Travis Adams is Running Out of Rope With the Twins

It’s no secret that pitching wins games in the postseason. The Twins got two sharp performances from Pablo López and Sonny Gray during the 2023 Wild Card Series, helping them secure their first playoff series victory in more than two decades. While what a team gets from its starting rotation obviously matters, the late-game pitching can be just as important once October rolls around, and clearly, the Twins realize that, too.

Minnesota added a trio of relievers at the trade deadline, bringing in a pair of former Blue Jays in Tommy Nance and Jeff Hoffman, as well as A.J. Minter from the Mets. Outside of a rough performance in San Diego this past weekend, the bullpen has been pretty sharp since those additions were made, but that can’t be said for everyone individually.

Right-hander Travis Adams, in particular, has really struggled. Since making his major-league debut last season, Adams owns a 6.54 ERA across 75 2/3 innings, with 79 strikeouts and 37 walks. Those numbers paint a pretty clear picture of a pitcher who simply hasn’t been able to find consistent success at the major league level, and at this point, it’s starting to feel like do-or-die for Adams.

Across his last 10 appearances, which have totaled 11 1/3 innings, Adams has allowed 10 earned runs. He’s also given up 15 hits and six walks while recording 12 strikeouts, making it difficult for the Twins to justify continuing to give him opportunities simply in the hopes that something eventually clicks.

That’s especially true given where Minnesota is in the season. The Twins are still within striking distance of the American League Wild Card race, meaning every game carries significantly more weight than it did earlier in the year. If Minnesota is going to make a legitimate run at October baseball, they need to know which pitchers they can trust when games get tight, and right now, Adams hasn’t given them much reason to believe that he’s one of those pitchers. They’ve largely used him in lower-pressure spots, which makes sense considering his struggles. But even in those situations, the results haven’t been there. That creates a difficult situation for Minnesota, because there’s only so much patience a team can afford to have at this point in the season.

It also just so happens that September callups are right around the corner. The Twins will soon have another opportunity to add an arm to their pitching staff, and there’s more than one name who could potentially emerge as an option down the stretch. There are already a pair of right-handed options at Triple-A in Jack Anderson and Garrett Acton, who have shown flashes of success with the Twins this season, albeit in relatively small samples. Acton brings a fastball-slider combination that can generate plenty of whiffs and keep hitters off balance, while Anderson uses his fastball to set up the rest of his pitch mix. Neither has established himself as a major-league staple yet, but both were significantly more effective during their brief stints with Minnesota than Adams has been recently.

That’s the part that makes Adams’s situation particularly interesting. The Twins don’t need to find some mystery pitcher who doesn’t exist, as they already have options in the organization who have shown they can get major league hitters out. They just have to decide when it’s time to give one of them another opportunity.

That doesn’t mean the Twins need to completely give up on Adams. He has shown enough at times to suggest there is a major-league pitcher in there somewhere, and his strikeout numbers indicate that his stuff isn’t completely inadequate at this level. His slider misses bats against righties; his changeup misses bats against lefties. But at some point, results matter more than a promising stuff profile, especially for a team that is trying to make a postseason push.

Adams cannot continue struggling this badly at this point in the season and expect to maintain his spot on a team trying to fight its way into the postseason. The Twins have spent much of the year trying to piece together a reliable pitching staff, and they’ve now added reinforcements to make the bullpen deeper for the stretch run. That leaves less room for pitchers who aren’t getting outs.

The margin for error is shrinking by the day, and Adams is running out of opportunities to prove he belongs in the Twins’ plans for October. With September around the corner and multiple potential replacements waiting in the wings, Minnesota has every reason to keep its options open. If Adams can turn things around, great. The Twins would certainly rather have another reliable arm than have to find one elsewhere, but if these struggles continue, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to see how Adams remains in the majors for much longer. At this point, his leash is only getting shorter.