Can Daniel Duarte Take Another Step Forward in Minnesota Twins Bullpen?

Daniel Duarte had the raw stuff to be a decent reliever with the Cincinnati Reds in 2023, but couldn’t put it all together. Now, with a bit of Twins magic and a golden opportunity, Duarte may find himself climbing the bullpen depth chart.

Spring Training results are to be taken with a grain of salt, but his 12 strikeouts in 12+ innings were impressive, especially without a walk to temper their value. Free passes were arguably Duarte’s biggest problem in 2023. He may have walked a hitter in his regular-season debut, but he still looked like a candidate to move up the pecking order at the end of games.

On a day when everyone standing on the mound in a Twins jersey was getting knocked around by the Royals, Duarte threw two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, while allowing one hit. He showcased a slider and averaged north of 96 miles per hour on the fastball. Both pitches generated whiffs at least a third of the time. He was typically a one-inning reliever in 2023, but he held his stuff through two innings on Sunday. It may be jumping the gun based on one appearance, but what we’ve seen is a fantastic sign.

Duarte’s most-used pitch in 2023 was his sinker, which was incredibly effective in terms of overall results but only drew a 20% whiff rate. His slider was his fourth-most-used pitch. On Sunday, those two pitches traded places. The slider became a legitimate weapon, and his high-octane fastball seemed a lot more effective than it had at any point last season.

Unsurprisingly, the Twins picked Duarte up to make him a slider-first pitcher. The pitch was effective for him in 2023, but it had an extra inch and a half of vertical drop against the Royals on Sunday. The hope is that a change in pitch mix and the tweaked movement on the slider helps Duarte’s fastball play up, after it allowed a .724 SLG with Cincinnati.

The Twins have found this to be a winning formula in the past, even if the payoff is turning a player bouncing around the league into a solid middle reliever. At this point, such a development would be welcome, given the injuries to the bullpen. There is no apparent hierarchy behind Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax, but it would be a win for the Twins if Duarte could grab ahold of that job. The group will be much deeper, of course, when Jhoan Durán, Caleb Thielbar, and Justin Topa return in the coming weeks.

Duarte isn’t expected to have the upside of Durán or Jax, but he has good enough stuff to aspire to a setup man ceiling. We’ve seen the Twins succeed with these kinds of pitch mix changes, and it’s fair to wonder whether Duarte’s 2024 success has everything to do with walks. If he’s throwing 96 mph with the weapon of a slider he showed on Sunday, the only thing that can hold him back is issuing free passes.

The Twins currently have solid depth in the bullpen, even in light of their injury issues, but they could use someone taking a step forward. Duarte flashed that capability against the Royals. Could he be another under-the-radar success story?