Twins Acquire Tommy Nance From Blue Jays To Bolster Bullpen

[Steve Drumwright]

 

The Minnesota Twins, who had a massive sell-off at last year's trade deadline, appear to be a buyer this year.

The Twins on Friday acquired right-handed reliever Tommy Nance from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for minor-league catcher-third baseman Ryan Sprock.

Nance is a 35-year-old who has appeared in 32 games this year for the Jays, posting a 4.20 FIP (3.82 ERA) in 33 innings, walking 9.4% of batters, while striking out 24.5%. Nance made his MLB debut in 2021 and has appeared in 144 games, all but two in relief, with a 3.72 FIP (4.25 ERA). He has a 9.3% career walk rate and 25.3% strikeout rate.

Nance is making $809,700 this season and is under club control for another three seasons.

Sprock, 21, was an eighth-round draft choice a year ago out of Elon. He was just promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids, where he played two games, going 0-for-7. He had been at Low-A Fort Myers, where he had a .306/.436/.441 slash line with five homers and 37 RBIs in 65 games. He also had 14 stolen bases. Sprock is not on Twins Daily's Top 20 prospects list. He made 31 starts at catcher, 18 at third base and five in left field in addition to 11 as a designated hitter.

 

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[Greglw3]

All in All, a good acquisition!

[LewFordLives]

It's a start...barely....although I hope there's more help on the way.

[ashbury]

Sticking my neck out to guess they put Banda on the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster, and send Adams to AAA to open a spot on the major league roster.

[DJL44]

Nance immediately becomes one of the top 4 relievers on the team.

Are they optioning Adams or Orze?

[SteveLV]

Yech.  Like Sprock. This guy is average, which for this bullpen is, unfortunately, elite.

At least he is cheap!

[ashbury]

b-r.com has a "leverage index" that looks at the game situation when a pitcher enters the game, saying nothing about his results once on the mound.  On the Twins, for example, Rogers (1.47), Gomez (1.46), Morris (1.36) and Banda (1.35) lead the staff in highest leverage, which sort of confirms the eye test as to when they get brought in, and also perhaps attests to Shelton's strategy to spread the opportunities around instead of having a rigid setup-closer pecking order.  By contrast, Laweryson has a very low 0;70 leverage index, again conforming to what you might expect for a pitcher of his current caliber.

On the Jays this year, it's hardly surprising that Louis Varland's usage results in a very high 1.90 leverage index.  Tommy Nance?  0.53.

John Schneider apparently has had very low confidence in Nance.  Take it for what it's worth. 

Maybe Shelton/Hawkins/Maki will work some magic with him and get good performance, when the game is on the line, that Schneider didn't feel was possible.

[CRF]

This ain't movin the needle a whole helluva lot, but he's probably better than what we've been trotting out there. We got Go and Nance the last few days, so at least they're trying to get a little help. 

[DJL44]

5 minutes ago, ashbury said:

b-r.com has a "leverage index" that looks at the game situation when a pitcher enters the game.  On the Twins, for example, Rogers (1.47), Gomez (1.46), Morris (1.36) and Banda (1.35) lead the staff in highest leverage, which sort of confirms the eye test as to when they get brought in, and also perhaps attests to Shelton's strategy to spread the opportunities around instead of having a rigid setup-closer pecking order.  By contrast, Laweryson has a very low 0;70 leverage index, again conforming to what you might expect for a pitcher of his current caliber.

On the Jays this year, it's hardly surprising that Louis Varland's usage results in a very high 1.90 leverage index.  Tommy Nance?  0.53.

John Schneider apparently has had very low confidence in Nance.  Take it for what it's worth. 

Maybe Shelton/Hawkins/Maki will work some magic with him and get good performance when the game is on the line that Schneider didn't feel was possible.

Schneider also has much better options. Their bullpen is quite good with an ERA of 3.81 versus the Twins 5.45.

[Linus]

Meh. 

[ashbury]

3 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Schneider also has much better options. Their bullpen is quite good with an ERA of 3.81 versus the Twins 5.45.

That's a fair point.  As I said, the leverage index doesn't speak to what the pitcher did once he's in the game.

But it's notable that we didn't acquire any of those "better options", probably because they weren't available.  The ceiling for what this deal does for making a pennant push is very low.

[Cris E]

Well a college guy hitting the heck out of the ball in A while learning to catch may appear better than he is, but it seems that's worth a thirty-five year old with three years of team control remaining, which may look worse than it is.  Alas our bullpen is still in a state where guys like Nance can start a career and be very useful, so I won't complain at all.  At least we're picking up average players for the MLB team.

[rickyp]

I thought we'd blocked the Jays phone number on the FO's phones after the Varland trade?

[AceWrigley]

I think our GM realizes that the cupboard is pretty bare when looking for a major league ready reliever, so if Tommy Nance can provide even average major league innings it helps us "get to Gomez" which is probably our biggest challenge right now.

[Chris Hove]

I don't think it's a huge upgrade, but it's definitely a position of need. Nance throws a slider, sinker, and has a really  good curveball that has strikeout potential. Hes one of the best pitchers in the league when talking about chase %. He has a few years left of control, he might remind you of a right handed Taylor Roger's with a bit more swings and misses. Hope he won't continue the trend of being DFA in a week.

[DataNerd]

54 minutes ago, ashbury said:

b-r.com has a "leverage index" that looks at the game situation when a pitcher enters the game, saying nothing about his results once on the mound.  On the Twins, for example, Rogers (1.47), Gomez (1.46), Morris (1.36) and Banda (1.35) lead the staff in highest leverage, which sort of confirms the eye test as to when they get brought in, and also perhaps attests to Shelton's strategy to spread the opportunities around instead of having a rigid setup-closer pecking order.  By contrast, Laweryson has a very low 0;70 leverage index, again conforming to what you might expect for a pitcher of his current caliber.

On the Jays this year, it's hardly surprising that Louis Varland's usage results in a very high 1.90 leverage index.  Tommy Nance?  0.53.

John Schneider apparently has had very low confidence in Nance.  Take it for what it's worth. 

Maybe Shelton/Hawkins/Maki will work some magic with him and get good performance, when the game is on the line, that Schneider didn't feel was possible.

They have 3 guys with a 2.06 or lower ERA, as well as Jeff Hoffman making $11M/yr.  Somebody has to get the low-leverage opportunities.

[Baumer67]

I would send Rojas down, he is not ready yet.  Also, I would send Orze down and bring up someone like Bowman.  Better control and more consistent 

[Nshore]

37 minutes ago, Baumer67 said:

I would send Rojas down, he is not ready yet.  Also, I would send Orze down and bring up someone like Bowman.  Better control and more consistent 

I was surprised they didn't give Bowman a shot to begin the season - they were desperate for competent arms and Bowman was throwing pretty well.  They must not have any confidence in his stuff at the ML level at all.

[bjorks]

At least Nance has more than a pulse. Sign of things to come hopefully

[miller761]

With so few sellers at the deadline the competition may be fierce for guys that are available. At least this way we can see what we have in Nance and Go before the deadline. Hoping tom Pohlad is pushing Zoll to look at all possibilities to improve that bullpen.

[Permanent Twins Fan]

Diamond centric listed Tommy Nance in the Trade deadline targets thread. He is a middle of the bullpen arm for most teams, but the Twins will likely move him into a 7th inning role after Gomez and Morris. He isn't the kind of move that will blow you away, but he is definitely a major league arm and not a waiver wire pickup. He is also out of options despite being under team control untill 2029. I would guess he would be claimed if he was DFA'd. Diamond Centric's writeup is below. 

RHP  Age: 35 FA: Nov 2029 Sal: $810k

He's far from a household name and won't step into any playoff hopeful's closer role, but Nance has quietly been solidly above-average for the last two years. A late bloomer whose career has also been ravaged by injuries, he has a mid-90s sinker, but that's not the pitch that makes him good. Increasingly, he shows excellent feel for a slider and curveball that each work along the same line and seem to come from the same tunnel as the sinker, making for lots of swing-and-miss on those secondary offerings. Toronto has no financial incentive to trade him, but this kind of reliever is often moved despite having multiple years of control remaining. The reality of the aging curve and the volatility of the role Nance fills mean that he's unlikely ever to be in a position to have a greater impact or fetch more in return than he could right now. It'll be a low-wattage move, but some team can benefit significantly from adding Nance to its relief depth.

 

 

[Permanent Twins Fan]

Good start, but we definitely still need a couple more arms in the bullpen. Some relievers I would look to target moving forward are Kirby Yates (Angels), Brooks Raley (Mets), and Antonio Senzelata (Rockies). None of these guys are going to blow you away, but they should be available pretty cheaply and help bolster a weak bullpen. If the Twins were willing to give up a bit of prospect capital, Luke Weaver of the Mets seems like a great option. He would immediately slide into their closing role. 

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

Sticking my neck out to guess they put Banda on the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster, and send Adams to AAA to open a spot on the major league roster.

Abel to the 60 day. I think he may have been oh the 15 day for the last 59 days. I didn’t check 

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

b-r.com has a "leverage index" that looks at the game situation when a pitcher enters the game, saying nothing about his results once on the mound.  On the Twins, for example, Rogers (1.47), Gomez (1.46), Morris (1.36) and Banda (1.35) lead the staff in highest leverage, which sort of confirms the eye test as to when they get brought in, and also perhaps attests to Shelton's strategy to spread the opportunities around instead of having a rigid setup-closer pecking order.  By contrast, Laweryson has a very low 0;70 leverage index, again conforming to what you might expect for a pitcher of his current caliber.

On the Jays this year, it's hardly surprising that Louis Varland's usage results in a very high 1.90 leverage index.  Tommy Nance?  0.53.

John Schneider apparently has had very low confidence in Nance.  Take it for what it's worth. 

Maybe Shelton/Hawkins/Maki will work some magic with him and get good performance, when the game is on the line, that Schneider didn't feel was possible.

 From fangraphs, low generation when leaving, but better. That would likely be he didn’t stink and the team scored after his inning was over

Season	Team	Level	WPA	-WPA	+WPA	RE24	REW	pLI	inLI	gmLI	exLI	Pulls	WPA/LI	Clutch	SD	MD
2021	CHC	MLB	-0.15	-1.35	1.21	-10.02	-1.01	0.61	0.59	0.73	0.80	21	-0.06	-0.18	2	4
2022	MIA	MLB	-0.38	-3.07	2.69	-6.79	-0.75	0.83	0.68	0.93	0.94	27	-0.26	-0.20	3	7
2024	TOR	MLB	-0.65	-1.83	1.17	-0.77	-0.09	0.86	0.64	0.84	0.70	14	0.02	-0.77	3	3
2025	TOR	MLB	0.56	-1.16	1.72	8.86	0.91	0.65	0.74	0.77	1.04	21	0.17	0.69	4	2
2026	TOR	MLB	-0.02	-1.25	1.24	-3.24	-0.36	0.59	0.53	0.53	0.86	28	0.38	-0.41	4	3
Total	- - -	MLB	-0.63	-8.66	8.03	-11.96	-1.29	0.71	0.64	0.76	0.88	111	0.24	-1.13	16	19

[Brandon]

The bullpen needs to raise the floor.  Getting rid of players who implode like Adams is going to help.  We still should try to get a really good reliever.  Maybe one more after that, I don't know maybe Dan Schatzeder.... I mean Rogers will make it the rest of the way.  

I like this move as at least the Twins are making an effort.  It's hard to acquire a reliever this time of the season as teams are still evaluating.

[ashbury]

26 minutes ago, old nurse said:

Abel to the 60 day. I think he may have been oh the 15 day for the last 59 days. I didn’t check 

Quote April 20, 2026 Minnesota Twins placed RHP Mick Abel on the 15-day injured list retroactive to April 17, 2026. Right elbow inflammation. From mlb.com's page for the player, so I guess April 17 is the starting date.  17+60 minus 30 for April and 31 for May leaves, um, July 16 he "could" return. Still not sure why they didn't use Banda for the 60-day since his surgery means he's absolutely done.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

From mlb.com's page for the player, so I guess April 17 is the starting date.  17+60 minus 30 for April and 31 for May leaves, um, July 16 he "could" return. Still not sure why they didn't use Banda for the 60-day since his surgery means he's absolutely done.

 

[mikelink45]

I feel like I'm running out phrase wait and see but what else can you say for these kinds of pickups

[Danchat]

I have no problem acquiring a guy who looks to be a middle inning reliever for an at-best top 40 prospect of ours. Especially since Nance isn't a rental, though who knows how long a 35 year old reliever who's been mainly tasked with throwing in low leverage situations is going to last.