Scouring the Market for a Capable Left-Handed Reliever

That's a good list Nick, with a diversity of cost.  I'm not sure what Chapman would cost and he's not the elite guy he once was.  But he still strikes guys out at an impressive rate and he's got tons of closing experience.

If I was to give Griffin Jax a chance at joining the rotation, I'd be very interested in Chapman.  On the days that Duran would be unavailable to close, Chapman could fill in.  Otherwise, Chapman could fill the 8th inning role if Jax was holding down the SP #4 slot. 

If the Twins somehow add a SP who is talented and not very expensive (there's a very short list of these, but not even a handful of pitchers who could fill this profile) and you kept Jax as the 8th inning guy, Chapman fills the 7th inning and you've got a plethora of power arms to cover the 7th, 8th and 9th.   

Bummer would be the clear #2 choice for me.  I think instead of signing 4 fringy guys like last season, adding ONE quality arm, especially if LH, would be a solid strategy.  This way, Funderburk and Moran don't have to be counted on, but if they perform they are critical, quality depth.  Someone like Varland could be groomed to be a 2 or even 3-inning guy.  Sands and Alcala provide quality arms on what would be a deep BP.

But it won't matter who we sign if Rocco doesn't have a bullpen plan with clearly determined roles for his pitchers.  Duran only closes.  Jax/Chapman close on days Duran is not available etc...

Duran will never have a season like Emmanuel Clase for the Twins until we put him in the same role as Cleveland puts Clase.  CLOSER !!  

40 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

But it won't matter who we sign if Rocco doesn't have a bullpen plan with clearly determined roles for his pitchers.  Duran only closes.  Jax/Chapman close on days Duran is not available etc...

Duran will never have a season like Emmanuel Clase for the Twins until we put him in the same role as Cleveland puts Clase.  CLOSER !!  

I don't understand the obsession with pigeonholing relief pitchers into certain innings. A relief pitcher's job is to pitch. The numbers on the scoreboard shouldn't matter. Go into the game and hit your spots with your pitches.

Adding one good player doesn't keep them from adding 4-5 fringy players. Fringy players don't really cost anything if they're brought in on minor league contracts.

I also think Rocco needs to give our pitchers clear cut roles. That way they can be prepared and know when they're going to be needed. I've got to believe the consistency will improve performance. I'd love it if we could get Chapman. He still strikes out a ton of guys and having him hurl heaters from the left side is a look our pen hasn't had in awhile. As for starters, I think we should go after Mathew Boyd. He proved he was healthy through the end of the season and pitched well in the playoffs. He's a lefty starter which we also haven't had in awhile and he should be within our price range. Another positive is we wouldn't have to instantly rely on Festa or Mathews, they could start the year in AAA, finish their development and find a groove before their next call-ups.

Unfortunately finances will cloud every single article and discussion posted here about potential candidates to fill certain roles.

When it comes to the bullpen, I am hard pressed to believe the team will invest dollars into a position that is volatile by nature, especially when there are more pressing needs.  The true difference makers here will be grossly priced out of the Twins market.

I would expect to see the Twins offer MiLB contracts to any number of pitchers and see what sticks.  Another possibility is a low-end, make-good contract or old-guy, hanging-on contract

Nice article, and a decent list of names. I'm not sure we can afford to sign a good free agent. My belief is that the Twins would have better shot at an effective LH reliever via trade. The guy we missed out on during the last trade deadline was Puk, as a couple posters have pointed out in the past. He sure didn't seem to cost much in prospect capital.

I don't remember the last "scary" lefty pitcher we've had on the team - it's been years though. Puk would likely have been that.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Prielipp develops.

Caleb Ferguson interests me; I'm not too worried about his "down" season this year. the peripherals still look solid, and it's possible that throwing his cutter more will increase his effectiveness. twins have shown a solid ability to boost pitchers by tweaking their pitch mix. I hope other teams are scared off by the "down" season so we can afford him. he's still under 30 and doesn't get killed by RH, so he seems like a good fit, even if he's not historically pure death to all LH hitters.

I'd be in on Bummer too, but I suspect Atl picks up the option. be great if they don't!

Moran and Prielipp are intriguing options to me for internal choices, and maybe Funderburk can get it together, but I'm hoping the Twins have signed at least one more proven LHP for the bullpen. It's easily their biggest need that's not needing to be in fantasy land with their self-imposed payroll limitations.

If the front office was smart enough overall stay away from players that had tommy john surgery hasn't worked out for them 

Only one problem here...the Twins piggy bank is made of an impenetrable substance. No money, no players.  

I don't get it. We have a problem, the solution is FA? 1st we need to extend our own. It seemed to me that Rogers liked it here, we know him & how to use him. Why not lock him up, avoid FA & we have our LHRP? Why now looking for FA to fill this need? Now that it didn't happen the best solution was to trade for Pukk. Now that this didn't happen we need to look for another LHRP to trade for. IMO the reason that we are looking at FA is because Falvey has no idea how to initiate & close a trade deal. Therefore the big push for FA is because we can't depend on another FO to drop a trade into Falvey's lap. 

The owners have limited the budget, so Falvey wanting to jump into FA means that we'll have to cut muscle again to pay for it. Although there is some fat to cut, I don't trust them to see it. We have a lot of redundancy in the system that will cause roster problems ahead of the 5 draft. Why not go to the well trade off that redundancy? Our biggest problem wasn't the budget cuts that we couldn't dip into FA, It was the lack of relevant trades that actually filled our needs. Falvey will have to figure it out soon because the condition is worse. Sorry, but my outlook for the Twins, that found postseason success in '23, is to decline further because the true problem has not been resolved, 

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

People are human with stress factors and emotions which get mixed into their thought processes. Joe Nathan talked about not wanting to close because of confidence issues when he returned from TJ. There is extra pressure associated with closing. It's all on the pitcher, no chances to come back, etc. Many pitchers have talked about the added stress of closing or the benefits of knowing their position and their job rather than just being tossed around in the bullpen and never knowing what's coming next.

When is it not stressful to pitch to major leaguers? Why would we want any pitchers who only want to pitch when it isn't stressful? I want pitchers who want to get the best batters in the world out.

It is nonsensical that we have to keep Duran as the closer (even if he's not effective) because he's "comfortable" there. When they're checking on free agent relievers are they asking them which inning they're comfortable pitching and not obtaining three sixth-inning guys and nobody for the seventh inning? What if you have five effective relievers who say "I only want to pitch if I'm closing". Do you trade four of them for less effective pitchers who only want to pitch lower stress innings in the seventh and eighth innings?

Maybe the next time Duran needs to pitch in the 8th they can just change the scoreboard to make it look like it's the 9th and he'll be fine. They can even play his entrance song so he's more comfortable.

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Find some quotes to that effect. The quotes I've seen from pitchers is they prefer some form of routine. Aside from that, I don't think I've ever seen anybody advocate for anything other than setup/closer roles. I'm not advocating for anything; just repeating what pitchers have talked about in the press.

They also liked the "closer" role as it evolved into 1 inning, 9th inning guy, in a save situation because it maximized their value on the market, because teams were substantially over-paying players for the save stat. So a lot of that also had to do with money. But the league as a whole has (correctly) gotten away from treating their "closer" as a 9th inning save guy to going back to the classic fireman role where the best reliever slams the door on the heart on the other teams lineup regardless of whether it's the 7th, 8th, or 9th inning. 

Which actually isn't a new strategy at all, more a repudiation of what developed in the 90's.

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

That's just 1 inning. Relievers are now used from the 6th through the 9th. What about the other 3 innings people want guys locked into? The guys in the bullpen know what's coming next without knowing whether they're throwing in the 6th or the 8th. They know they're throwing against hitters X, Y, and Z. Which allows them to study those hitters, know exactly how they're going to attack those hitters, and be as prepared as possible for those specific hitters instead of having to be prepared to face any of hitters 1 through 9. 

The "new" roles of pen guys actually takes more stress off the lower guys in your pen because you're not just putting them out there to face the 3-4-5 hitters in a 1 run game in the 7th because they're the 7th inning guy. You're going to a higher leverage guy there because you're playing matchups instead of the inning. The human and stress factor is actually taken more into account in today's strategy than the strategy so many fans want to go back to.

There you go, giving credit that people actually think things through 

the thing someone doesn’t understand is the new routine is to be prepared to face certain parts of the order

Looking through Sportrac’s list of free agent left hand pitchers who made less than .5 million about the only name that had a somewhat decent season was T.J. McFarland.  Looks like it is minor league signing types. 

Scott Blewett and Aaron Bummer in our bullpen, why not? If only Grant Balfour was still pitching we'd have the law office of Blewett, Balfour, & Bummer.

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Humans like routine, and baseball players are human. It's not just relief pitchers; there are many quotes every year about players wanting to play a specific position or wanting a specific role like a starter wanting to pitch deeper into games and how a specific role impacts them mentally or physically in their preparation.

I would like to employ the pitcher who says "I want to go into the game and get people out" and not employ the pitcher who says "I only like pitching in the seventh inning because the number 7 is a little sexier than the number 6 but less scary than the numbers 8 or 9."

Have been thinking since their season ended that a lefty reliever may be their biggest need that actually gets filled.

But if money is as tight as it appears, what might be most likely to happen is a trade for a youngish lefty reliever.  Also believe that Moran just might be another candidate to solidify their 2025 bullpen.  He went under the knife, didn't he?  Does anyone know when he is expected back?  Always thought highly of him, and maybe his control problems were somewhat related to his injury.

We always want to compare to the Guardians bullpen, but all of you have forgotten one important element to the comparison:  Carl Willis vs. Pete Maki.  Carl Willis is the master and until he retires, we will not be in the same league as him and that is nothing against Pete Maki as a coach.  I would love to see the Twins sign a strong LH FA and then let Moran, Funderburk, and Headrick try to make the team as a second LH reliever.  As for the bullpen order, it seems like the successful teams had a mid-leverage fireman that could get them out of an inning and also be used for an additional inning or two from the 4-6th inning.  If this was a normal organization, resigning Theilbar may be alright.  But I don't trust Baldelli or Maki with Theilbar and he will be used similar to this year and be a cop out to not signing a better LH reliever.  FInally, we also need to figure out what to do with Paddack.  Idk if he becomes that length fireman out of the bullpen or use him as a 5th starter.  I'm sure he would be the 5th starter since Festa and Matthews have options, but I'm not sure he is better than either of them at this point.