Trevor May Is Thriving In The Bullpen

The above graph from Brooks Baseball provides a visualization of May's pitch velocities over the course of the 2015 season. You can see that since the 25-year-old switched gigs upon Ervin Santana's early-July return to the rotation, he's added substantial heat to each of his offerings – most notably the fastball, which has recently been sizzling in at more than 95 MPH.

The increased gas has unsurprisingly coincided with heightened effectiveness for all of May's pitches, and that has been reflected in his results. Over the past calendar month, he has made 12 relief appearances and hasn't allowed a single run. The only damage that's been dealt against the righty during that span was in a spot start against Cleveland, when he gave up a couple runs in three innings.

Every time May trots out to the mound in the late innings, he looks more and more comfortable. His numbers are growing increasingly dominant as he acclimates to his new duties. Here in August, he has faced 33 batters as a reliever and allowed only five hits, with 13 strikeouts and one walk.

It's becoming quite clear that May is one of those starting pitchers that uncovers a new level of performance pitching in shorter stints. Such players are not all that rare. Kansas City's Wade Davis is a familiar example. But of course, Davis had exhausted his opportunities as a starter, delivering 64 starts worth of mediocrity in Tampa before the Rays finally decided to try him in the pen. That hasn't been the case for May. Most would agree that his demotion was undeserved, and you can make a pretty good argument that he's pitched better as a starter this year than anyone currently in the rotation.

And so the Twins face an interesting conundrum going forward. Right-handed relief will probably still be a prioritized need in the offseason as they gear up for true contention efforts in 2016, and May is looking like their best bet. He has the makings of a lights-out setup guy in front of Glen Perkins.

Meanwhile, the rotation is already shaping up to be a bit crowded with Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco, Kyle Gibson, Jose Berrios, Tyler Duffey and maybe Tommy Milone all in play.

As is always the case, May can be a far more valuable player as a quality starter than as an excellent reliever. It seems ridiculous to give up on his arm in a role where it can make a far greater impact, and it also seems quite unfair to him. He'd prefer to start and has done nothing to forfeit that chance other than pitching his ass off in relief.

But with all things considered, one can see the appeal of committing to him as a late-inning weapon and dramatically lessening some of the club's ongoing bullpen concerns.

What say you?