3 Starting Pitchers the Twins Could Turn to Down the Stretch

[IndianaTwin]

Prielipp is listed as the starter for Friday, followed by Kremer and Ober Saturday and Sunday. Anticipated would be Matthews and Bradley on Monday and Tuesday.

Prielipp then would be scheduled to come back on Wednesday. If they want to skip a start for innings preservation, that is the time to do it. Skipping Prielipp for a spot start from Marquez/Rojas on Wednesday, followed by Thursday's off day, would lead to Kremer, Ober, Matthews and Bradley on Friday-Monday on five days rest. Prielipp could slot back on Sept. 1 on 10 days rest.

(That doesn't take into account a potential return from Ryan somewhere in there.)

[jimbo92107]

Rojas has just beautiful stuff, but Marquez has that veteran stability that might rub off a bit on the rest of the pitching staff. 

[HarmonK03]

44 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Prielipp is listed as the starter for Friday, followed by Kremer and Ober Saturday and Sunday. Anticipated would be Matthews and Bradley on Monday and Tuesday.

Prielipp then would be scheduled to come back on Wednesday. If they want to skip a start for innings preservation, that is the time to do it. Skipping Prielipp for a spot start from Marquez/Rojas on Wednesday, followed by Thursday's off day, would lead to Kremer, Ober, Matthews and Bradley on Friday-Monday on five days rest. Prielipp could slot back on Sept. 1 on 10 days rest.

(That doesn't take into account a potential return from Ryan somewhere in there.)

And how can you operate down one in the bullpen.  

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I would have really enjoyed seeing a push to have Riley Quick’s name mentioned here. I don’t think it’s necessarily plausible, but Toronto did bring up Trey Yesavage last year for the playoff run. I mean, the chance that Quick pitches in the majors this year isn’t negative, right? It probably is 0,8%, but still :)

Based purely on watching Riley Quick in his last four outings, I believe he would have a heap of trouble in The Show. He threw quite a few fastballs right down the middle and got away with hanging several curve balls. The command is not there yet. Quick has a fantastic arm with great movement/stuff. He could develop as soon as next year. Right now? I doubt it.

Trey Yesavage has/had a really good splitter and benefitted from that and his unfamiliarity to batters.

Kendry Rojas could be our (new) guy in September.

[ashbury]

6 hours ago, Coach JT said:

I was surprised we didn’t give Trevor Bauer a call . A guy who basically is willing to play for free to get one more shot. I think he has done his penance and why not take a look at him in AAA. 

"Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed."  He's suffered a penalty; he's expressed exactly zero regret or change of heart, only self-justification.  Don't want him on my team.

[Cory Engelhardt]

33 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Based purely on watching Riley Quick in his last four outings, I believe he would have a heap of trouble in The Show. He threw quite a few fastballs right down the middle and got away with hanging several curve balls. The command is not there yet. Quick has a fantastic arm with great movement/stuff. He could develop as soon as next year. Right now? I doubt it.

Trey Yesavage has/had a really good splitter and benefitted from that and his unfamiliarity to batters.

Kendry Rojas could be our (new) guy in September.

Rojas is so exciting. Just more strikes thrown, and he will be good

[IndianaTwin]

4 hours ago, HarmonK03 said:

And how can you operate down one in the bullpen.  

In some variation of how they handled it earlier in the season when they gave him as much as eight days off. 

I'm not suggesting a permanent move to a six-man rotation -- that would be particularly ill-advised with nearly every Thursday off between now and the end of the season (though having that many off days also contributes to a bullpen reset in its own right). It could mean giving him a single bullpen outing in that stretch. It could be making it a one-game callup for whoever gets that start. Rather than a full 10 days, they could give him eight and start him in the spot a listed Matthews, giving Matthews a couple extra days. They could even consider optioning him -- it's not like he's been lights out recently. And they are getting an extra bullpen guy on September 1. 

There's virtually always other moving parts around injuries and such. At some point they're going to be (hopefully) clearing a spot for Ryan, etc. 

[JDubs]

21 hours ago, Coach JT said:

I was surprised we didn’t give Trevor Bauer a call . A guy who basically is willing to play for free to get one more shot. I think he has done his penance and why not take a look at him in AAA. 

Two gigantic reasons why not. Off the field, he's an unrepentant rapist and just an all-around ******* that every teammate he's ever had seems to hate. On the field, he sucks **** as a pitcher. He's been getting hit around on by second-division Japanese players for the past couple of years.

[Patzky]

3 hours ago, JDubs said:

Two gigantic reasons why not. Off the field, he's an unrepentant rapist and just an all-around ******* that every teammate he's ever had seems to hate. On the field, he sucks **** as a pitcher. He's been getting hit around on by second-division Japanese players for the past couple of years.

Josh Bell would box his ears.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

If you would have told me that Lopez would miss the entire season, Abel would miss most of it, and Ryan would be out for a period of time starting in late July, I would have thought 90+ losses for sure. Amazing how they've been able to cobble together a rotation.

[HarmonK03]

48 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

If you would have told me that Lopez would miss the entire season, Abel would miss most of it, and Ryan would be out for a period of time starting in late July, I would have thought 90+ losses for sure. Amazing how they've been able to cobble together a rotation.

We don't know yet what impact Abel would have had on the season.  He could have put up Sim type numbers or could have been closer to Bradley.  We did need someone to give innings and he probably would have done that after looking good his last two starts.  But unfortunately we still don't know what we have in Abel.

[bean5302]

On 8/20/2026 at 7:33 AM, Coach JT said:

I was surprised we didn’t give Trevor Bauer a call . A guy who basically is willing to play for free to get one more shot. I think he has done his penance and why not take a look at him in AAA. 

I don't have any issues with Bauer, but he certainly hasn't looked great in the Mexican League recently and he sucked last year in Japan.

Bauer made things pretty interesting to start the year in Indy Ball, but his fastball is frequently down in that 92mph range early in games. Against better (still not MLB caliber) players in Mexico, Bauer's been much less successful. He's probably the best starter on the team, but certainly not amongst the best starters in the league there.

You'd have to look at a few things.

One, is he good enough to be effective at the MLB level? That's pretty questionable.
Two, is he good enough to push a different Twins starter out of the rotation? That seems far-fetched.
Three, is he good enough to be a playoff rotation starter at the MLB level? Pie in the sky.

MLB baseballs are different than Japanese, Indy League or Mexican league balls so Bauer would need to sign, show up to the team, adapt to different pitch movement for the baseballs and prove he's got enough in the tank before 9/1 to get called up.

Putting aside his performance risk on a minor league contract (basically zero). Bauer is basically in the Kaepernick zone. There is a legitimate case by the league to argue Bauer's just not good enough, and there's a legitimate case that since Bauer is publicly willing to sign a no-risk MiLB contract and there's some track record to suggest he might be good enough that there's no good reason no team is taking a chance. Bauer's team mates have largely supported his return after he was exonerated again and again. I'm surprised the MLBPA hasn't gotten involved too much in this, but that probably speaks volumes in regard to the evidence they've seen.