Are Marco Raya and Connor Prielipp Destined for the Bullpen?

The starter-to-reliever conversion is a Twins specialty. We saw it with Griffin Jax, Jhoan Duran, and Cole Sands in years past: at some point, it becomes clear that someone just may not be cut out for the rotation. That’s no insult: relievers are critical parts of any team, and the job requires a mentality that suits some hurlers better than the one needed to thrive as a starter. Today, we’ll talk about two players who have yet to pitch for the Twins, who may find themselves in the bullpen. 

Connor Prielipp
Let’s start with the Wisconsin native. His bullpen case rests on a simple premise: he’s barely pitched. As a pro, the lefty has tossed 112 ⅔ frames, with 82 ⅔ of those coming this season, his first fully healthy year in the Twins system. Even in this era of diminished inning totals from starters, that’s not a lot of work. Assuming a conservative yearly frames increase, it would take Prielipp two more seasons to build up to 150 innings, even if everything goes well.

The Twins can’t afford to wait that long: he had to be added to the 40-man roster this week. Minnesota did so, but will they want to burn precious option years on a slow buildup? Could they stomach having an in-his-prime lefty attempting to develop at St. Paul when the major-league roster demands pitching talent today? I don’t believe so. At some point, a team wants to see a return on their investment, and moving to a relief role accelerates that process. Plus, his play in 2025 wasn’t so dominant that it demands an extended run as a starter: he posted a 4.03 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. 

Place him in the bullpen, pump up the fastball velocity, and let the already elite slider continue to dominate. A lefty gets an especially big bump from that move, because he can go from facing fellow lefties 25% of the time or less to anywhere from 33% to 40% of the time. He could be the team’s best left-handed weapon since peak Taylor Rogers.

Marco Raya
Raya is a different case. He’s already on the 40-man roster; one of his options is gone. The Twins treated him with contradictory carefulness as a prospect. For years, he was rarely allowed to go past three innings, yet he was also promoted so aggressively that he was always at least three years younger than the level he pitched at. The result? Underwhelming stats, but a sense that his play was more impressive than it appeared. 

That changed this year. He was dreadful with the Saints. Headed into August 15, his season ERA sat at 6.27 across 80 ⅓ innings, and his WHIP was 1.71—each figure bloated by a ghastly 12.9% walk rate. No qualified MLB starter walked hitters at a rate that high in 2025 (or 2024).

Perhaps sensing that this was more than an ordinary case of a youngster struggling against elevated talent, the Twins moved him to the Saints’ bullpen. His final nine appearances were all in relief, though the results were mixed. His ERA and WHIP fell (to 4.91 and 1.25, respectively), but his peripherals remained largely unchanged. The walks dropped a little, but so did the strikeouts. 

He had outings like September 3, when he whiffed five over three innings, displaying the kind of whizzing sweeper that appears capable of corkscrewing big-league hitters, but he also allowed multiple runs in three of those appearances. A 33% chance of implosion is untenable.

The sample was small, this adjustment was made on the fly, he’s (impossibly) still just 23, and I believe an offseason spent preparing as a reliever should sharpen his skills. Like Prielipp, he has a breaking ball that can succeed at the major-league level. That alone could carry a relief profile. Overall, according to Baseball Prospectus, the raw quality of his pitches (release point, trajectory, velocity, movement and location, adjusted for count and batter handedness) was much better after the switch. His stuff was 0.5 runs worse than average per 100 pitches during his time as a starter, and 0.1 runs better than average per 100 as a reliever.

Minnesota has a lot to sort through this offseason. They have an abundance of young pitchers, but only a small number of them can claim big-league success in any capacity. Someone will need to move to the bullpen; several will likely make that transition this spring. If you're looking for high-impact arms who may be among that group, Raya and Prielipp are two players to keep your eyes on. They just might be pitching in late-game situations sooner than you think.