The Minnesota Twins Might Have a New Closer

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

So, we picked up Garcia a week ago (albeit in a trade as opposed to our usual scrap pile waiver claims), and now he might be our new closer? Hmm ... let's wait a few more weeks, at least. But as others pointed out, it is refreshing that he is a younger pitcher and not another vet on the wrong side of 30. Maybe he will use that sweeper to devastating effect. Let's hope so. 

[dxpavelka]

18 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

Tampa Bay -  Gomez you are not good enough to be in our bullpen.  DFA

Twins -  1 week later . . . Gomez you are our closer.   

LOL -  you can't make this stuff up.  Even still Gomez has a spark that could be something, but it shows how little actual relievers we currently have in the bullpen.  

If it works who give a rip how it comes to be.

[bunsen82]

37 minutes ago, dxpavelka said:

If it works who give a rip how it comes to be.

Sometimes it works most cases it doesn't.  In either case making a pitcher your closer that has just been DFA's seems more of an indictment on our current relief pitchers which was my point.  

[Whitey333]

I won't feel better until they dump some of the dead weight in the bullpen.  I'd rather have younger guys Pitching with at least some potential than these retread old timers trying to hang on.  But our new closer after less than 2 innings?  Laughable.

[mikelink45]

All I can say is that when a team has such a bad bullpen TD has to really reach for a good story.  Nice try.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

So, we picked up Garcia a week ago (albeit in a trade as opposed to our usual scrap pile waiver claims), and now he might be our new closer? Hmm ... let's wait a few more weeks, at least. But as others pointed out, it is refreshing that he is a younger pitcher and not another vet on the wrong side of 30. Maybe he will use that sweeper to devastating effect. Let's hope so. 

I believe you are referring to Gomez, not Garcia. Gomez is 26 and was with the Rays, Garcia is 39 and was acquired from the Mets.  

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I believe you are referring to Gomez, not Garcia. Gomez is 26 and was with the Rays, Garcia is 39 and was acquired from the Mets.  

Ha! Thanks for that correction. That is indeed what I meant. 

[old nurse]

18 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

it also shows how fungible relievers are; Gomez was poor for Tampa, but might go on a run where he's more than adequate for us. The samples will be small even when you throw together a whole season.

Of course, I don't see a lot of good reasons to dub Gomez a "closer" of any kind; he just looks like a guy that might reasonably pitch close & late or take over as the designated 9th inning guy. We need both so...

Paddac , Ohl, Cabrera, Davis, Wentz, Kriskie, Ramirez,  Urena, Tonkin, Alcala, Hatch Davis, McCaughin, Mischewitz, Blewet and Alcala all showed last year how relievers are not fungible.

[DJL44]

The next pitcher the Rays decide to cut might be Griffin Jax….

[mickster]

12 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Why not? At least in the short term, he throws hard, has a solid K history, and is still only 26yo. He's exactly the kind of "claim" they should be grabbing. (*I understand they actually sent cash in order to jump the waiver wire*) They might make an adjustment to where he stands on the mound, maybe tweak his arm angle, and maybe refine one of his "bad' pitches, or teach him a new one next offseason and suddenly they have a 7th inning, high velocity, good K arm that's only 27yo.

Or he may totally wash out and be gone in a couple 2-3 months.

But I'd rather give arms like his an opportunity instead of more 36-39yo veterans who have almost ZERO chance of helping the team in the future. No don't get me wrong, an older veteran who has the ability to produce one more solid season under the sun can add some depth and experience to a rebuilding pen. But you DON'T rebuild a bullpen where 50% of your arms are those aged veterans.

Unfortunately, injuries have had a rather major influence on the pen rebuild. It begins with losing Lopez for the season. That's been a HUGE loss to be sure, but it happens to other teams as well. But it has had a trickle down affect, as have other injuries and setbacks to the rotation. 

Bradley has largely mitigated the loss of Lopez, though OF COURSE you'd rather have BOTH of them in the rotation. Abel has really impressed thus far! But now HE has had an injury setback. (Of course, so has Bradley for the moment). It APPEARS neither has a MAJOR injury, and will be back, the question remains how long each will be out. And let's not forget that Prielipp hasn't looked out of place, or rushed, even though he kinda was. 

There's the possibility Festa would have remained a SP in the short term for depth. But his future is in the bullpen as a high leverage, power arm. But now we're just hoping he's 100% and ready to go by the 2nd half of this season.

Morris could be another Jax, a guy who throws 94-96 and can touch 97 with a full bag of additional offerings. Throw him only 1 or 1+ innings and he would probably sit 96-97 and hit 98, maybe even 99 once in a while. And like Jax, he would have a former starters repertoire of 2 or 3 additional pitches, maybe even 4, where he can keep both LH and RH hitters off balance. But instead, so far, they are reluctant to do so as they might have to place him in the rotation at some point. So a full conversion hasn't taken place yet.

Let's also examine the 24yo Klein for a moment. So far in 2026, at AAA, he's allowing a hit per, OK-ish BB per numbers, and his usual K+ per 9. But his ERA is AWFUL due to being bitten by the HR ball. And maybe he's not quite ready yet for ML duty. And maybe I'm completely wrong, but when I read the MILB reports, it always seems that he threw well in his first couple of innings...on his 4 every 4 day program...before allowing runs AFTER those first couple of innings. And IF what I THINK I've been watching is factual, then isn't he getting a chance to throw maximum effort of high 90's, with a starter's repertoire, for 1 or 1+ innings as a POTENTIAL late inning arm at the ML level instead of the 39yo Garcia? No insult meant to Garcia, but he won't be pitching for the Twins...maybe no-one...in 2027.

And maybe I'm stretching too far here, but one time Twins MILB pitcher of the year Cory Lewis fell on some hard times at St Paul. A couple minor injuries didn't help. But he's also a very unique arm. If he could just throw 93-95 for 1-2 innings, mix in a couple additional off speed/breaking offerings and then throw that weird/nasty/crazy Knuckleball of his, he could be a valuable 6-7th inning offering from the pen. Alas, he is ALSO hurt. And much like Festa, we're just waiting to see how far out his recovery really is.

And I'm actually sorry to go here as I'm just really not sure if he has real potential or not, but is it at all possible a healthy Adams MIGHT have actually learned a few things in his 2025 debut and MIGHT be the 8th man who could eat 2-3 IP every few days to better allow the few decent arms available in the pen to have an extra day off? But, of course, he also was hurt to begin the season.

I was actually kinda impressed by what saw out of Acton. He's nothing special, but I think he's got the "guts" and decent enough stuff to maybe be a middle man. But of course, he's also hurt right now. At 27yo, he's still got a chance.

Sands has shown the potential to be a setup man, or at least a good middle man. He hasn't shown or proven yet what he might be. But OF COURSE, HE'S also injured right now.

Cody Lawyerson, a later round draftee, has ALWAYS performed as an organizational player, but despite results, always seems to slip by Management's attention because he doesn't throw 98 out of the pen. He gets a shot late in 2025 and looks OK. SHOULD have been brought up DAY ONE after the "Red Room" trade deadline, but our FO has BLINDERS at times for non top 20 prospects. They let him go. The Angels let him go. The Twins pick him up and he continues to do what he's always done, just get guys out! And after a great ST and a solid start to 2026 what happens? He ALSO gets hurt.

The mismanagement of Ownership and the FO simply can't be denied or ignored. And I refuse to excuse them for their mismanagement of any sort of bullpen rebuild.

BUT...with no apologies given...it's really not hard to see where a plan to convert arms to the pen has been deflated by injury followed by injury, followed by injury that has affected that plan. 

There is a real crux here. The Twins are not a great team. But they have potential to be a good team. The defense has been a little better, but isn't great. The offense is OK, with some flashes. It could be better. The rotation has been surprisingly solid despite losing Lopez, Bradley and Abel taking steps, Prielipp defying a too early call up, Ober doing a Greg Maddux impersonation, and SWR being the the only bump in the road. He's just NOT THIS BAD. He's been very solid, and GREAT to end 2025. We really need him to find himself again, and SOON.

Apologies and congratulations for those still reading, but this IS reality. Despite all the injuries, we're also seeing TOMORROW with our rotation. We've seen an OK offense while waiting for parts of our future lineup struggle with some minor injuries, or slow starts to 2026. But we're also only about 1/3 of the way through. Any DECENT BP probably has us .500 if not a couple of games above. 

But the Twins CAN change that. MAKE the Morris conversion to the pen and forget him possibly needed in the rotation.  I KNOW the FO is "scared" about the rotation, but Matthews is looking good. Abel and Bradley shouldn't be out long. SIM is just too damn good to be this bad.

And MAYBE you just keep Rojas up for now. I DON'T want to rob the organization of a quality LHSP with the stuff he has. But Santana and Lirano were a couple of the most outstanding LHSP the Twins ever had. IF the intention for 2026 is to compete...while also HOPEFULLY making room for prospects and the future...then maybe accepting Rojas in the pen for now, making Morris a 1 IP guy, getting Klein up here, and YES, giving a shot to a  26yo like Gomez to see to see if you got something. 

Add Viola to Santana and Liriano

[darin617]

I'm all for picking up any pitchers that gets dumped and giving them a shot. A relief pitcher doesn't need more than 2 or 3 pitches to be effective.  

I'm also surprised that the Twins are smart enough to just have a guy throw his plus pitches.