How Does A.J. Minter Slot into Minnesota’s Late-Inning Bullpen Mix?

While other teams drag their feet toward the August 3 MLB trade deadline, the Twins got the festivities started early and pounced on a trade for Mets reliever A.J. Minter Thursday night. Minter is on an expiring deal, and is due approximately $3.5 million for the rest of the season.

Everyone and their mothers are aware that the Twins need relief pitching if they want to make a push for the postseason, even if their ragtag bullpen has been holding it together in the month of July. In fact, Minter joins a unit that's just hitting its stride. Their collective FIP was 4.19 in relief in March and April; 4.42 in May; and 5.61 in June, but it's 3.65 in July, and their bullpen ERA for the month is even lower.

Minter clearly fits into the Twins’ late-inning mix alongside Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez, two right-handed pitchers who have been trusted with the eighth and ninth innings in most recent games. The Twins have not had a trusted lefty reliever to turn to since losing Anthony Banda for the season to a lat strain; this addresses the easiest and most urgent need in their pen.

Other left-handed short relievers who have seen action for the Twins include Taylor Rogers and Kody Funderburk, who have had some bright spots this season but have been marred by inconsistency. Rogers has an ERA of 5.03, and Funderburk has skated by with a 3.52 ERA despite walking 15% of the batters he’s faced. Rogers has struggled to find his command at times, as well.

Minter, on the other hand, has been excellent at limiting walks this year, only walking two batters in 23 innings. Limiting walks to this degree is probably unsustainable, but in his career, he’s issued walks at about half the frequency as Funderburk has this season.

Multiple injury issues have limited Minter to 67 2/3 innings since the beginning of 2024. However, he’s got a combined 2.37 ERA (about 80% better than the average pitcher) during that span. It's 2.35 this year and 3.18 for his career. Given the state of the Twins bullpen, he easily slots in as the top lefty and somewhere in the top three pitchers overall. Presumably, Derek Shelton will now feel empowered to play matchups with Morris, Gómez and Minter at the back ends of games, pending further additions to the group.

The Twins have had the 8th worst ERA in baseball from their lefty relievers at 4.21, and that figure includes Kendry Rojas’s 2.76 ERA in 16 1/3 innings as a long reliever. They desperately needed to improve their lefty relief corps, particularly in light of Banda being lost.

Minter's raw stuff has been eroded by injury and age (he's 32), and he doesn’t throw as hard as he used to. In his prime, he averaged about 97 MPH on his four-seamer, but it’s been slipping since 2022. In 2026, it’s averaging about 93 MPH, and his four-seamer has been hit hard, so that’s something to keep an eye on.

Minter throws almost exclusively fastballs, throwing a cutter over half the time and his four-seamer about a third of the time. Combine those two with a seldom-thrown sinker, and fastballs make up about 90% of his arsenal. At this stage in his career, his cutter is his dominant pitch to both lefties and righties, though slightly more frequently against lefties. There’s about five miles per hour of separation from his four-seamer, and it can play a bit more like a slider. He’s also got a changeup that he’ll use against righties as a chase pitch, throwing it about 15% of the time to them.

In contrast with the tall, lanky, east-west movers that are Rogers and Funderburk, Minter is a sturdy but shortish athlete who throws from a three-quarters slot and can work north and south. His four-seamer has lost a bit of carry this season; the Twins might work with him to restore it. Still, he can stretch the zone vertically better than either of his new lefty colleagues—assuming both of them remain part of the cohort. Minter's roster spot will have to come at someone's expense; it might be Funderburk or Rogers.

From a thousand-foot view, Minter is something of an ideal pitcher for the Twins to invest in for the stretch run. He's not one of the 10 top relievers on the market this deadline, which is reflected in the modest cost to acquire him early, but he has both playoff and late-inning experience aplenty, and he fills the gap left by Banda with more left-handed talent than the Twins have had from their bullpen this season. He slots in just fine throwing the seventh, eighth, or ninth inning, depending on the situation. And he allows the Twins to focus on adding more in the coming days, without worrying about checking the lefty reliever box off of their list.

It ain’t the sexiest, and there are injury and age questions, but it’s a quality addition for a team trying to sneak into the playoffs without selling the farm.

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