Garrett Acton Deserves Another Chance in the Twins’ Bullpen

For much of the year, the Twins’ bullpen has kept fans up at night. There have been plenty of blown leads and (perhaps most frustratingly) plenty of innings where it felt like no lead was truly safe. But since the trade deadline, that hasn’t really been the case. After adding Tommy Nance, A.J. Minter and Jeff Hoffman, the bullpen has looked stronger. By and large, later innings have been much cleaner and Derek Shelton has had more trustworthy options to turn to. As a result, Twins fans have had far fewer stressful innings to sit through—although this weekend was an ugly reminder that things are far from perfect.

In the wake of that setback, there’s someone else who quietly had a productive stretch with the Twins earlier this season, and who could make a nice addition to the back end of the bullpen. Right-hander Garrett Acton has already shown that he can get major league hitters out. Acton was acquired from the Marlins all the way back on April 2, and while his time in the majors was brief, he made the most of it. In 6 2/3 innings, he allowed just two earned runs, while giving up four hits and three walks and striking out nine hitters.

Unfortunately, Acton landed on the injured list later in April with a strain in his throwing shoulder, putting a halt to what had been a promising start. He ultimately missed about two and a half months, but after a rehab assignment that stretched across most of July, he was finally reinstated. With September right around the corner, this could be a great time for the Twins to bring him back to the majors.

The biggest reason is pretty simple: Acton’s fastball can play at the major-league level. It sits around 94 MPH, which certainly isn’t overwhelming velocity, but the pitch gets a crazy amount of run up in the zone and has proven capable of missing bats. His slider, meanwhile, doesn’t stand out when it comes to its movement profile, but it gives hitters a dramatically different look. It comes in roughly 8 MPH slower than his four-seam fastball, and during Acton’s brief major-league stint, it generated whiffs on 41% of swings against it. That combination has allowed Acton to succeed with just two pitches. Obviously, it would be unwise to look too deeply into advanced metrics after just 20 outs in the majors, but his 2.59 expected ERA backs up the idea that his results weren’t fluky.

There’s no reason to expect Acton to suddenly become one of Shelton’s primary high-leverage options, especially with the additions the Twins made at the trade deadline. Minter, Hoffman and Nance should all be ahead of him on the pecking order, and there’s no need to force Acton into a role he hasn’t earned. But that doesn’t mean he can’t help. At the very least, Acton gives the Twins another arm who can eat a couple of innings and keep the club in a game they trail by a run or two. If the swing-and-miss stuff he showed back in April is still there, he could turn into something more than that—and the timing might line up perfectly for him.

On September 1, MLB teams will be able to expand their active rosters from 26 players to 28. That allows the Twins to add another player to their pitching staff, and considering where this team is in the standings, there’s a pretty obvious argument for using that spot on someone they already know can get major-league hitters out.

The Twins are in the hunt for a playoff spot, and at this point of the season, they need their best arms available. That doesn’t mean every pitcher needs to be used in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings, but it does mean the organization should be looking for every possible way to strengthen its pitching depth. Acton deserves to be part of that conversation.

It doesn’t need to be a high-leverage role. If Acton can come into a game in the middle innings, get a few outs and give Shelton another reliable option to bridge the gap to the more established relievers, that would be valuable. If the fastball is still moving the way it was earlier this season and the slider is still generating swings and misses, the Twins might have something even better. For a team trying to find every possible advantage down the stretch, there’s little reason not to find out.

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