Kendry Rojas has Shown a New Twins Strategy to be Viable. Will Others Follow Suit?

[Greggory Masterson]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

In 2025, one of the season-long storylines in the Twins’ system was the use of piggyback relievers. At many levels of the organization, in addition to the team’s starting pitchers, there were a handful of pitchers who threw in bulk but were not in the rotation. And they also threw more often, typically on three days’ rest, one day fewer than a typical starter’s four days.

Many questioned whether that plan would ever be carried over into the majors, but after the trade deadline last season, the Twins utilized set piggyback bulk relievers like Travis Adams, Pierson Ohl, and Thomas Hatch, who would throw multiple innings out of the bullpen on a schedule.

Of course, the second half of the 2025 Twins season came at the end of a lost year, when wins and losses didn’t matter. So it was still unclear at the beginning of the 2026 season whether the team would continue to use this strategy.

On Opening Day, the Twins did not appear to roster one of these guys, though players like Cody Laweryson, Justin Topa, Kody Funderburk, Zak Kent, and Eric Orze would be counted on to throw more than an inning.

Technically, though, they did start this using a form of this strategy in just the third game of the season, as Mick Abel piggybacked with Bailey Ober, throwing 3 1/3 innings in relief (to poor results, giving up five runs and not completing four full innings).

Garrett Acton threw multiple innings in his Twins debut, then, on three days’ rest, threw another couple of innings on April 13th. He wasn’t asked to do so again, falling into a more traditional end-of-the-pen mop-up pitcher before his late April injury.

Andrew Morris, though, stepped into this type of role fairly quickly upon his debut. Morris, a starter to this point in his career, debuted April 12th, throwing three innings of relief from the 6th to 8th inning. He next pitched on six days later, this time tasked with attempting a two-inning save, blowing it after recording just four of the required six outs. After this appearance, Morris sat three days and threw 2 2/3 innings, then sat three days and threw three innings.

This usage pattern was more or less in line with the role the Twins have used in the minors. However, Morris was trending toward a more high-leverage role. He recorded a four-out hold on two days’ rest, then on two days’ rest recorded 3 2/3 innings in relief of an injured Joe Ryan. Following this appearance, he transitioned to more of a short relief role, and he hasn’t recorded more than four outs since May 3rd.

Around that time, Kendry Rojas entered the picture as an additional arm with some length. Rojas, a starter like Morris, had been recovering from injury and started his season late, not fully stretching out as a starter by the time he got his number called for his MLB debut, which was two innings of relief in a piggyback start with fellow rookie Connor Prielipp. He was sent down shortly after his April debut but returned to MLB action on May 10th. Since then, he has followed the usage pattern one would expect of a player in this role.

He recorded 10 outs as the bulk arm in a bullpen game against Cleveland on May 10th, then threw two innings on three days’ rest against Miami, closing out a blowout. After three more days of rest, he started his first game, throwing four innings against Houston. On four days’ rest after that, he threw three innings of relief against Boston.

Rojas was then in line to start another game on four days’ rest on Thursday, May 28th, but he was scratched due to elbow soreness. Sadly, fans of this role may be without it for a while, but Rojas showed how useful a player in this role can be. He was off to a start to his career in which he was probably having more success than his performance suggested (his 1.47 WHIP is higher than his ERA), but he was almost an old-school swingman, cutting into the bullpen’s workload while also being available to start when the rotation needed to push someone back or fill in for a day.

This oddball scheduled bulk reliever was actually working, at least for a while. Adams, one of the pioneers of the role in 2025, has also potentially been working into this role, starting his season throwing 2 1/3 innings on two days’ rest, two innings on five days’ rest, then two innings on two days' rest. However, it seems that the Twins might be gearing him toward working on shorter outings with shorter rest, even if he could be asked to throw more than an inning at a time, similar to the usage seen with players like Orze or Funderburk.

Simeon Woods Richardson could have potentially replaced Rojas in this role, but he was DFAd on Saturday morning. It's hard to imagine SWR not being claimed by another organization. Woods Richardson was in line to throw in bulk in his May 18th bullpen debut, but the game entered a rain delay after his first inning of work, shutting him down for the night. He rested six days before pitching again in relief, this time two innings in a losing effort in Chicago.

He started Thursday afternoon’s game on just two days’ rest when Rojas was scratched from the start. He didn't even make it through three innings before allowing five runs. Whatever the plan is with Woods Richardson, it doesn’t seem like this role is in the cards.

However, using this formula has been something of a success. If you combine this type of multi-inning relief appearances from Morris, Rojas, and Adams, they’ve combined to throw 29 innings, allowing eight earned runs, which is a 2.48 ERA. If you include the four shutout innings Rojas threw as a spot starter on three days’ rest, it drops down to 2.18 in 33 innings.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re of the opinion this role is new-age made-up nonsense), the Twins haven’t been able to keep a player in this role long. Morris has been thrust into late-innings work, Rojas is on the injured list now with inflammation in his triceps, and Adams (who is the least stretched out) has been sent down to Triple-A due to high usage over the last week. And right now, it’s unclear that the Twins have another horse to slide into this role.

The current Twins’ pen, outside of the aforementioned arms, doesn’t have anyone who can slide into this role. John Klein was called up to take SWR's roster spot. He didn’t impress in his debut but has been throwing multiple innings at Triple-A to middling effectiveness. Laweryson and Funderburk have also both struggled at Triple-A, and they have been promoted to fill Rojas and Adams's spots, which probably spells the end of the experiment, for now.

Marco Raya, a high-octane recently converted starter, has been throwing multiple innings very frequently at Triple-A thus far this season, racking up 10 appearances with at least two full innings pitched. After a very shaky and discouraging start to the season, he’s settled into a more respectable 3.68 ERA in eight May appearances across 14 2/3 innings. He’s typically throwing on two or three days’ rest, though he’s topped out at 35 pitches. Still, he might be the best choice the Twins have if they want a hard-throwing bullpen arm who throws multiple innings with any regularity. C.J. Culpepper was just last month converted to a reliever upon his promotion to St. Paul, but he's throwing shorter outings than Raya and isn't on the 40-man.

The position may be more trouble than it’s worth in the long run, and it may be suited only for players like Rojas and Morris who are close to being MLB-ready starters, but early returns on a stretched-out reliever who throws multiple innings on a somewhat predictable schedule have been encouraging. It’ll be interesting to see how much faith the Twins have in continuing its usage as the calendar turns to June.

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[USAFChief]

This stupid idea has completely NOT worked and ends up with the Twins so short on available pitching in the big leagues they have to DFA SWR simply because they're short in the pen for one day.

This idea doesn't prepare pitchers for any role they'll need to perform in the big leagues. Minor league 28 man rosters, with 14 - 15 pitchers and regular off days, with shorter seasons, might work. But it's a terrible idea for preparation for the show.

You simply cannot tie up two pitchers that can only be used once every 5 days, and on the same day. And thats assuming they DO actually pitch 4 innings each. Which they sometimes won't, because almost no pitcher has the stuff to get through 4 innings every time. 

Edited yesterday at 02:45 PM by USAFChief

[DJL44]

Any pitcher good enough to pitch well for 3 innings every 4 days is probably good enough to pitch 5 innings every 5 days in the rotation instead.

[LambchoP]

What strategy? Going on the IL? All of our prospects and young players already do that....

[Hunter4848]

Should we start planning the Word Series parade route thanks to this brilliant strategy?!?!

[DJL44]

What I like about this is they decided to use the good arms they had in AAA to fill the gaps in the bullpen rather than just letting them waste their innings in St. Paul. They made the best roster with what they had. Is it a new bullpen strategy that leads to wins? Not as much as having 8 strong 1-inning relievers.

[karcherd]

Now we are going to see the fruits of this awesome strategy.  They have called up Paredes for Ober.  They have no starting pitching in St. Paul and so now they will call up a bulk guy and burn the bullpen when he starts or they will do a bullpen day.  But you can't do that every time Ober's turn comes around.  

[HeresWaldo]

I liked the idea in the minors because it can let you keep more starter candidates a bit stretched out, but I have been thoroughly unimpressed by it in the majors. Most of the guys they've put in this role and left there are hurt - and to be clear I'm not blaming the role for that, pitchers get hurt and I get that, but it does make it hard to evaluate - and I dont love that guys are less stretched out as starters while still not going max effort as relievers. It's a kind of cool idea I guess, and I like it in the lower minors to manage workload while stretching more guys out at level where you don't know what their future role should be, but I'm not going to believe in it at the MLB level until someone manages to throw 85+ healthy innings with decent results. Maybe I'm old school but to me the long man should either be a Rule 5 guy you want but don't trust yet or one of many mop up men the roster churns through, and I don't love having real prospects both not be starters and not be late inning relievers. 

[Linus]

This might have merit in the minors as a way to get relievers more innings. It has no place in the big leagues and doesn’t prepare them to be able to pitch on back to back days which is a necessity.  The other thing that is stupid about the premise is that this secret strategy turns these AAAA pitchers into good big leaguers. With the exception of Rojas all these “bulk” guys wouldn’t be in a good bullpen. 
 

[sun]

I like the strategy and have advocated it in the past when the rotation was weak and the number of potential starters was high in number. Just because some arms can't handle the workload doesn't mean that the strategy is flawed. It only means that the arms to accomplish it aren't readily available or easy to find or train. The Twins desperately need to win games in order to stay in the hunt for a wildcard. Any strategy that can give them an edge needs to be tried. Every team and season is an experiment to find a formula for success. As the old adage goes, try again harder & harder. I applaud the Twins for any innovation that they can muster within whatever is attainable. It shouldn't be too hard to understand that having a competant and able long reliever or two on the roster can be bonuses & assets. Just like some pitchers are more capable of pitching complete games than others, some pitchers are more well suited to being long relievers than others. Fans shouldn't complain that the Twins are doing whatever they can to innovate & win games. If they fail then they need to try & try again. Some ideas require faith and persistance. That's how new ideas, strategies, inventions and formulas take time to prove. The strategy can be fine tuned & by employing the best men for the job. Who really wants to complain about having a bullpen with some long relievers? It's not a new idea. It's only another specialized position that requires specialists in order to be successful. A long reliever can be just as valuable as a closer which both are specialists. Fans should get used to the necessity & benefits of the roles. It can give the BP a rest and back up a starting pitcher that's having a weak start.

[karcherd]

28 minutes ago, sun said:

I like the strategy and have advocated it in the past when the rotation was weak and the number of potential starters was high in number. Just because some arms can't handle the workload doesn't mean that the strategy is flawed. It only means that the arms to accomplish it aren't readily available or easy to find or train. The Twins desparately need to win games in order to stay in the hunt for a wildcard. Any strategy that can give them an edge needs to be tried. Every team and season is an experiement to find a formula for success. As the old adage goes, try again harder & harder. I applaud the Twins for any innovation that they can muster within whatever is attainable. It shouldn't be too hard to understand that having a competant and able long reliever or two on the roster can be bonuses & assets. Just like some pitchers are more capable of pitching complete games than others, some pitchers are more well suited to being long relievers than others. Fans shouldn't complain that the Twins are doing whatever they can to innovate & win games. If they fail then they need to try & try again. Some ideas require faith and persistance. That's how new ideas, strategies, inventions and formulas take time to prove. The strategy can be fine tuned & by employing the best men for the job. Who really wants to complain about having a bullpen with some long relievers? It's not a new idea. It's only another specialized position that requires specialists in order to be successful. A long reliever can be just as valuable as a closer which both are specialists. Fans should get used to the necessity & benefits of the roles. It can give the BP a rest and back up a starting pitcher that's having a weak start.

The article is not about having a long reliever.  It is about having pitchers pitch bulk innings on a predetermined schedule.  That is why you can say they are innovative and everything else, but you can't have a predetermined plan going into the game without being prepared to deviate from the plan based on the game flow.  That is exactly what they don't do.  And then you use up two pitchers in one day as others have said and you are backing yourself into a corner in future games.

[Twins GFP]

Change is painful. It doesn't matter if the change is good or bad, it is painful. The movie Moneyball was spot on: "...the first guy through the wall always gets bloody, always.

Is this process successful? The sample size is too small to give a definite answer one way or another. Tampa got questioned when they began using a RP to start the game, now it is relatively common.

The role of pitching has changed dramatically over the last few years, and continues to change. Who is to say this won't be more widely used in the future?

We complain about the Twins not making changes. Then the Twins try something different and we complain about that....

[karcherd]

4 minutes ago, Twins GFP said:

Change is painful. It doesn't matter if the change is good or bad, it is painful. The movie Moneyball was spot on: "...the first guy through the wall always gets bloody, always.

Is this process successful? The sample size is too small to give a definite answer one way or another. Tampa got questioned when they began using a RP to start the game, now it is relatively common.

The role of pitching has changed dramatically over the last few years, and continues to change. Who is to say this won't be more widely used in the future?

We complain about the Twins not making changes. Then the Twins try something different and we complain about that....

How much did Zoll pay for this comment.

[Linus]

You can slice it and dice it anyway you want. It doesn’t do a thing to make up for a lack of talent in the bullpen. 

[Twins GFP]

23 minutes ago, karcherd said:

How much did Zoll pay for this comment.

Negative attack post? I rest my case.

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, Twins GFP said:

 Tampa got questioned when they began using a RP to start the game, now it is relatively common.
 

Is it?

The "opener" has virtually disappeared from MLB.

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by USAFChief

[TheLeviathan]

[Richie the Rally Goat]

The Twins striving for viability. I’m so thoroughly whelmed.

[chpettit19]

4 hours ago, Linus said:

You can slice it and dice it anyway you want. It doesn’t do a thing to make up for a lack of talent in the bullpen. 

Having bad pitchers throw more is not a good strategy. I think the general idea is that there's more options than just 5+ inning starters and 1 inning relievers and this could get their best pitchers more innings. 

I've wanted them to put Varland in this role for years. He was lights out once through the order when he was a starter. Then he fell apart. You don't think there's value in having a guy who can get through an order really well 1 time pitch 2 or 3 innings instead of being relegated to just 1 inning? The more guys you have that can go multiple innings, the better, right? Isn't that the entire reason we have starters? Otherwise, why wouldn't teams just go with thirteen 1 inning guys?

Ideally, I'd love to see more starters going 6, 7, 8, 9 innings. The good ones do. But the middling ones can't. The third time through the lineup thing is real. Go look up random Hall of Famers and how they did the 3rd time through. Most of them were noticeably worse, too. They were just so much better than the average pitcher that their "worse" was just as good as the average guy's "normal." But they did get worse the 3rd time through. And now teams have even more data and are even better at adjusting mid-game (well, some of them).

If 8 or 9 of your best arms are starters, why would you want to turn 3 or 4 of them into 1 inning guys or send them to AAA instead of having them be the 8 or 9 guys who throw the most innings for you? As those guys start getting hurt (pitchers always get hurt) you replace them with your next best arm. If it's a 1 inning guy, cool. If it's another starter who can throw multiple innings every 3 or 4 days, cool.

Why do we need to lock guys into 2 roles? Long relievers can't just sit on the bench for weeks on end without ever getting into a game waiting for a blow up or injury. When do they throw a pen to keep themselves stretched out? Can't throw a long enough pen to simulate 3 or 4+ innings today because if the blow up or injury happens tomorrow, now that guy can't throw. It's why you don't see 30 guys rotting away at the back of every bullpen.

If you have 8 or 9 guys. Or 7. Or 6. Eating multiple innings on a regular basis (every 5 days for your rotation and every 3 or 4 for the other guys), it also gives all your 1 inning guys more rest and means there's less of a need for throwing on back-to-back days. And that'd make them more effective in all of their appearances.

Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez types are allowed to go more than twice through an order. Average starters typically aren't given that leash regularly because they are a step below the Ryan and Lopez tier. Then there's guys like Mason Miller and Jhoan Duran who it's decided can't hold up to a starter's workload, so they turn into 1 inning monsters closing out games. But Jax is showing us now that he can throw more than 1 inning effectively. You wouldn't have preferred 120 innings out of Jax instead of 60? Varland was great once through the order and never seems to wear down. You wouldn't have preferred 120 innings out of him instead of 60?

There's middle ground between starters and 1 inning relievers. Teams need to figure out how long (innings, pitches, times through the order, whatever) a guy can be effective without breaking down. Then find a way to maximize that guy. If they can only do 1 inning, nice, that's their role. If they can do twice through the order? Great, here's 5 or 6 innings most of your appearances. If he can get once through an order? Wonderful, here's 2 or 3 innings every 3 days. If he can slice and dice a lineup until his arm falls off most appearances? Perfect, here's a spot at the top of our rotation, go get'em, big boy!

The Twins lack pitching talent. Especially in the pen. We all knew that coming into the year. This strategy isn't (or shouldn't be) a means to make crappy pitchers better. But if Ryan, Ober, Abel, Taj, Zebby, Rojas, and Prielipp are all on top of their game and healthy at the same time, which ones do you want in AAA wasting bullets or being turned into 1 inning guys in the majors instead of throwing multiple innings and saving us from watching Luis Garcia, Justin Topa, and Zak Kent types get smacked around every night?

[chpettit19]

4 hours ago, karcherd said:

The article is not about having a long reliever.  It is about having pitchers pitch bulk innings on a predetermined schedule.  That is why you can say they are innovative and everything else, but you can't have a predetermined plan going into the game without being prepared to deviate from the plan based on the game flow.  That is exactly what they don't do.  And then you use up two pitchers in one day as others have said and you are backing yourself into a corner in future games.

The strategy being bad and the Twins being unable to deviate from pre-game plans are 2 different things. There is nothing that says you have to pull your starter at a set time just because you have a bulk guy who was scheduled that day. If Ryan goes 8 and you're up 1-0 in the ninth and he's out of gas, you can bring in your closer (would be cool if the Twins had a real one). The league isn't going to call and say you have to put bulk pitcher x into the game. You can save him for the next day.

Actually, the article does a great job of laying out the timelines these guys have thrown on, and it wasn't an exact set timeline for any of them. And the number of innings they threw wasn't the same every time. The Twins have been adjusting to game situations.

How is using up 2 pitchers in a day worse than using 4 pitchers in a day, 2 of which probably threw on back-to-back days and are now unavailable for future games? If you get through an entire game with just 2 guys, is that not a far better situation than needing 3, 4, or 5 guys every night? I don't get how people act like bullpens aren't insanely overused these days by going with 5 starters and 8 one inning guys. Every inning a bulk guy throws saves innings from everyone else. Everyone else gets more rest that way. It's why starters going longer in games helps more. The more innings you can get from anybody, the more it helps everyone else. The fewer arms you use in a game the better it is for the pen overall in future games. I don't understand the logic behind wanting to use more pitchers every game in an attempt to save arms from being unavailable in future games.

[jkcarew]

This isn’t a thing. It’s just a way to leverage optionable guys…especially guys they feel are maybe only one-time-through-the-lineup guys at this point in development…in a way that acclimates them a bit slower/easier to the majors. And it hopefully shortens the game for the bullpen for that particular game. Not a strategy. Maybe works here and there. Something you’ll do here and there if you have multiple starters injured/out. The juggling required is unsustainable. 

Prielipp has been throwing 80-90+ pitches since he’s been up…5-6 innings when effective. If…or as soon as, they have similar confidence in Rojas, I expect they’ll ask/expect him to start doing the same. The Twins might favor this in the minors for workload management, roster management, evaluation, whatever…but even they aren’t incompetent enough to pretend this is a viable 26-man major league strategy. Right???

[terrydactyls]

"Bulk inning pitcher" is the baseball-speak term that translates into English as "we don't have enough capable starters".

[jorgenswest]

Rojas doesn’t fit the model. He was injured in the spring and then did a rehab in Fort Myers before starting to build his workload in AAA. That building was interrupted by some call ups to the majors.

The Twins give their starters a major league rest routine in AAA. They did in AA last year also but it is harder to track this year with the number of pitchers that have moved up. Looking at the game logs Gallagher, Matthews, Prielipp and Morris were all getting the normal days rest routine when they were starting in the minors this year. Gallagher was in that routine in AA also. I don’t see anywhere in Morris’ game logs where he was used this way last year. He was getting a starter’s routine. I am sure Rojas would have part of that group once he did what would have been his spring training build up.

The pitchers they use in that 4 day role in the upper minors are the tier they view behind the starters but want to stay somewhat stretched out on a regular routine. Adams was one last year. Paredes has been one that has stayed stretched out that otherwise would have been in the pen. I think Rojas’ use in his few minor league appearances were for the purpose of coming back from the hamstring injury and missing a chunk of spring training.