Not Everything Has Gone Wrong in the Twins' Bullpen

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The Twins’ bullpen has caught a lot of grief this season, and rightfully so.

As a unit, Minnesota’s relievers have simply not been good enough. They’re tied with the Royals for the highest bullpen ERA in baseball at 5.24, while their 1.54 WHIP ranks second-to-last in the league. It’s been an incredibly frustrating group to watch, especially in close games.

It seems like every time the Twins have built a late lead, there’s been a feeling of uncertainty about whether it would actually hold. None of this should come as a huge surprise, either. At last season’s trade deadline, the Twins dealt away several of their top late-inning relievers, and it was pretty obvious that the bullpen was going to be one of the biggest question marks entering 2026.

Sure enough, it has been.

But even with the overall state of the Twins’ late-game pitching, there have been a couple of bright spots that have really stood out. In a bullpen that has struggled to find consistency, two pitchers have quietly given Minnesota reasons to feel optimistic about the future.

The first would be the Twins’ new closer, Yoendrys Gómez. Since being acquired by Minnesota back in early May, Gómez has been awesome. Across 25.1 innings, he's posted a sparkling 1.78 ERA with a WHIP below 1.00, while striking out 24 hitters against just nine walks. Those are exactly the kinds of numbers the Twins desperately needed from the back end of their bullpen. Has he gotten a little help along the way? Maybe–his 3.04 FIP suggests he's probably benefited from some favorable luck on balls in play, and it's fair to wonder if his ERA will climb a bit over time. But even then, a 3.04 FIP is still a respectable number for a late-inning reliever.

He's missing enough bats, limiting baserunners, and consistently putting the Twins in position to close out games. Whether his ERA stays below 2.00 or not almost feels beside the point. He's looked every bit like someone capable of handling the ninth inning.

The other bright spot has been someone most fans probably didn't see coming at the start of the season–it’s rookie Andrew Morris. Morris became the first Twins prospect to make his major league debut this season, and he's been very impressive since arriving. Through his first 42 innings in the big leagues, Morris owns a 3.64 ERA with 44 strikeouts compared to just 13 walks.

On the surface, a 3.64 ERA is certainly solid, but it doesn't exactly jump off the page. The underlying numbers, however, tell a much different story. Unlike Gómez, whose ERA has outperformed some of his expected metrics, Morris' advanced numbers suggest he may actually deserve even better results than he's gotten. Both his expected ERA and FIP sit below 3.00, indicating he's pitched more like one of the better relievers in baseball than his ERA alone would suggest.

And perhaps even more impressive is how he's generating weak contact. Morris has, quite literally, been one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball at preventing hitters from squaring the baseball up.

His barrel rate and average exit velocity allowed both rank in the 90th percentile or better among qualified major league pitchers. His hard-hit rate is also comfortably above league average. That's an impressive combination for any pitcher, let alone a rookie making his first trip through the major leagues. He's keeping the ball on the ground, he's attacking hitters in the strike zone, and when opponents do make contact, they're rarely doing much damage with it. That's a recipe that tends to translate well over the long haul.

It's hard not to be impressed by what we've seen from both Gómez and Morris this season. They've each stepped into meaningful bullpen roles and produced in a year where reliable relief pitching has been hard to find for Minnesota. But perhaps the best part isn't even what they've done this year; it's how long the Twins could have them.

Both Gómez and Morris will still have five years of team control remaining after this season. They'll each have two more years before becoming arbitration-eligible, followed by three seasons of arbitration before they can eventually reach free agency. If everything continues to trend in the right direction, the Twins may have two key bullpen pieces under club control through the 2031 season.

Considering how volatile relief pitching can be, having two younger arms emerge at the same time is a pretty significant development. The bullpen as a whole still has plenty of work to do. The ERA and WHIP are too high, and blown leads have happened far too often. Those issues aren't going away because of two good individual performances.

But despite all of the frustration surrounding the Twins' bullpen this season, Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez have been two genuinely good stories. Both have looked like legitimate late-inning options, and both appear to have the talent to stick around for a long time. For a bullpen that's spent most of the season searching for answers, that's a pretty encouraging place to start. Hopefully, Morris and Gómez remain staples of this unit for several years to come.

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[Patzky]

Get Sands back and if Nance is as advertised, we are creeping the pen back toward mediocrity not disaster.

[Colbeh]

Gomez - Morris - Sands (When hes back) is the start of a decent pen.

Add in some upside with Go - Nance - Rogers (As a specialist) and maybe Rojas if he adjusts a little better

Hopefully we can get a mid rotation starter at the deadline and bump Prielipp to the BP when he gets close to his innings limit. Add another good controllable reliever if we're >500.

Then the bottom of the pen can be used trying out our youngish AAA arms and see if we can find another Morris

 

[LeatherAntenna]

Sure is a good thing we gutted the whole pen last year.

[HarmonK03]

10 minutes ago, Colbeh said:

Gomez - Morris - Sands (When hes back) is the start of a decent pen.

Add in some upside with Go - Nance - Rogers (As a specialist) and maybe Rojas if he adjusts a little better

Hopefully we can get a mid rotation starter at the deadline and bump Prielipp to the BP when he gets close to his innings limit. Add another good controllable reliever if we're >500.

Then the bottom of the pen can be used trying out our youngish AAA arms and see if we can find another Morris

 

Sounds like a lot of hope, that is a wonderful plan that every organization in every industry bases their plans around. 

[LeatherAntenna]

3 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

Sounds like a lot of hope, that is a wonderful plan that every organization in every industry bases their plans around. 

Don’t forget, faith, 

[bean5302]

Gomez doesn't look sustainable at all to me. Mediocre walk and strikeout rates, combined with plenty of loud contact. I don't like FIP without considering the type of contact. FIP treats a 100mph exit velocity 400 ft warning track fly ball deep to center the same as a 20mph roller to the pitcher or a soft infield pop up. If xFIP is going to be way different than FIP, I want to see a high pop up rate, and that's not the case here.

Tons of fly balls and not many popups. That's a recipe for a lot of home runs which is why his xFIP is 4.63. Even if I want to be generous and look to xERA, Gomez is at 3.50 with a 3.90 SIERA. He's due for major regression. He's not a prototypical closer candidate.

Morris' raw stuff is beloved by Stuff+ and PitchingBot, but it certainly doesn't seem to fool hitters much. Contact rates are high, whiffs are low, and chase rates in general, are below average. Opposing hitters haven't been able to barrel his stuff, but they're not missing by much. The pop up rate is very poor, but he's insulated from a high HR rate by the fact he generates quite a bit of ground ball results. He's an xERA darling 2.98 and SIERA 3.37 likes him as a potential setup guy. xFIP is more pessimistic at a still decent 3.71 mark. Morris gets out ahead of hitters a lot so he should be able to finish them off easier. I think he could go either way.

Honestly, it's tough to point to any Twins reliever being a trusted source of outs when it matters.

[Colbeh]

26 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

Sounds like a lot of hope, that is a wonderful plan that every organization in every industry bases their plans around. 

Life is so random that sometimes all you can have is hope. It'll work out from time to time

[HarmonK03]

1 minute ago, Colbeh said:

Life is so random that sometimes all you can have is hope. It'll work out from time to time

But I would prefer a more solid plan rather than hoping that you hit on six players.  If that is the best Zoll can do, he should be gone tomorrow.  We have no reliable guys in the bullpen with any sustainable history, other than Rogers and he is almost past the point of expiration.

[Colbeh]

22 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

But I would prefer a more solid plan rather than hoping that you hit on six players.  If that is the best Zoll can do, he should be gone tomorrow.  We have no reliable guys in the bullpen with any sustainable history, other than Rogers and he is almost past the point of expiration.

I would as well and could get behind that plan.

But we'll have to pony up during the time where RP are most expensive. That means trading away our top prospects for hopefully controllable RPers.

Seems counter-intuitive to last year but Falvey can eat rocks for all i care.

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Gomez and Morris have been really good for us this year. 

The team did a really nice job with Gomez in identifying a problem area and removing it from his game. The results have been fantastic. 

Morris seemed to be struggling as a starter in AAA, so him coming up and providing these good innings is great. 

Hopefully they can both continue to be strong performers for years to come. 

My personal opinion: If Adams is used properly as a 1 inning guy only, I think he could also be on this list. I dont have the exact numbers, but I feel like his first inning was usually fairly clean. Its when when he goes out for more that he runs into big trouble. 

[DocBauer]

Two good developments for a bullpen that needed them, and still needs more. 

Makes Raya having a nice debut and then immediately getting injured just that much more bitter hoping we might have a 3rd good developmental story. Can CJ stay healthy, continue to develop, and get some time the last 2 months to get set up for 2027?

[Patzky]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Gomez doesn't look sustainable at all to me. Mediocre walk and strikeout rates, combined with plenty of loud contact. I don't like FIP without considering the type of contact. FIP treats a 100mph exit velocity 400 ft warning track fly ball deep to center the same as a 20mph roller to the pitcher or a soft infield pop up. If xFIP is going to be way different than FIP, I want to see a high pop up rate, and that's not the case here.

Tons of fly balls and not many popups. That's a recipe for a lot of home runs which is why his xFIP is 4.63. Even if I want to be generous and look to xERA, Gomez is at 3.50 with a 3.90 SIERA. He's due for major regression. He's not a prototypical closer candidate.

Morris' raw stuff is beloved by Stuff+ and PitchingBot, but it certainly doesn't seem to fool hitters much. Contact rates are high, whiffs are low, and chase rates in general, are below average. Opposing hitters haven't been able to barrel his stuff, but they're not missing by much. The pop up rate is very poor, but he's insulated from a high HR rate by the fact he generates quite a bit of ground ball results. He's an xERA darling 2.98 and SIERA 3.37 likes him as a potential setup guy. xFIP is more pessimistic at a still decent 3.71 mark. Morris gets out ahead of hitters a lot so he should be able to finish them off easier. I think he could go either way.

Honestly, it's tough to point to any Twins reliever being a trusted source of outs when it matters.

Gomez doesn't have to look good to you. Or to me. He just has to look good to three or four batters.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Patzky said:

Gomez doesn't have to look good to you. Or to me. He just has to look good to three or four batters.

Thanks for sharing your opinion that other people shouldn't have opinions. Since nobody should have an opinion about baseball here, did you join to discuss things like who makes the best corn dogs at the State Fair?

[Patzky]

7 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Thanks for sharing your opinion that other people shouldn't have opinions. Since nobody should have an opinion about baseball here, did you join to discuss things like who makes the best corn dogs at the State Fair?

It's no really an opinion.. he just has to do the job

 

[mark allen]

8 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Gomez doesn't look sustainable at all to me. Mediocre walk and strikeout rates, combined with plenty of loud contact. I don't like FIP without considering the type of contact. FIP treats a 100mph exit velocity 400 ft warning track fly ball deep to center the same as a 20mph roller to the pitcher or a soft infield pop up. If xFIP is going to be way different than FIP, I want to see a high pop up rate, and that's not the case here.

Tons of fly balls and not many popups. That's a recipe for a lot of home runs which is why his xFIP is 4.63. Even if I want to be generous and look to xERA, Gomez is at 3.50 with a 3.90 SIERA. He's due for major regression. He's not a prototypical closer candidate.

Morris' raw stuff is beloved by Stuff+ and PitchingBot, but it certainly doesn't seem to fool hitters much. Contact rates are high, whiffs are low, and chase rates in general, are below average. Opposing hitters haven't been able to barrel his stuff, but they're not missing by much. The pop up rate is very poor, but he's insulated from a high HR rate by the fact he generates quite a bit of ground ball results. He's an xERA darling 2.98 and SIERA 3.37 likes him as a potential setup guy. xFIP is more pessimistic at a still decent 3.71 mark. Morris gets out ahead of hitters a lot so he should be able to finish them off easier. I think he could go either way.

Honestly, it's tough to point to any Twins reliever being a trusted source of outs when it matters.

Gomez perfect in save chances 11 for 11 hard to beat that.. Andrew third best scoreless streak in baseball

hard to beat that. Not missing by much give me a break.

[Brandon]

Banda has turned his season around before getting hurt.  He could return for similar money since he was hurt after the season started He was really good after getting hit hard in April and first few in May.  

[arby58]

8 hours ago, LeatherAntenna said:

Sure is a good thing we gutted the whole pen last year.

The Twins got back some important pieces, and these trades were about the future, not the present. Jax brought Bradley, our current #2 starter. Duran returned Abel, who was promising as a starter before being injured, and Tait, the Twins top five prospect. I know the Varland trade has generated the most heat - but Roden has already helped win two games, and Rojas has had his moments. Wait a bit to see how these turn out. The Escobar trade looked bad until, a few years later, Duran became a stud closer. 

[Blyleven2011]

not everything has gone right either sam  ...

we have lost a few more than we have won up till now , struggling to get over that 500 hump ...

Gomez and Morris have done alright  , Gomez has walked 10 batters already  in less than 30 innings  ...

I remember when a starting pitcher went the whole season with less than 10 walks ...

our bullpen has to stop walking batters and stop walking the leadoff hitter of the inning  ...

Get pitchers that can get hitters out that's there job ...

[stringer bell]

Saying that not everything has gone wrong is minimizing what, by many measures, is the worst bullpen in MLB. Too many guys trying to trick the hitters instead of challenging them with their best pitches. Not enough velocity or plus pitches.

That said, the success of Morris and Gomez is something to build on. Go and Nance could be needed higher leverage guys. If Sands can find his 2024 form and Funderburk his late 2025 form...yeah, I'm asking for a lot. Actually if a couple of acquisitions click and one of Sands or Funderburk goes back to being successful, there's something. It seems the line between success and failure as a bullpen arm is not much.

[Sam Caulder]

3 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

not everything has gone right either sam  ...

we have lost a few more than we have won up till now , struggling to get over that 500 hump ...

Gomez and Morris have done alright  , Gomez has walked 10 batters already  in less than 30 innings  ...

I remember when a starting pitcher went the whole season with less than 10 walks ...

our bullpen has to stop walking batters and stop walking the leadoff hitter of the inning  ...

Get pitchers that can get hitters out that's there job ...

I'm certainly not denying that not everything has gone right, I think we both know that's far from reality. The point of this piece is just to hopefully spread some optimism about the future and acknowledge that despite all of the bad, there's been a little bit of good as well.