3 Twins Pitching Prospects Destined for the Bullpen

Personally I do not think shifting guys to pen for health reasons is the way to go.  Unless you plan to give them always 1 day off or more between outings.  I do not believe the way an arm works is it has only so many throws before it breaks down, maybe it does work that way, not a doctor.  

However, the modern pen guy is expected to pitch around 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of innings a starter throws.  However, they also are expected to throw in higher leverage situations, less warming up, and they have many times they will warm up and not come into a game as well.  I believe for some the wear and tear on arm can be similar.  

Now I am not saying there is not possible evidence that having a guy come out of pen will help get more overall innings over a career, and possibly more important ones as well.  However, I think most that transition well, like Perkins, it is because the limit their pitch mix and give more to each pitch.  He once said he felt he could go all out each batter because did not have to save himself for later in the game.  

Neither Sands nor Woods-Richardson are bullpen candidates right now. Chase Petty and Jordan Balazovic are much more likely to shift to the bullpen than Sands or Woods-Richardson in my opinion, not that I'd label either one of those guys as "destined for the bullpen."

Vallimont. And maybe this year. And maybe with the Twins the 2nd half.

Most pitching prospects I believe shouldn't be designated as a BP arm until they are ready to make that MLB jump. They should be groomed as SP as long as possible. But in agreement to your idea, that most pitching prospects should be exposed to some BP role (whether opener or long relief) on the MLB level before they are ready to go a full 5+ innings.

Good, we can use a lot of bullpen arms if our starters are going to be going <5 innings for the foreseeable future.

Starters on the 40 Man

Balazovic, Bundy, Dobnak, Duran, Enlow, Jax, Maeda, Ober, Ryan, Sands, Strotman, Thorpe, Vallimont, and Winder.

That is 14, We can remove Enlow and Maeda, making it 12.

So I am going to go out on a limb and say just about every prospect is going to pitch out of the pen at least to start, unless they start out in the minors so red hot and actually pitching a decent amount of innings each start. 

Duran is 24, and never really had great results in the minors and has pitched 16 innings the last two years, he is destined for the bullpen, unless you want to stretch him out in the minors (and on the 40 man) for the next two years.

Sands is 24 going on 25 (July 17th) has never pitched 100 inning but did pitch 80 last year and if he starts out hot in AAA he could come up as a starter.

SWR will be 21 all of next year and isn't on the 40 so there is no real chance for him being in the majors next year, so he should be starter in the minors all year.

On 1/25/2022 at 1:45 PM, Unwinder said:

Good, we can use a lot of bullpen arms if our starters are going to be going <5 innings for the foreseeable future.

I was curious how the IP would work out with less tradition roles.  Using these assumptions for the roster spot not necessarily a given pitcher.  3 tradition SPs averaging  4.33 IP and 4 what I will call Hybrid pitchers averaging 3IP plus 3 Two Inning RPs and 3 One IP RPs

The innings total looks like this ….