Turning to Anthony Swarzak to Save the Twins Pitching Staff

The philosophy behind starting pitching usage has dramatically changed over the past few decades, but relief roles are more or less the same. There are starters you hope can at least give you five innings; relievers who go one inning (maybe two once in a blue moon); and basically nothing in between.

The 2026 Twins should explore that area in-between.

A Near Change of Course
Once upon a time, it appeared the Twins were going to start to break free from the restraints of the modern pitching staff. Back in November 2021, former Twins GM Thad Levine said this:

“I think with the challenge comes opportunity. We’re going to be as creative as we can be in terms of not being necessarily hemmed into the notion of, 'It has to look exactly the way it has always looked.' We may end up looking at this from the lens of how many multi-inning guys can we add to a staff and how far does that take us?”

Nick Nelson reacted to that news here at Twins Daily at the time, and some goofball named Tom shared his thoughts in the comments: 

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Some team is going to do it eventually. Once one finds a way to get it right, I think it won't be long before this is just normal …

There's been a lot of exploration in the big leagues the past decade but it's still pretty paint-by-numbers when it comes to bullpen/reliever usage.

 

So What Happened?
The situation changed from winter, when Levine made those comments, to spring.

The Twins' bullpen stunk in 2021, and they were coming off an 89-loss season. It was easy for the Twins front office to see a tough road ahead. Then Jhoan Duran returned from missing most of the 2021 season, converted to a bullpen role during spring, and completely dominated (salute to the 2022 Sire of Fort Myers). Griffin Jax, who was mostly an afterthought after failing as a starter, also blossomed in a relief role.

Those two breakouts and an unexpected 30-21 record through May caused the course to change and the Twins to stick with a conventional approach to the pitching staff. The rotation influenced that decision, as well, with the addition of Sonny Gray and the emergence of Joe Ryan. At the time, it was the right call …

But What About Now?
Levine is long gone, but the org should revisit this idea. A glass-half-full view of the 2026 Twins is that they’re only two games out of a playoff spot and shouldn’t jeopardize any chance they have by experimenting. A glass-half-empty view is that the Twins still have four teams between them and a Wild Card spot, and this pitching staff is currently a hot mess express.

To their credit, the Twins have already started tinkering with the recipe which they tried to follow to open the season. Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis were demoted. Brooks Lee has moved off shortstop. Kody Clemens is… playing some center field!?!?!?

Things have also changed on the pitching side, but that’s due to need, more than anything else. This bullpen was always going to be an adventure, but the rotation being decimated by injury has really junked the overall pitching formula.

Navigating this current pitching staff through games may be the most challenging task any manager across baseball faces. Derek Shelton needs an Option C, beyond just starting pitchers and primarily single-inning relievers.

Enter the Swarzak
I’d like to introduce a new stat I’m naming after former Twins great Anthony Swarzak.

The elements of a Swarzak are:

1. A relief appearance.
2. Of more than two innings (seven or more outs).
3. On fewer than four days' rest.

I took to Baseball-Reference’s Stathead search to get some info on how often these outings occur. Through May of this year, there were 127 Swarzaks across the majors, with six for the Twins. Meanwhile, Nationals reliever Brad Lord has seven Swarzaks, himself.

Over the past five seasons, the Twins have totaled 39 Swarzaks. The Giants had 32 of them just in the 2022 season, which is the single-season high in that sample. That Giants team had only two pitchers make 20-plus starts, which tells you what kind of team ends up trying to reengineer the bullpen. Unfortunately, it’s easy to envision that also being the case for this 2026 Twins team.

Let’s Take a Moment to Remember Some Guys
In the Target Field era (since 2010), Anthony Swarzak leads not only all Twins in this metric dedicated to him, but all of baseball. Swarzak had 39 Swarzaks. The second-place Swarzaker had 30 (T.J. McFarland). Swarzak’s single-season high was 12, which he accomplished twice and is one off from the single-season record from this period.

The Minnesota Twins' all-time (since 1961) leader in Swarzaks is Bill Campbell with 62; nobody else even has 50. The other guys with 40 or more are (let's play Remember Some Guys!): Señor Smoke, Juan Berenguer, with 48; Tom Burgmeier, with 46; and Mike Trombley, with 45. Campbell also holds the single-season Twins record with 29 Swarzaks in 1976. I was shocked it wasn’t Mike Marshall, who had “only” 16 Swarzaks for the 1979 Twins.

So, there’s a good case this stat should be called a Campbell instead, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. 

Challenges of Building a Bullpen with Multiple Swarzaks
1. Leverage.
If you use one of your arms in a Swarzak, he’s not going to be available for a few games. Having a paint-by-numbers bullpen makes things incredibly simple for a manager. Trying to play jazz with it is sketchy and creates opportunities for second-guessing. 

For me, this concern blows up any notion of completely eliminating roles or general usage expectations. I think a bullpen still needs at least four arms reserved for higher-leverage work, who almost exclusively throw single innings. That way, you have those guys ready to deploy when you need them the most.

2. Adoption and implementation.
This one is a distant second, but everybody would need to be on board. The front office, manager/coaching staff, and players would need to be on the same page about this approach. For some guys, disrupting the rhythm and predictability of their current role is not going to go over well, at least at first.

3. Deviation is dangerous.
If this strategy is implemented and fails, everyone is eventually getting fired. There’s a reason why nobody has really given this strategy a try, and I don’t think it’s because teams have universally determined it’s not going to work.

So Where Does That Leave Us?
I still feel strongly that a team is eventually going to build a staff with a bunch of Swarzaks and become trendsetters. It just might not work out the first time it’s attempted. Don’t expect this revolution to come from a contending or high-payroll team. This is going to come from a forward-thinking team with a zig in mind, when everyone else is zagging.

It’s easy to think of the Tampa Bay Rays in that regard, and they have produced a number of Swarzak-type guys. But why not us? Jeremy Zoll isn’t even supposed to be at this stage of his career. As a guy not even in his 40s yet, he figures to have a long career in baseball ahead, even if things eventually turn sour here. Shelton might be on his last legs as a manager, and he’s painted into a corner with this current pitching staff. Why not experiment? What’s there to lose right now?

Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley and Zebby Matthews figure to be good sources of innings, but we’re already seeing Connor Prielipp struggle to hold up to the demands of pitching on a major-league starter’s schedule. Mick Abel is working his way back, but they’ll want to handle him carefully. The same can be said about Bailey Ober, Kendry Rojas and David Festa, whenever they return from the IL. 

The Twins Are Already Experimenting
John Klein and Mike Paredes are among the faces of a new strategy the Twins have been tinkering with down on the farm. A few pitchers are regularly throwing four innings (or at least that’s the intention) every four days. These are still primarily starting pitchers, allowing them to work on a schedule as if they were in a traditional rotation rather than an unstructured mop-up role.

This approach has well-positioned those arms to become Swarzaks. It’s starting to appear that Marco Raya, C.J. Culpepper and Alejandro Hidalgo may start ramping up in similar roles with the Saints, as well.

But What Would This New Pitching Staff Look Like?
If we map things out as the active roster is currently constructed, it’s not going to look all that appealing, to be honest. There’s just no way of getting around the reality of the situation. This pitching staff is in trouble, and there is no magic wand.

Let’s do it anyway. Here’s how things would look with the current active roster.

• Traditional starters throwing every fifth game: Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, Zebby Matthews
• Starting every sixth game to lighten his load: Connor Prielipp
• Swarzaks: Andrew Morris, Travis Adams, Mike Paredes, Cody Laweryson
• Traditional single-inning/high-leverage relievers: Yoendrys Gómez, Anthony Banda, Taylor Rogers, Eric Orze, Justin Lawrence, 

If this strategy were implemented, it would probably be wise to drop Lawrence and replace him with another Swarzak-type guy like Klein, Raya or even the recently acquired Austin Voth.

Again, it’s not the prettiest picture, but it’s a way to navigate through a chunk of your schedule when you only have 3 3/4 starting pitchers—not three third or fourth starters, but 15 fourths of a credible starting pitcher. Even when some of these guys on the IL return from injury, it’s not as if they’ll be able to provide much length for a while. A fully staffed version of this plan may have Rojas and Festa as Swarzaks. Maybe even Ober would be in that role. Cole Sands would join the high-leverage group, and Abel could be on a similar schedule as Prielipp, at least when he first gets back.

Conclusion
I’m sure most everyone is going to hate this idea, and I get it. It’s fun watching aces pitch deep into games on a regular basis. Those guys are increasingly difficult to find.

Rob Manfred would also hate this idea. Aces are marketable. He’s floated out the possibility of implementing rules that would incentivize teams to leave their starters in longer. In the past, MLB had the Atlantic League test out teams losing their DH if their starter didn’t go at least five innings.

The Players' Association would probably hate this idea, too. A lot of the earnings structure for pitchers revolves around starting or throwing innings. This might suppress pitcher salaries to some degree.

Heck, I’m sure several of the players and coaches would hate this. Regardless, in the context of the 2026 Minnesota Twins, I think it’s a worthwhile experiment. Long live Anthony Swarzak.