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The Minnesota Twins made big news in the past week by signing free agent Josh Bell, and then formally announcing a drastic shakeup to the franchise's ownership structure. Outside of that, however, it's been fairly quiet on the offseason front. Most notably, the club has yet to take serious action on its most clear and pressing need: the bullpen.
Cole Sands, coming off a disappointing season, is accompanied by Justin Topa as the only veteran relievers in the mix. Kody Funderburk seems likely to return. Outside of that, the Twins entered this winter with essentially an open slate.
They acquired Eric Orze, coming off a solid age-27 rookie season with the Rays, in a low-wattage trade. He's lined up for a spot. More recently, Minnesota brought in two right-handers with major-league experience on minor-league deals: Grant Hartwig and Dan Altavilla.
It's easy to see why fringy free agents like these would be drawn here. Aside from the four aforementioned names — who are all shaky in their own ways — there's nothing standing in the way of major-league bullpen spots other than the likes of Travis Adams, Pierson Ohl, John Klein, Marco Raya and Connor Prielipp. I'm sure the Twins are planning on turning to all of those guys at some point, but there's no need to feel compelled to rush any of them. In many cases, these young pitchers could stand to get some true relief experience in the minors after largely working in starting or hybrid roles in the past.
Yeah, the Twins will probably add a more established reliever or two via signing or trade, but I doubt they'll go much beyond that in terms of MLB contracts. Investing heavily in the bullpen would clash with the philosophies this front office has held strong to, and also, incoming ownership figurehead Tom Pohlad made clear that big spending is not in the cards. Plus most of the top free-agent relievers are off the market already. Flexibility is going to be the point.
I don't want to paint it as a good thing that the Twins are so short on dependable, proven major-league relievers. It's not. But there are some advantages in creating this stage of opportunity. We've seen plenty of instances where the Twins had an exceptional relief pitcher in hand — Jeff Hoffman, Yennier Cano, Ronny Henriquez — only to let him slip away because they couldn't afford the patience to stick with him through struggles, or to give him innings ahead of more accomplished arms.
That's not going to be much of an impediment in 2026. The Twins will take an experimental approach and hope it yields success stories that actually take root here instead of elsewhere. But again, this comes with major downsides from a perspective of short-term competitiveness. While the trial-by-fire formula can eventually lead to a high-quality, cost-efficient relief corps, it is pollyannaish to believe that's going to take hold immediately.
For every Hoffman, Cano and Henriquez, there are many more borderline pitchers with hints of upside who flop and never figure it out. The Twins had to go through many misfires to land on the deep, methodically developed bullpen that they unloaded at last year's deadline. On their way to figuring out what works in a completely reinvented unit, we're going to have to endure some pain.
Any baseball fan knows how much a terrible bullpen can sabotage the fortunes of an otherwise capable team. That's the big paradox facing the Twins, and as Tom Pohlad framed it more broadly, "the needle we're trying to thread this year."
I have no expectation that the Twins will be terribly ambitious in adding to their bullpen over the remainder of the offseason, but I'm eager to see how creative they can get. One way or another, it should be an adventure.
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