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Before getting into that, the decision by Baldelli to send his closer out for a second inning of work was not actually the result of a new philosophical change. Taylor Rogers made nine different appearances in which he threw at least two innings during the 2019 season.
The reason for this was because the bullpen was made up of bubble gum, paper clips, and lost dreams. Also, Matt Magill. The rest of the team was performing well but the lack of reliable arms outside of Rogers had pushed Baldelli into getting creative with his relief ace. This forced a number of occasions where Rogers threw it back to the days of Goose Gossage and Lee Smith. Eventually, Tyler Duffey would prove himself to be worthwhile, and the additions of Sergio Romo and name redacted gave Baldelli the proper amount of firepower that had been lacking in the first half (just one of Rogers’ two innings outings would come after the month of July). Nonetheless, Baldelli at one point had adhered to an old-school mentality regarding his reliever use.
This is not the 2019 Twins, though. While that team lacked trustworthy arms early in the season, the 2021 Twins are seemingly overflowing with them. The aforementioned Colomé and Rogers along with Hansel Robles all had at least 20 saves in 2019. Duffey, while deficient in the save department, has the sixth-lowest FIP among all relievers in MLB since 2019 (min. 80 innings). This is all a somewhat long-winded way of saying that Baldelli did not really need to use Colomé for two innings. So why did he?
Now, Rogers, Duffey, and Robles all did pitch in the previous game, but even the most progressive manager would not use that fact as a deterrent. Relievers can still be effective on no days' rest after all. However the most crucial name on that list is Rogers. His struggles as a reliever pitching without rest have been well documented. His career ERA with zero days rest is 4.01 while with one and two days rest his career ERA is 3.26 and 3.22 respectively. Baldelli understands this and knew that Rogers on that particular day would likely not be at his usual self. Avoiding using him would be ideal.
With a good deal of certainty, I can say that Baldelli’s decision to use Colomé for two innings was an aid to Rogers. He understood that his other best relief choice in that situation simply lacks the ability to be consistently great in back-to-back games and opted instead to use his next best reliever in a multi-inning role in order to best guarantee a victory.
I believe there is a second reason behind this decision but I will admit that this one is more conjecture than anything. We know that teams will struggle in 2021 to procure the innings total needed from their starters to finish a full 162 game season after the shortened 2020 year capped how often pitchers could throw. However, there may be a similar shortcoming in the bullpen.
Relievers ultimately do not throw as many innings as starters but they just as well were not able to reach their totals from previous years. They simply have not been able to throw the 60+ stressful innings that they are accustomed to. Baldelli knows this as well. His solution to this problem looks to be to consolidate the burden onto just one or two relievers instead of running the entire group into the ground. He believed that it was better to add two innings to Colomé’s arm while he was fully rested rather than forcing another reliever to pitch without rest.
I come to this conclusion because I find it unusual that Duffey was not the one used for the eighth inning. Yes, he pitched in the previous game, but he threw a pretty negligible total of just 12 pitches. He should have been ready to go in the eighth inning of that game. Baldelli had not previously shown any hesitancy to utilize Duffey in that specific bridge-type of role. Not calling in Duffey, who has been arguably better than Colomé since the beginning of 2019, seems like an unusual decision to me. Neither reliever ultimately bests the other when it comes to platoon splits and the sample size in 2021 is too small to determine who should be more “trustworthy” based on recent outcomes. To me, there is a grander process at play.
Great stuff, Matt, you typed a lot of words but what is the ultimate point?
That’s a fair question to ask. Truly, I’m not sure. Perhaps this is way over-analyzing one singular managerial decision (it was just one outing, after all). If Baldelli fails to make a similar move the rest of the season then no one will likely remember it outside of extreme nerds and dorks. But, when someone is sent out to do something they had not done in nearly four years, well, I find that to be too interesting to ignore. The addition of Colomé has given the Twins their best 1-2 reliever punch since Joe Nathan and Juan Rincon. What will be notable going forward is seeing whether Baldelli leans on using them in succession or if he uses one to alleviate the other in order to give himself backup for the next day. Essentially, will Baldelli use both shots in one game or save the other for later? We will have to wait and see.
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