways. Abel needs to start building up major league experience as a starter, given the upside he has.