The Minnesota Twins and the Death of the Innings Eater

So far this winter, Minnesota fans have watched the St. Louis Cardinals collect former Twins starters at an incredible rate. Sonny Gray, last year’s runner-up for the AL Cy Young, is the one who garnered the most attention, but let’s look at the team’s other two additions. Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn signed one-year deals for a combined $24 million, to slot into the back of St. Louis’s rotation. The Cardinals lacked starting pitching depth last season, and it has been the biggest part of their offseason blueprint. However, they might be collecting an endangered species of pitcher. 

Last week, Chad Jennings of The Athletic wrote about the innings eater, defining them as “a back-end starting pitcher who rarely dominates but regularly pitches deep into games.” He described how starters are encouraged to maximize their effort, which minimizes how often they can go through a lineup. He further defined an innings eater as a pitcher who throws at least 180 innings with an ERA+ of 100 or worse. Gibson and Lynn met these criteria last season, and many projections will point to them compiling similar numbers next season. 

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has a reputation for using a quick hook with his starting pitchers, but that wasn’t the case in 2023. Minnesota starters finished with the fourth-most innings pitched (895) and were only 6 2/3 innings from the top spot. Some of Baldelli’s reputation is tied to the type of starting pitchers who have been on his roster in recent seasons. The Twins front office hasn’t valued innings eaters highly, because they understand that starters typically perform worse when they face a lineup for a third time.

Let’s examine recent Twins teams to see which players were closest to fitting the innings eater criteria outlined above.

Last season, Joe Ryan was the closest thing to an innings-eating pitcher for the Twins. In 2023, he threw 161 2/3 innings with a 95 ERA+, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of his season. He was a borderline All-Star in the first half, with a 3.70 ERA, a 1.01 WHIP, and 10.4 K/9 IP. His second-half numbers suffered (6.09 ERA, 1.48 WHIP), as Ryan attempted to pitch through a groin injury. Minnesota has higher hopes for him in 2024, and there’s no reason to put him into the innings eater category.

The 2022 Twins didn’t have a pitcher throw more than 147 innings. Dylan Bundy pitched the second-most innings on the team (140) behind Ryan, and had an 80 ERA+. Minnesota had to continue using him, because there weren’t any other options in the season’s second half. Bundy didn’t have any major-league offers last winter and signed a minor-league deal with the Mets in March. He’d only make six appearances for their Triple-A affiliate, and his professional career is probably over.

Minnesota’s pitching staff was a mess during the 2021 season, with the front office signing J.A. Happ and Matt Shoemaker to fill what they hoped would be innings-eater roles. Instead, Shoemaker posted a 65 ERA+ in 60 1/3 innings, before being demoted to Triple-A. Happ pitched nearly 100 innings with a 63 ERA+ and was moved to St. Louis at the trade deadline. Only three Twins pitchers tossed over 100 innings (Jose Berríos, Michael Pineda, and Kenta Maeda), and none fit into the innings eater category.

In 2020, the shortened season made it hard to evaluate which pitchers were used as innings eaters. The Twins had a pair of pitchers close to meeting the innings eater criteria during the 2019 season. Martín Pérez posted an 89 ERA+ in 165 1/3 innings, while the aforementioned Gibson threw 160 innings with a 94 ERA+ in his final season with the Twins. 

Innings eaters haven’t been a priority for this front office. They value pitchers making it through the early innings and turning the game over to the bullpen for the middle frames. Since Derek Falvey took over the front office (2017), there have only been six times when a starting pitcher threw more than 180 innings in one season, and none had an ERA+ below 100. (Obviously, though, the truncation of 2020 and the hangover effect on pitcher workloads league-wide in 2021 contributed to that.)

The innings eater has been dead in Minnesota for quite some time. Will teams continue to value pitchers who soak up innings without being above-average? Can the Twins add someone to fit this role for 2024? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.