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When Twins fans woke up Sunday morning, the team was still littered with fringy infielders on their 40-man roster, including Kyle Farmer, Austin Martin, Jose Miranda, and Nick Gordon.
By mid-day, that all changed. Gordon was dealt to the Miami Marlins for left-handed reliever Steven Okert. Okert’s name has been one writers had advocated for the Twins to pursue as far back as the summer of 2022, long before Gordon has garnered similar interest from the Marlins. Now both players are being traded to fill in the remaining holes on their new teams’ depth charts, just days before the start of Spring Training.
Taking a glance at both the Twins’ and Marlins’ 40-man rosters, this trade made a lot of sense for both teams. The Twins have a plethora of relief arms but (until now) a dearth of left-handers in the bullpen. The three left-handed pitchers on the Twins' 40-man were Caleb Thielbar, Kody Funderburk, and Brent Headrick.
Funderburk and Headrick are coming off their rookie seasons and have only thrown a combined 37 2/3 innings in the majors in 2023. The two had different outcomes during their first year in the bigs, but no matter how either had looked, their inexperience makes it hard to stack them behind Thielbar, the only lefty guaranteed to be in the Twins bullpen on Opening Day.
Thielbar is entering his age-37 season, an age at which players typically see regressions in their performance. There is no clear indication this will be the case for Thielbar in 2024, but if he does end up regressing (or continuing to battle injury issues), the Twins need another lefty outside of Funderburk and Headrick to back him up in the bullpen.
Enter Okert, a 32-year-old, six-year veteran who is under team control for three more seasons. Okert, like Thielbar, has had two separate stints in the majors, separated by a lacuna of multiple seasons. His first shot came with the Giants from 2016 to 2018, for whom he made 70 relief appearances but only completed 48 innings of work across the three campaigns.
In 2021, Okert made it back from the brink of obsolescence. The Giants had let him languish (with ugly surface-level numbers, although still-impressive peripheral ones) for all of 2019 in Triple A, which opened the door for him to become a minor-league free agent that winter. He didn’t sign with anyone before the world and the league shut down in 2020, and only signed a minor-league deal—without even the near-standard courtesy of an invite to the big-league camp—with Miami the following February, He threw 15 games with the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and posted a 1.80 ERA. The Marlins called him up on June 30, and he stuck in their bullpen for the following two and a half seasons.
Okert will be a good contrast to Thielbar in his primary pitch types on the mound. Thielbar is known for his four-seam fastball and curveball, while Okert’s main pitchers are a sinker and slider. The Twins have been well known for pursuing pitchers who make heavy use of sliders. Okert fits that bill, having thrown his slider 625 times in 2023.
Before acquiring Okert on Sunday, the Twins had only pursued right-handed relief arms to bolster their bullpen this offseason. They have added a considerable number of arms this winter compared to others, but Okert is the first left-handed reliever the Twins have traded for or signed on an MLB deal since Zach Duke in 2018.
Amid the slow-moving offseason, Derek Falvey, Thad Levine, and company have not hesitated in adding relievers who will serve a short or long-term role in the bullpen this year. Okert’s arrival, coming just when we might have surmised that the pen would be complete, underscores their commitment to getting the reliever mix right.
The Marlins had eight outfielders, but their everyday center fielder, Jazz Chisholm Jr., has only played 95 games in the outfield in his career. Gordon played 166 games in the outfield between center and left in his three seasons in the majors, and acquitted himself well there.
Before this trade, the Marlins lacked a solid fourth outfielder who can play multiple days in a row at multiple positions if need be. Avisaíl García is limited to a right field/designated hitter-type role at this stage in his career. Bryan De La Cruz and Jesús Sánchez had solid 2023 seasons that have earned them full-time roles in the corner outfields, but neither is yet a sure thing.
Gordon comes in as the first man to fill the void for any of his new teammates if they are either hurt or in need of a day off. Plus, he will see more playing time at second base than he would have if he stayed with the Twins, as he returns to serve as a backup to old friend Luis Arráez.
Arráez will still see playing time at both first and second base in 2024, and the Marlins do have a budding prospect at second base in Xavier Edwards, who had a .295 batting average with the team in 30 games in 2023. Gordon being added to the platoon mix will give Arráez more time off his feet (as necessary) and allow Edwards more time to grow into a full-time major-leaguer.
While Twins fans and teammates of Gordon will miss his role as a clubhouse hype man in 2024, he will have a fresh start in Miami—a chance to break away from a 2023 season that brought a frustrating combination of struggle, setback, and as far out as a curse put on by a fan.
Okert may not be able to fill that excitement void, but the role he fills is one at which the Twins have had a longtime need: a second left-handed reliever capable of being on the team all season.
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