Santana Seeks To Set Tone For Rotation

Santana’s first season with the Twins was an oddity, even beyond the 80-game suspension that struck before it started.

When he returned to the team in July, the right-hander came out firing on all cylinders. In his first four starts, he pitched into the eighth inning three times, posting a 2.60 ERA and holding opponents to a .196 average.

Then, the bottom fell out. Santana fell into a slump of epic proportions over his next six starts, allowing 31 earned runs on 47 hits over 30 innings with more walks (15) than strikeouts (14). Even for a traditionally streaky pitcher like him, this dauntingly bad stretch of performance was tough to figure.

Whatever the issue, though, he bounced back and finished brilliantly, with a 1.62 ERA over his final seven turns.

Ultimately, through all of those dramatic ups and downs, Santana’s numbers at the end of the season were about what you’d expect based on his track record. But the stretches of dominance were tantalizing, and exactly what the Twins had zeroed in on when they signed him to the largest contract in franchise history back in December of 2014.

Paul Molitor has not yet announced his Opening Day starter – he said he expects to do so after Monday’s game – but all signs point to Santana getting the nod. If he continues to pitch every fifth day between now and the start of the regular season, he’ll be on the hill for Minnesota’s April 4th tilt against the Orioles in Baltimore.

It would be a first for the 33-year-old in a big-league career that launched back in 2005, but for his part, he downplays the significance.

“It would be good, one more game in the big leagues,” he said with a shrug after his outing against the Yankees on Sunday.

That start – while underwhelming on paper (5 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K) – served as a reminder of the promise that Santana offers. He attacked hitters. He induced weak contact and feeble grounders. He routinely worked at 92 and 93 MPH, even dialing it up to 96 and 97 on the radar while working off the frustration-driven adrenaline induced by a run-scoring balk.

That kind of velocity has been missing in Minnesota’s starting corps for quite some time. His average fastball speed of 92.5 MPH in 2015 was the highest of any Twins starter in the last five years save for Mike Pelfrey, who had nothing BUT a fastball (a rather straight and hittable one at that).

Santana faced 21 hitters on Sunday and allowed only two hits, both singles. And that speaks to a strength that should appeal greatly to fans of a Twins team that has allowed the most hits in the American League four years in a row. In seasons where Santana has been healthy enough to make 30-plus starts (and that’s all but two since his rookie campaign in ’05), he has never allowed more than a hit per inning on average.

In that regard, he would be a fitting tone-setter for a 2016 season in which the Twins are hoping to reverse some negative trends and take the step forward that their sizable investment in him was intended to aid.