One Way or Another, It’s Time for the Twins to Change Their Marco Raya Plan

Many on TD were saying this spring that the Twins hold back all of their young pitchers too much, mostly saying Raya and Festa. It's not true. Turns out Festa was only held back in April and probably to save some innings and pitches for later in the year, when he would hopefully be with the Twins. The Twins treat Raya different than any Twins MiLB pitcher I know of. If Raya succeeds, you will see a lot more treated like him. It's interesting.

So what to do? Ask Derek Falvey. We'll no longer be shrouded in mystery.

Unless Marco Raya has a history of arm trouble ("good mechanics" sounds just the opposite), then why not raise his pitch count? If his arm starts to fail, then back off and consider his role as a reliever. This doesn't seem like a difficult choice. 

Looking at Charlee Soto, he has thrown 68 and 72 pitches in his last 2 games.  This makes me think this is more of a Raya-specific concern than a general strategy for developing HS pitchers.  I've significantly downgraded him as a prospect for this reason

The unique usage of Raya can only mean there is a unique reason. He is the only one handled this way. There has to be a method to the madness. Why is it such a secret?

I've never understood the fascination with Raya, much less the usage.  He doesn't appear to do well in his short stints, which gives me little faith in him even as a reliever.  I would never have had this guy in my top 20.  I think that requires doing something first, unless maybe you're granted one free ticket due to being a first-round pick.

The response variable we're ultimately looking at is getting results in MLB.  It would seem a required antecedent of that would be getting results somewhere prior to MLB.

I'm sure glad I grew up in a time that had pitchers consistently throw over 7 innings and 100 pitches. I wonder how much Verlander's career would have been different with Falvey running the organizations he pitched in.

10 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

but the usage is significantly different than anyone in the organization. They have other guys his size and age.

For me, that remains the biggest puzzle. Why is Raya seemingly the only one that is being handled in this manner? No recent injury issues, so this innings limit still seems a bit TOO cautious. But, as others have posted, we just have to trust the powers that be, who are paid to know more about these things than us lowly fans. Still, it would be nice to get more clarity on why he isn't being allowed to pitch deeper into games at this point in his career. 

7 hours ago, bean5302 said:

The level of kid gloves the Twins are using with Raya is pretty concerning. The only conclusion I'm able to come to is his performance during games drops off fast. I think moving Raya to the bullpen and shortening the length of his appearances is warranted.

That may be what happens. Someone else mentioned Griffin Jax as an example of a starter turned into an effective relief pitcher, so that may be what happens with Raya. At this rate, I can't imagine him turning into an MLB starter for a long time. 

The Twins should give an explanation of how they are handling Raya. Are there injury concerns or some other issue that they are keeping quiet. Is Raya’s smaller stature an issue? Why not let the fans know why they are so cautious. 

 I am 100% behind how the Twins develop their pitchers. IMO they are tired of getting pitchers like Canterino & Prielipp shot even before they start pitching in the organization. To achieve a top pitching prospect they need to start from the ground up & manage correctly their young arms to maximize their health & outcomes. Raya is slight and has shown signs of future injuries. Therefore the limiting of his pitches yet still advancing him through the system. Twins are slowly increasing his innings, Raya has some problems with control so I wouldn't recommend increasing his pitch count either until he rectifies this.  When the time for him to be added to the 40-man due to either need or time & still hasn't reached the adequate pitch count of a SP then bring him up by all means as an opener or RP. I would not abandon the plan. Raya is too valuable.

They are following the same plan with Soto, He'll get more innings because he's bigger & stronger than Raya. But the idea of managing his young arm is the same.

12 hours ago, SaberNerd said:

Looking at Charlee Soto, he has thrown 68 and 72 pitches in his last 2 games.  This makes me think this is more of a Raya-specific concern than a general strategy for developing HS pitchers.  I've significantly downgraded him as a prospect for this reason

I think that's fair. I'm leaning that way as well, because we're talking about AA at this point. It's not like we're talking about a guy still down in Ft. Myers. There's only 1 stop left in the minors and if he's not going to ever get a starter's workload even at AA, then maybe it's time to shift him to relief. He turns 22 in about a month, so it's not like he's a kid any longer either, and they're going to have to make a 40-man decision on him soon too.

Must be something in the medicals with him, which would be a bummer. But harder and harder to see him as a starting pitching prospect.

They are treating Raya very similar to how they treated Duran, but even more restrictions. I fully agree they either need to let him be a normal starter and pitch into 5th going through rotation 2 plus times, or just transition him fully to a pen roll and move him up that way. 

I can get wanting to build up a guy slowly while you make adjustments to things, but three years of this is crazy if you really want him to be a starter. 

I think there's really no need to rush his development with his young age and our starting pitching depth ahead of him on the pecking order. I think they slowly up his pitch counts throughout the year. He may eventually have to be a long reliever , bullpen guy, but until then starters are much more valuable. I think if the Twins target a starter at the deadline this year Raya would be a pitcher to deal, along with Severino who's positionally blocked at the major league level but is absolutely smashing at St Paul. Severino, Raya and some other AA prospect might get us some much needed pitching help  I'd throw Kepler in that mix too since we're losing him at the end of the year anyways. Wallner can take his spot easily.