Top Pitching Prospects Kendry Rojas, Connor Prielipp to Join Twins in New York for Mets Series

[Doctor Gast]

An Observation: Ober has been the brightest example of our in-house development; Zebby & Festa also lost some of their shine. Where we really shone was taking out-of-house SPs & tweaking them into top-of-the-order SPs. We did that with Odorizzi & Ryan from TB. I also wanted to target MIA SPs a few years ago when they were for sale. I was very pleased when Twins picked up Lopez, but I also advocated for all their SPs who were for sale. Just think of Lazardo & Weathers in our rotation. & making our failed SP into pretty good RPs. Like I said previously, just because they start out in the pen; doesn't mean they have to stay in the pen.

From this observation, IMO we should change our priority from developing our in-house SPs, to looking for promising young MLB-ready SPs out-of-house & be quick to start our SPs in the pen.

[PatG]

Wouldn't this be a grand time to try Zebby in the bullpen....(L Varland clone)

[Doctor Gast]

I'm also open to use Rojas & Prielipp as openers & put SWR & Ober in long relief.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, Doctor Gast said:

I'm also open to use Rojas & Prielipp as openers & put SWR & Ober in long relief.

It seems like a good idea! But pretty much no teams do this.... I'd try something like this, but I doubt they do. 

[USAFChief]

10 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

I'm also open to use Rojas & Prielipp as openers & put SWR & Ober in long relief.

Why would anyone do this? Now you're using in effect 7 starters to fill 5 spots. With a bonus of taking away 1/4th of your pen.

[Western SD Fan]

6 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Why not sign Dylan Bundy out of retirement?

I may have missed the sarcasm.  In case I didn't, we did sign up for Bundy's last season in the MLB.  8-8 with a 4.89 ERA and a -0.2 WAR.  EDIT:  I do think I missed the sarcasm. Sorry about that.

Edited Monday at 11:45 PM by Western SD Fan

[Western SD Fan]

4 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I'm also open to use Rojas & Prielipp as openers & put SWR & Ober in long relief.

Didn't we just get done roasting the Twins for having Ober and Abel doing this in Baltimore?  Prielipp may be starting on Wednesday instead of the elusive TBD pitcher.  That plan may explain why Morris was hung out to dry on Sunday and the plan was to pitch him two innings regardless of his performance.  

[Hashim]

13 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I am pleased - move on from Banda.  And if they want to keep both there are plenty of options for more demotions.

😂😂😂. My first chose starts with Out and ends with Man 🤣

[DocBauer]

The mismanagement of the bullpen rebuild...brought about by ownership dragging their feet...is coming to fruition after a first few weeks of competent performances that I think we all knew wouldn't last.

Hindsight is a glorious thing, but I wasn't super crazy about acquiring Banda, even though it was a cheap deal. I still would have just re-signed Coulombe for the same middle inning role he had with the Twins in 2025. Simple, neat, and a known quantity who's off to a decent start with the Bo-Sox so far. But I don't think you jump dump Banda at this point. While not a great RP, he's still better than he's shown so far. Perhaps there's a mechanical issue? Not even a full month in is not the time to DFA a fairly decent pen arm previously. 

Rojas is on the roster, is only up for a couple of days, and then he's back down again when Funderburk comes back. It's really not a big deal.

Prielipp was brought up as a Taxi Squad addition for the road trip. He may end up sent right back down, we just don't know for sure.

The problem is Abel. HOPEFULLY it's a minor injury that a little rest and rehab will take care of. Even still, we're talking a month for said rest and rehab. SOMEONE has to take his spot in the rotation. But who?

Lopez is out, Festa is out, Matthews has looked a little better as of late, but is working some things out. So does Morris jump in to the rotation? I mean, he's already stretched out. He looked good in his debut, and didn't look good his 2nd appearance. That doesn't mean he's not a good arm with a solid future. He had a bad game. 

Prielipp's last start was a pretty good 5 IP. But I don't think that means he's READY. But again, SOMEONE has to take Abel's rotation spot. It's either him, or Morris, or Matthews. That's really the only 3 choices right now.

Without getting back in to yet another poor roster construction arguement, Lewis is probably back for the Mets series. Someone has to go. Traditionally, that would mean Kreidler goes down as the man who came up when Royce was injured.  But I think it's more complicated than that. If the Twins are going to play with a 12.5 man player roster...I'm still befuddled by this...who is the better choice to be that "half man" player? You have your choice of a "can't hit" LH OF, OR, a "can't hit" RH OF/INF who can cover more positions than Outman, including CF. So do we see Outman DFA and Kreidler kept? That makes more sense to me. And it opens a spot to add Prielipp...if that's the way the Twins go...or add a different arm for the pen. I think that makes the most sense. And IF it's Prielipp, it really means he's being added earlier than expected/wanted, but he was probably going to be added at SOME POINT in 2026 anyway.

There's a lot of moving parts here. And I don't know how it's going to play out. But I think move #1 will involve a DFA of Outman.

[Hashim]

7 hours ago, PatG said:

Wouldn't this be a grand time to try Zebby in the bullpen....(L Varland clone)

Yeah. I don’t why they’re not trying him in bullpen since hasn’t been successful as starter and has good velocity and plus stuff. Festa and Zebby should be in the bullpen already. 

[Doctor Gast]

15 hours ago, Western SD Fan said:

Didn't we just get done roasting the Twins for having Ober and Abel doing this in Baltimore?  Prielipp may be starting on Wednesday instead of the elusive TBD pitcher.  That plan may explain why Morris was hung out to dry on Sunday and the plan was to pitch him two innings regardless of his performance.  

Many criticized the Twins before because they bunted, baseran, and base-stole & failed. Does that mean they should stop trying? Because they failed with using openers, long relief, piggy-back & BP games, does that mean they should stop trying? Serious teams know how to do these things correctly. If the Twins want to be a serious team, they have to learn how to use their BP in this way. Pushing young starting pitchers to go farther in games because we have a weak BP will only cause injuries & inefficient arms. We need to bring up promising young arms that can fill these roles. We need to obtain as many good pitchers as we can, however we can & DFA those that aren't getting the job done as soon as possible.