Is Connor Prielipp's Innings Limit in the Room With Us Now?

[Cody Schoenmann]

Image courtesy of Dennis Lee-Imagn Images

Turn on Twins.TV or the Treasure Island Baseball Network (TIBN) radio feed during a Connor Prielipp-started Minnesota Twins baseball game, and you will quickly hear Cory Provus, Kris Attebery or one of the many talented analysts discuss how well Twins decision-makers are managing Prielipp’s innings this season. On the surface, the assumption that the front office and coaches are carefully monitoring the 25-year-old’s workload makes sense. The University of Alabama product threw only seven innings in his 2021 college campaign before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He then underwent internal brace surgery in 2023, delaying his first extended stint as a starting pitcher in Minnesota’s minor-league system until 2025.

Splitting his 2025 campaign between Double- and Triple-A, the hard-throwing southpaw netted 82 2/3 innings pitched over 23 starts, signaling he could soon join the parent club’s starting rotation. That assumption became reality on April 22 of this year, when the former top prospect was recalled from Triple-A, joining the Twins' starting rotation. Despite a brief 15-day IL stint in mid-July, Prielipp has remained a fixture of Minnesota’s rotation since his promotion, starting every fifth or sixth day. You could argue his stint on the IL was more about maintenance than serious injury, and he's twice had his starts pushed back one game, lengthening the rotation. Those are small safeguards for a pitcher with big injury trouble in his recent past, though.

 

Over 19 starts (functionally 20; Andrew Morris opened Prielipp’s last appearance), the lefty has averaged roughly 5 1/3 innings pitched per outing—a rate typical of an unrestricted starting pitcher. In fact, since April 22, Prielipp ranks third among Twins pitchers in innings with 104, trailing only Zebby Matthews (112) and Taj Bradley (126 2/3). Prielipp has thrown more innings than Joe Ryan (98 1/3) and Bailey Ober (87 1/3) during that stretch, though of course he's spent less time on the shelf than they have. Assessing Prielipp’s workload from a league perspective, the hard-throwing lefty ranks 34th in innings pitched among AL starting pitchers, tied with New York’s Gerrit Cole and ranking just ahead of Chicago’s Erick Fedde. Inserting NL starting pitchers, Prielipp ranks 63rd in innings pitched, tied with Cole and Milwaukee’s Dustin May.

 

Does that read as a starting pitcher on an innings limit? Again, I don’t blame Twins broadcasters for assuming that Twins decision-makers were limiting Prielipp’s workload this season. He's had just one campaign resembling a full workload in the past three minor-league seasons. I’m sure they’re monitoring his innings and are in constant communication about how his left arm feels. Yet, to suggest his innings have been limited this season would be incorrect. Going forward, I beg Twins broadcasters (and fans) to resist the urge to suggest Prielipp is pitching under an innings limit. In fact, one could argue it would be more apt to refer to him as one of Minnesota's few workhorses.

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[MeleMouth]

I sure hope they limit Prielipp for the rest of the year. Save those bullets for 2027-28.

[IndianaTwin]

Depends on your definition of what it means to be "under an innings limit." 

I've never heard the Twins say he's "on an innings limit," but they've been pretty consistent in saying things about "managing his workload." And they've subtly done it...

• His first start was in Game 24. He last pitched (as a bulk pitcher) in Game 139. Were he to have pitched every five games, he'd have 24 starts in that time period. He had a brief IL stint which cost two starts, but he's only had 20 rather than 22 one would expect. They gave him extra days on several occasions, twice going on 7 days rest, once on 8 and once on 9. By comparison, Bradley has never gone on more than five days rest, save his own two-start stint on the IL. 
• He's never pitched more than 98 pitches. (Aside: An impressive stat about his season is that he's never gotten shelled badly enough to get pulled before 72 pitches or before 4 innings.) By comparison, Bradley has gone 99 or more pitches 14 times and has averaged 97 pitches. 
• As we get to the end of the season, they used him as a bulk guy on Tuesday to lessen the likelihood of facing the more stressful top of the order three times (and strategically pulled him after 76 pitches when the game was broken open).
• They've announced Matthews, Bradley, Ober for the weekend, meaning he's going to get at least one extra day before a start on Monday. They kept Ryan to 3 innings on Tuesday night and have said he could come back on the road trip. If they were to use Ryan Monday on five days rest, Prielipp would go Tuesday on six days.
• And I suspect if they reach of the point of self-determining that they are out of the wild card chase, they will shut Prielipp down for the year. 

[PuckettPond]

Turning out to be our best starting LHP in Twins history. Konner will be his new spelling because he is a strikeout king. Within 5 seasons he will be a 25-30 game winner.

[bean5302]

If Prielipp pitches another 4 games this year, that'll still put him under 140 innings for the full season including AAA. Considering Prielipp will pitch in 28 games at that rate and average (at this pace 83 pitches). Prielipp could have gone deeper into games based on pitch counts.

I'm not sure what limiting a player means around here, but Prielipp isn't of any value to the team throwing a ceremonial first pitch in game 1 and shutting him down for the year afterwards while we can all post "preeeeeccccccious" in the forums and debate endlessly about how amazing our prospects are all going to be just as soon as we play them.

Annual innings limits have no correlation with injury. They do not help.

[Parfigliano]

26 minutes ago, PuckettPond said:

Turning out to be our best starting LHP in Twins history. Konner will be his new spelling because he is a strikeout king. Within 5 seasons he will be a 25-30 game winner.

Umm.  OK.

[Matthew Trueblood]

4 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Umm.  OK.

The sarcastic point he's making—which I assume is along the lines of "All this over a guy with a 5.28 ERA?"—is halfway valid. But I really do think Prielipp has shown all the markings of a guy who could end up as a future No. 2. 

[mnfireman]

35 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Umm.  OK.

Don't mind him.....

[Road trip]

Innings limit, huh.  

Optimistically, if he gets five more starts, he might get to about 130 innings pitched this year.

Grumpy old guy comment:  Blyleven, et al, used to hit that before the All Star Break. 

More modern grumpy comment:  Cleveland's top 3 starters all project to hit 180-190 innings this year, and all are 27 or younger.