Is It Time For Caleb Thielbar To Pass The Baton As The Twins' Primary Lefty Reliever?

Caleb Thielbar isn’t just another veteran reliever, the likes of whom the club churns through year after year. Maybe that was the team’s intention when they convinced him to delay his collegiate coaching career in lieu of one last opportunity to compete for a roster spot coming into the 2020 season, but something has kept him in their long-term plans ever since. 

Surely, the club saw something they liked about the veteran hurler, but there’s no way they expected him to become the buzzsaw that he’s been ever since. Since returning to the league in 2020, Thielbar has a combined 3.36 ERA across 174 ⅓ innings pitched, with a superb 30% strikeout rate and a very reasonable 7.4% walk rate. He’s nailed down big outs time after time, and he’s taken younger pitchers under his wing with each new season. 

But the sun will set on him at some point, as it does on all pitchers. Are we seeing Thielbar’s twilight? Have we already seen it?

It’s easy to say it’s time to pass the baton when Thielbar has an 27.00 ERA on the year, even if it is after about as small of a sample size as you can get. The veteran southpaw had a delayed start to his season after experiencing some hamstring discomfort during spring training, then coughed up three earned runs and the lead in his first game back on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. That’s not exactly the start the Twins’ brass envisioned when constructing their veteran-heavy bullpen picture, with Thielbar penciled in as a key component. 

But now that he’s back on the mound, are we going to see manager Rocco Baldelli throw him right into the fire as a primary setup option? Is he going to be the high-leverage lefty he’s been for the last four seasons? There are two major factors that should be taken into account when answering these questions: Thielbar’s age, and the possible replacements that they have in tow. 

At 38 years old, it’s hard to rely on Thielbar being the same lights-out weapon on a contending team that he has been. Can he still pitch meaningful innings if his stuff does start to (understandably) slip? Absolutely, and the Twins’ decision-makers are likely banking on that. But it doesn’t mean he needs to sit atop their pecking order when it comes to left-handed relief options, or even late-and-close situations.

In Thielbar's absence, Steven Okert performed quite admirably, albeit over a very small sample size of five innings pitched. In those five games, the 32-year-old lefty has a 1.80 ERA and is striking out 40.9% of the batters he’s faced. He hasn’t been able to get his opponents to chase as much as you’d like from a high-leverage arm (21.6%), but part of that is due to the fact that he gets plenty of swing-and-miss within the strike zone, especially with the lethal slider that he’s leaned on pretty heavily. In fact, opponents have a miss rate of 33% on pitches in the strike zone this season, which is fourth-best in all of baseball so far this year according to Inside Edge.

Kody Funderburk has been another lefty option out of the pen in this young season, and he’s passed every test he’s been given. In six games with the club, the 27-year-old rookie has a 1.29 ERA and has struck out 11 batters across seven innings pitched. He doesn’t boast the same raw stuff that an Okert or Thielbar has, but he gets ground balls at an impressive 55.6% clip and he has yet to give up an extra-base hit with his slider so far in his big-league career.

Could the Twins shift toward using these three as an equipoised committee, rather than sticking to a lefty hierarchy as they have in the past? It could mitigate the risk they incur from Thielbar regressing as he ages, and it could help keep the bullpen arms fresh throughout the year. 

Of course, the hope is that Thielbar can get back on track, and he hasn’t shown us any specific reason why he can’t do so. Besides having a spotty track record with injuries in recent years, the veteran has mostly performed up to the high standards that have been set for him. 

But the sun sets fast on a lot of players as they enter their late 30s, and the Twins should be proactive as they navigate a lengthy season that is still in its infancy, especially as it pertains to the veteran lefty who should go down as one of the best in franchise history when all is said and done.

What do you think? Does Caleb Thielbar still have gas in the tank? Should the Twins shuffle their relief plans knowing regression could be on the way? Who has impressed you most out of their bullpen so far this season? Let us know in the comments, and as always, keep it sweet.