The Twins Aren't Serious About Rebuilding The Bullpen

[ziggy]

2 hours ago, Hubie29 said:

They are just "fielding" a team of misfits because they are a member of MLB. I think it's in the bylaws that you must have a 25 man roster. They don't care about anything else. 

To paraphrase Terry Ryan "the games are 9 innings and somebosy has to play the game".

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Hunter4848 said:

But, but, but, Tom Pohlad said we were going to be competitive...

 

The sadder thing is some Twin's fans still trust that family 

I don't.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

The whole "4 innings once in a while" minor league thing is just stupid. Incredibly stupid. And that includes for Prielipp and Rojas. 

"Too smart by half" comes to mind. 

 

That's being kind.  Clueless idiots fits better.

[Linus]

And Taj to the IL and Adam’s recalled. That will solve our bullpen problems 😀

[Sjoski]

Wow....never seen such a negative comment thread....is there any hope in Minnesota?

Twins: Dead last in the AL Central (16-23) and plummeting toward 32nd in MLB. 

Wild: Blew the future for one series win; now getting humbled by Colorado.

Vikings: Burn through draft picks like they’re seasonal flyers.

Wolves: Winning now, but still statistically the "worst" winning % in sports history.... actually....just improved to 127 of 128.

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

3 hours ago, killercarewoliva said:

I have a thought. is Bowman a major league pitcher in AAA with an era somewhere around 3 is not brought up but instead Klein is with an era of 7?

Klein was already on the 40-man roster, and Bowman is not.

[mrguy]

7 hours ago, DJL44 said:

They seem to think this every 4 day piggyback role is a great idea but it sure hasn’t shown any results.

I think it makes sense from a development angle, allowing more guys to get as many innings as possible to figure out what works and have more options in the system rather than have a few serious starter options and a bunch of filler one inning relievers that might not have much of a chance of going much further. I'd certainly say since adopting this approach, there are definitely more guys in their system that feel like they could contribute if they were actually given a chance. Heck, John Klein went from being some guy nobody really heard of and went undrafted to now being a guy people are mad isn't getting major league playing time because of this development shift. I do think once the idea that they'll be on the major league roster comes up in AAA though, they should actively shift towards preparing them for whatever role they are planning, be it a one to two inning reliever or a starter. 

[LyleCole]

I am not surprised by this and am surprised that anyone could possibly be surprised.   This has been the "Twins Way" for a long time.

In 2025 37 pitchers (which includes position players pitching in blowouts) pitched for the Minnesota Twins.  Of those 37 pitchers,  just 7 pitchers were 25 years old or younger (Woods-Richardson 24, Zebby Matthews 25, David Festa 25, Taj Bradley 24 Pierson Ohl 25 Mick Abel 23 Travis Adams 25).  They were willing to try just about any 28+ waiver wire/replacement level arm without an ounce of potential they could find in the garbage bin (I don't mean anythng personally negative to these guys):  Thomas Hatch, Michael Tonkin, Jose Urena, Genesis, Brooks Kriske, Erasamo Ramirez, Joey Wents, Jonah Bride, Darren MCCaughan, Noah Davis, Anthony Misiewics, Scott Blewett) not to mention Brock Stewart, Justin Topa, Danny Coulombe, Jorge Alcala, Cody Laweryson, and Randy Dobnak who at least were signed with a little bit of potential to be relievers.

Think that is a fluke?  In 2024 they went through 34 pitchers.  2023  just 29.    But 38 in 2022.   

And the same thing is true with the positional players.   

They have a delusion which they present to the fans that they somehow have a method of developing these types of players when the end result is just miserable production after miserable production.   

I think some of it is based on fear.  They seem to have a terrible time getting their prospects over the hurdle from the minors to the big leagues.  they seem to have created a development path of producing the so called AAAA level players, players that perform well in the minors but struggle in the big leagues so they create extended delays keeping them in the minors, prefering to roster a guy like James Outman, Ryan Kreidler, Tristan Gray, or even victor Caratinin and just about everyone on the pitching staff instead of giving the PAs and IP to their young prospects.  

The examples are there for the pitching especially.  David Festa.  Zebby Matthews.  Andrew Morris.  It cannot be claimed that their struggles at the MLB level have been because they were rushed.  Not one of them made their MLB debut earlier than 24 years of age.  

This was obvious before the start of the season.  They should have pulled the plug and went full rebuild, trading Buxton and Ryan, perhaps others like Jeffers, at what might be their peak value rather than risk them being injured in 2026 (a major risk).   Call up all of the prospects as a group, weed them out, and tank to build a winning team in the future.   

[LyleCole]

Post Script to my above post.

 

This "rebuild" that I projected as the correct path for the 2026 season would have also come after the Twins learned they would have the 3rd overall pick in 2026.   Tanking in the rebuild would probably give the team another top 3-5 selection that they can add to their existing group of prospects, plus the prospects that you receive in any veteran trade. 

That the Twins chose a different path shows they are not serious and no matter what the language they present to fans, they just do not care.

[karcherd]

Now we are going to see the negative impact of this 4 x 4 plan.  They have nobody ready to come up and give any length to replace Bradley.  So it looks like Rojas will get the start and hopefully go 3 innings.  Then probably Adams or Morris for 2 or 3 innings.  Then the St. Paul shuttle will begin again because they will need arms in the bullpen.  In the meantime they will continue to trot out Garcia, Banda and Topa.

[dxpavelka]

9 hours ago, laloesch said:

I think that’s almost a certainty now and most of baseball knows it. It’s gonna be mostly locked out season if they play at all. Salary cap incoming 

we can only hope

 

[dxpavelka]

7 hours ago, shimrod said:

Again, the intent is to conserve resources (money and prospects) until the CBA situation has been sorted out. The talk about competing was just that, cheap talk from cheap owners. The organization will continue to tread water through 2027

My worst fear is the new CBA incentivizes current ownership to hang on to the team. 

Which probably means you think that if new ownership comes in they'll spend like drunken sailors.  I hate to burst your bubble but barring MASSIVE changes in the CBA that's just not happening.  Do you REALLY see massive changes coming?  Do you see the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Yankees & Blue Jays agreeing to the changes that would be needed to make a significant difference?  If you do get back to me about some very special investment opportunities I'd like to run by you.

 

[Nshore]

WTAF is being scouted heavily by the Twins as the next closer.

[Nshore]

Brent Headrick was placed on waivers by the Twins before the 2025 season when he had a sub 4.00 ERA at AAA. He's now a beast out of the bullpen for the Yankees.  The Twins shed Headrick right before last season in which the Twins dismantled the bullpen.  That indicates really a total lack of forethought in what this team is trying to do.  Have a good day.

[DJL44]

22 hours ago, karcherd said: This is the whole point of the article, they will not commit any of these bulk guys including Morris to one role or another, they just keep straddling the fence.

It’s worse than that. They have convinced themselves that straddling the fence is a genius developmental strategy and they’re going to be trend setters.

[karcherd]

13 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

It’s worse than that. They have convinced themselves that straddling the fence is a genius developmental strategy and they’re going to be trend setters.

Exactly, this was my whole issue with Falvey, he thought he was the smartest one in the room.  And it doesn't look like this is going to change with Zoll.