Tom Froemming

I think that's easy for us to say, but if I was a superstar athlete good enough to be a hotshot quarterback in Texas as well as the No. 4 pick of the draft, still only 20-21 years old with $4.5 million in the bank and putting up decent primary numbers, I don't know if I'd be real convinced there was anything I needed to change at that point. I'm not saying that was Kohl Stewart's view, but you could certainly see a scenario in which a young man around that age would have a sort of invincibility to him. It may have been more difficult to get a guy with that mindset to buy in to overhauling some things as opposed to a 23-year-old who took some lumps and started to see some of his peers leapfrog him in the pecking order.

This is total speculation, but my guess is here's sort of how Stewart has been handled: 2013: Draft year, let's just help this kid get used to being away from home. 2014: First full season, let's get this kid used to having a game on the schedule every day. 2015: Alright, a 3.20 ERA as a 20-year-old in the FSL. Not going to mess with that. 2016: Alright, a 3.03 ERA as a 21-year-old in Double-A. Not going to mess with that. 2017: This may have been the opportune time to give him some extra attention, but the front office change and following improvements to the coaching staff/analytics department was just starting. I'm sure Stewart got plenty of instruction during this time, but not to that level that he had to being 2018. Another thing to consider is maybe the Kalks and Maiks of the organization only have so much time. I can't imagine they can do a similar meeting they had with Stewart with every pitcher in the org, even if they wanted to. Also, I think sometimes it's good to wait for a guy to fail until trying to convince him he needs to make changes. Let him learn that he's going to need to adjust. It's a two-way street. Again, that's all just a theory.

WCCO does an excellent job at covering TwinsFest. All their interviews are available on demand at their site. As far as the really inside baseball stuff goes, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Kohl Stewart discuss his 2018 season. A spring training meeting between Stewart, senior analyst Josh Kalk and minor league pitching coordinator Pete Maki set the course for Stewart to go from somewhat of an afterthought in the system to a major leaguer.Kohl Stewart on the 2019 offseason: “For the first time, with our program and what’s been implemented, I feel 100 percent confident with the plan they have in front of me and I feel like I can go out and execute it. I learned a lot last year whenever I got up in the big leagues for those eight appearances and I just feel like I knew exactly what I needed to do going into this offseason and I feel like I’m on a straight line, focused on what I’ve got to do.” Stewart on getting a shot with the Twins: “I wasn’t ready until this year. I didn’t ever buy in, I didn’t ever feel like I had a real good plan in place, I didn’t feel like I knew how to use the stuff that I had. And when I got to sit down with Josh Kalk and Pete Maki and all those guys in spring training and we talked about the one-seamer and we talked about throwing the cutter/slider off of it, throwing the curveball more often behind that, I finally felt like I was confident enough to actually be here. I never felt like that until this year.” “It’s a big hurdle. Everybody in the minor leagues, it’s always messing with your mind. ‘Am I ever going to get there, am I good enough, can I play up there with those guys?’ So to get up here and to finally experience it is pretty awesome, pretty special.” “I struggled for awhile in the minor leagues and finally this year, right after May I would say, I turned it on, I felt confident, I knew what to do on the mound, I had 100 percent confidence in what I was doing and it paid off.” “The meeting is spring training, it was so eye-opening talking to those guys. They found a whole bunch of pitchers I had similar stuff with based on movement plots and based on velocity. They basically said ‘this is how these guys use their stuff. This is how Roy Halladay uses his sinker and cutter. This is how Marcus Stroman uses his sinker and slider. Your stuff is very close, we can get it closer. We can use slow cameras, we can use the Rapsodo, we can help you create these pitches. Let’s see how these guys compliment their stuff and how they pitch.’” “So I spent a lot of time with Josh and those guys looking at that video, figuring out exactly what my plan was so by the time I took the mound in April, I knew exactly what I needed to do. And if I struggled in April and May, they said ‘look, you might go through some rough patches. This is new, it’s going to be hard for you to adjust.’ But once I had full confidence in what we were doing it was like, man, this pretty incredible.” Stewart on new pitching coach Wes Johnson: “Wes and I have talked a lot about my slider/cutter. We’re trying to get it a little bit more depth and a little bit more velocity and we think that they’ll tunnel a little bit better together so as a hitter it’ll be hard to account for those two things. Wes is pretty special at it. We’ve already talked about things like different pitch grips, moving the baseball around in my hand and how to make it happen. And we have actual data that can prove that it’s working, so it’s pretty awesome.” Stewart on heading into the 2019 season: “I never thought last year I’d be in the big leagues, but I never worried about it and I think that was why I was able to stay focused and not get too caught up in the transactions, playing GM when you’re in the minor leagues or on the verge of being in the big leagues. You just can’t get caught up in it, if you do, you’re going to lose track of what is in front of you.” “I probably will have a chance to start in Triple-A this year and I need to go down there and do my job and earn a spot. Everybody’s gotta earn it. There’s only 25 spots here and they’re not giving them away, so make them notice you.” Stewart was far from the only guy to reveal some interesting insights into what’s going on behind the scenes. Here are some more tidbits that I thought were particularly interesting: Rocco Baldelli on preparing for his rookie season as manager: “The prep that goes into everything going into the first year is kinda striking. It hits you when you realize you’re going to go over everything that goes on from top to bottom in all regards in all aspects. When you actually line it all up, it’s a lot, but it’s very important to do.” “You don’t change things just for the sake of changing them, but until you look at it all, you just don’t know. And after being in the same organization for basically my entire baseball career, except for one year, I had a lot to learn. I had a lot of people to get to know here. And trying to do all that in one offseason, it’s been a lot, but really at the end of the day the most important thing right now for me is getting down to Fort Myers and getting on the field.” “That’s actually what I’m looking forward to the most too, because I’m tired of talking, I’m ready to get out there and to watch these players.” Joe Mauer in response to a question about the opener/third time through the order: “I always say scouting reports go out the window after that first at bat. You’re making adjustments, he’s making adjustments. You’ve gotta figure out what your pitcher is capable of doing that day, not just what he should be doing.” “Brad Radke was one of the best all-time control pitchers of our game, of his time. One thing he told me that really stuck with me was out of his 36 starts, he might only have all four pitches working maybe four times. So what are you going to do when he has three pitches working? What are you going to do when he has two pitches working? So I took that as a hitter, as well, to kind of eliminate pitches.” Taylor Rogers on Eddie Guardado’s suggestion: “He pointed out one day that I could maybe throw a slider along with the curveball. So we worked on it for probably about a month or so, pregame and everything like that, and felt comfortable enough with it to bring it in the game and just got some immediate results with it. So I’m kinda looking forward to bringing ‘er back this year and working on it for an entire season.” There’s always a lot of prospects at TwinsFest. One of my favorite things about listening through all these interviews was hearing all the guys talk about the climb up through the minor leagues. Trevor Larnach on difference from college to pros: “Pro ball, there’s starters every night that go low to mid 90s or even high upper 90s. College, it’s more like maybe high 88/low 90s, they’re going to hit their spots, they’re going to try and really get you out as a pitcher. I think that really helped me out coming into pro ball. Coming to E-Town and Cedar Rapids, you’re facing some good arms every night so you kinda gotta be locked in, but at the same time, for me at least, I had the edge of an approach that I’ve developed throughout the years in college.” Royce Lewis on his first full season in pro ball: “There’s times where you can go super hard and there’s times where you can reel back a little bit. And then learning how to work off the field on your game, getting more rest, eating the right ways. I just ate Chick-fil-A all the time, that’s my favorite place to go. I started to stop eating that and started to cook home-cooked meals, so little things like that will help you get prepared for the game.” Brent Rooker on the jump from A-Ball to Double-A: “Once you get to Double-A there’s more experience on the pitching staff. The stuff is about the same as it is in High-A, it’s just a little bit more refined, they can kinda do what they want to with it. They have better pitch plans, better game plans against you, how they want to beat you, how they want to get you out. So the level of talent kind of stays the same, it’s just that those guys are a little bit more experienced and kinda have a better idea of what they want to do.” LaMonte Wade on the difference from Double-A to Triple-A: “The pitchers throw less fastballs in fastball counts at Triple-A. They have more command of all their pitches. They really know how to get you out. They’re veteran guys that have been there before. You face a lot of big leaguers rehabbing, a lot of ex-big leaguers still playing, so they know how to make outs. It’s always adjustments. It’s a game of adjustments, and I think in Triple-A you really see that.” Nick Gordon on the move up to Triple A: “It’s not so much about talent when you get to Triple-A. Everybody’s talented, everybody can play the game, that’s why they’re there. It’s about being smart, using your head and knowing situations, knowing the guy you’re facing the day before, knowing the team that you’re playing against, knowing who likes to shift, knowing who likes to do this and do that. I think really it’s about learning the game and being a student of the game is really what Triple-A brings to you.” Stephen Gonsalves on moving from Triple-A to the big leagues: “Everyone has that talent once you get to Triple-A but I think it’s that mental toughness. Guys go about their business a certain way. They all have their routines. They’re much more professional. It’s just a matter of trusting who you are as a person.” Even some of the less substantial questions and small talk was pretty enjoyable. While interviewing Lewis Thorpe, Dick Bremer mentioned that his son Eric was broadcasting games for the Brisbane Bandits in the Australian Baseball League. Bremer asked “is he eating well, is he doing OK?” Thorpe, who did color commentary alongside Bremer’s son for a few games, replied “yeah, he’s doing well, he hasn’t got eaten by a crocodile or anything like that” in his amazing Australian accent. Click here to view the article

I'd certainly entertain this idea, but I'd be more inclined to get a big-time starting pitcher if I'm trading away Kirilloff. Noah Syndergaard?

Allow me to assume the role of Derek Falvey for a moment. Just play along. We believe strongly that Jose Berrios is as good of a building block to a rotation as there is. He's still only 24-years-old and has several years ahead of him in a Minnesota Twins uniform. So we feel like that box is already checked. Top of the rotation starter is such a subjective term, what I can tell you is we think very highly of our starting pitching depth throughout the entire minor league system. Some of those players we're excited about you saw at Target Field in late 2018, others we anticipate arriving very soon. Our pitching partnership of Wes Johnson, Jeremy Hefner, Pere Maki and others are going to put those pitchers in the best possible situations to succeed. We're confident of that. As far as pursuing a top-end starter, again, we're very confident in the guys we have in place, but take a look at the Milwaukee Brewers. That was a division championship team, a 96-win team, a team that was a game away from the World Series. I'm not sure anyone in their rotation last season would exactly fit the description of top-end starter. There are a lot of ways to build a championship-caliber club. We are going to continue to be flexible, and you can certainly never have too much pitching, but we like what we see when we take a look at our in-house options. OK, how'd I do?

I think I'd give their acquisitions to date a C, at best. They've filled holes and made some improvements, so it's a passing grade, but they really haven't moved the needle much. Again, to date. There are things to like about each of the guys they added, and each of them appears to be on a good deal, but these additions won't really help push the Twins into contention for the division title in my view. The only one of them you can argue is comfortably above average for his position is Cruz. It takes 25 guys, well more than that really, so I can see some sense in a building strategy in which you focus on filling holes and improving depth as opposed to shooting for the stars. But they need to keep at it. There's really no reason not to further fill out the pitching staff. Opportunities will open up if some of the young guys are really pushing their way into the picture.

Pfff bwahahahaha, Good one jimbo, I needed a laugh. I'd bet this is a big factor in any potential extension talks. Berrios clearly believes his best days are ahead of him, so there doesn't seem like there'd be any motivation on his end to sign what would be a team-friendly deal at this point. I felt the same way. I don't agree with this mentality of "all these things could happen" that he's pushing. Sure they could, there are a lot of high-ceiling guys on this roster, but I'd still like to see some more work done to raise the floor of this team. Any of those things that could happen should just be a bonus to what you've already built up. Falvey and Levine are both incredibly good at what I'd call being slippery. They're both very skilled in answering direct questions in sly, indirect ways. I'm not knocking them, that seems to be a valuable skill for a front office these days. I felt like Falvey didn't do as much of that sliding around in this interview, and to me it sounded like he got a little fired up, relatively speaking. There was definitely some more conviction in his voice than I've heard in most other interviews.

La MaKina is setting his sights on Cooperstown. New Twins beat writer Do-Hyoung Park had a chance to catch up with Jose Berrios and ask about his goals. The entire interview is available on MLB.com. Berrios responded by starting out with your sort of canned athlete answer of it’s a new year and I just want to get better everyday, stuff like that. But then he got into specifics and it got very exciting.“For me, I want to make the All-Star Game again,” Berrios said. “I want to make 20 wins and put my team in the playoffs … I want to play in October with my team.” Alright! I’m already getting excited. Then Park asked Jose about establishing himself as an ace and how his mentality has changed since he was a rookie. “My mindset and my attitude to work everyday is the same. I want to be the best,” Berrios said. OK, now I’m getting really hyped. Go on … “I want to be in the Hall of Fame someday,” Berrios said. POW! How awesome is that!? I don’t recall ever hearing a player throw that out as one of his goals, let alone a guy who’s only 24-years-old. I love it! When we talk about leadership, this is true in baseball as well as other aspects of life, we typically are looking toward figures of authority or elders. That’s a relative term. You wouldn’t typically call a 38-year-old an elder, but in baseball terms I think that label fits for Nelson Cruz. Anyway, with his energy, work ethic and optimism, I see no reason to think Jose Berrios can’t be the leader of the Twins pitching staff for years to come. Of course, there is no substitute for experience, but Berrios is entering this season with 71 starts under his belt. By no means has he seen it all, but it’s also not like it’s his first rodeo, either. And some of the young guys are already looking up to him. Brusdar Graterol has started referring to himself as The Machine Jr. That’s awesome. Back in June, Mike Berardino asked Graterol about Berrios. Here are some of the things he had to say: “My favorite pitcher is Jose Berrios. I like the way he throws. I like how he throws his breaking ball. Oh, my God, it's impressive.” "My focus is to work out every day—every day. I need to keep my arm strong; that's the most important thing. So, every day I work on my arm. I like working hard. That's why Jose Berrios is my favorite. I understand he works every day." "Every day I watch video of Berrios. That helps me improve. Right now, I'm working on my changeup." Someday soon there may be two members of the Minnesota Twins rotation trying to pitch themselves to Cooperstown. Am I getting ahead of myself? Of course I am, but can you blame me? Listen to these guys. You gotta love it. Falvey on WCCO Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey joined Chad Hartman on WCCO Thursday to preview TwinsFest. Here’s a link to where you can listen to the entire segment. Falvey joins the broadcast at about the seven-minute mark. At around the 16-minute mark, the conversation really turned interesting and Hartman did an excellent job asking all the kind of questions that are on the minds of Twins fans. Here’s the question Hartman presented: "If I see a team that wasn’t a factor for the majority of the season in the race and then spends 30 million dollars less in payroll, it makes me think 'is this just a rebuilding year?' Where the organization is in many ways admitting by their actions in the offseason 'we don’t think this is the year we should go all in because we think we’re either not good enough right now, we’re too young,' whatever it might be. Is it fair to say you view this year as a rebuilding season?” It’s not like Falvey was going to respond by calling the Pohlads cheap and admitting the team is raising the white flag, of course, so he started his response with a lot of things we've heard before about the front office always being backed up when it comes to baseball decisions. But here's was what I thought was the key takeaway from his long response: “We’ve added to this team,” Falvey said. “We don’t look at this as a rebuilding team. We look at this as a group that, if all those things come together with our young players — that we are putting all kinds of resources around to ensure that happens — if that happens, along with some adds we’ve made, we’re going to continue to have flexibility moving forward. So I don’t fixate solely on the payroll number, I think this is a team that’s growing and developing and getting better. They’re going to have their sights set on Cleveland from the start, I know that.” Hartman asked about all the one-year deals they’ve been signing and why the team is so willing to go there when things went so poorly with similar deals last season. Falvey said the difference as the players they signed late heading into 2018 were all seeking multi-year deals, whereas the guys they’ve added this year were comfortable and saw some value in signing one-year deals. He said he views them very differently in terms of player desire and interest. Hartman acknowledge that he saw a lot of potential for the lineup to be good, but expressed concerns about the current pitching staff. He asked if Falvey believes whether or not the pitching staff as it’s currently constructed can play meaningful games in September. To his credit, Falvey didn’t side step the question, beginning his answer with “I do, and here’s why.” He went on to point out all the seemingly unorthodox ways some really good bullpens have been built of late, and specifically mentioned the 2018 Oakland Athletics. In regard to the closer role, he added that the Twins have five relievers who have closed out games at the big league level. How about those 2018 A’s? Blake Treinen went from basically your average reliever in terms of production to arguably the most dominant pitcher in baseball. Yusmeiro Petit was sort of the equivalent to a bullpen innings eater, pitching an effective 93 innings, which had to go a long way to keeping everybody else fresh. Rookie Lou Trivino burst onto the scene, Emilio Pagan was death to right-handed hitters and Ryan Buchter was untouchable against lefties. That foundation of those five pitchers ended up blending to be a deadly bullpen. Nobody could have seen things shaking out the way they did, but everything seemed to magically fall into place for Oakland. They added to that group around the trade deadline and went on to win 97 games last season. I don’t love the idea of the Twins depending on some of that magic finding their way, but if you wanted to point out an unorthodox way an excellent bullpen was built, I think Falvey nailed it with the 2018 A’s. “Bullpens are made in many different ways, and you certainly have to have different looks and different angles to the group,” Falvey said. “I’m not ruling out that we could have a chance to add to that group of pitchers, but I think that’s a group that could surprise a lot of us because of what they can do, how young they are and the chance that they could take steps forward for us.” Finally, Chad asked about whether or not Falvey really felt like they’d be making any more additions. Falvey said they have to be open to that possibility and it’s possible they might not even truly know how the team is going to round out until late March. Hartman finished with “will I see Bryce Harper or Manny Machado at TwinsFest this week?” “Don’t always believe everything you read on the Internet,” Falvey said. Click here to view the article

Here's another fun one: Jorge Polanco's last 132 games .299/.358/.478 (.836 OPS) Manny Machado's last two seasons combined .278/.339/.505 (.844 OPS) Wow.

*raises hand* "In 567 PA since then (132 games) he slashed .299/.358/.478, with 16 home runs, 84 RBIs and a 125 wRC+." That surprised me. That's a better OPS (.836) than Didi Gregorius had last year (.829) and he had the benefit of playing half his games in a bandbox. Only five qualified shortstops had a higher OPS than that .836 mark of Polanco's last year. Polanco has always been billed as a strong offensive middle infielder, but his OPS in the minors was "only" .761. Now you can make the case that Jorge is among the absolute best hitting shortstops in baseball. That'll be an even easier argument to make if Manny Machado ends up back at third base. Can Polanco keep up that pace? Tough to say, but its a sample of 567 PAs that Thieres was referencing, so maybe.

Buster was also the one who reported that Machado's offer from the White Sox was 7/$175MM, which was instantly shot down as being false. Still, the conversation makes sense. Who could be a mystery team for Machado? Given their current opportunity and payroll space, it's easy to speculate it might be the Twins.

I don't think you can make a call on Yu Darvish one way or the other yet. He still has plenty of time to make the Cubs look good. It's sorta like how people immediately thought the Twins won the Jose De Leon-Brian Dozier non trade just because De Leon got hurt. We still don't know how that one's gonna turn out, but I'd rather have De Leon than Raley/Smeltzer right now. Speaking of trades, that's a thing teams do too. One thing I'll rain down praise upon this front office for is how they've beefed up the minor league system. The depth is incredible ... trade from it. Use that as your means to improve the 25-man roster if you're so put off by free agency. Do something to go for it. Now. Why are you going to wait until you're 100 games into the season? I don't like the notion that 2019 is a building year or an evaluation year. Not with the division as bad as it is. The door is wide open. At this point I could care less specifically about payroll, I just want to see this organization really invested in trying to win the division. That's not the message coming out of Target Field right now.

I'd say he has a lot of guys to leapfrog, but then again, I'd have said the same thing about Vasquez last season. The big difference is Moran is much younger (21), but who knows how much a difference that makes? Again, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how this front office decides to handle relief guys. But to your point, Moran is most definitely a guy to keep tabs on. I actually have him in my top 30. We've talked a lot about guys going from the rotation to the bullpen, but I'd actually be interested to see how Moran could do as a starter. I think he's got three legit pitches to work with. It might be a little late in the game to try that, though he did throw 76 innings last year and got nine or more outs in seven of his appearances, so it may be a little easier to stretch him out than the average reliever.

As a way to both look back at a great minor league season and celebrate the release of the 2019 Twins Prospect Handbook, I’m shining the spotlight on a few players in the system. Let’s talk about the guys who could help out the 2019 bullpen. The 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook is available in paperback for $17.99 or as an eBook for $12.99.Before we get into it, here’s a look back at the players I’ve covered in this series so far: Jhoan Duran Alex Kirilloff Lewis Thorpe Royce Lewis Each of the previous installments of this series focuses on a specific aspect of a player's game or homes in on a particular performance. This will be more of an overview. We’re in the era of the 13-man pitching staff. Every team in baseball cycles through a great number of relievers each season, but there figure to be plenty of opportunities in the Twins’ bullpen this coming season. Relief Candidates on the 40-Man Roster The only relief pitcher who still has prospect status is Andrew Vasquez, but there are also all those starting pitchers who debuted last season who appear to be on the outside looking in. Might it make sense to give one of Chase De Jong, Stephen Gonsalves, Zack Littell, Kohl Stewart or Lewis Thorpe a shot in the bullpen? None of those guys have pitched much in relief, and some don’t fit a typical reliever profile, but it wasn’t long ago you could have said those same things about Taylor Rogers. There’s already been some talk of Fernando Romero (who is no longer technically a prospect) getting a look in the pen, maybe the Twins will consider a conversion for one of these prospects. Romero may have the most tantalizing arsenal of that group, but it's interesting to note that both Littell and Gonsalves had better strikeout rates in Triple A last season. Romero averaged 6.8 K/9 in 90 2/3 innings with Rochester while Gonsalves was at 8.5 K/9 in 100 1/3 innings and Littell had 8.3 K/9 in 106 innings. Back to Vasquez, in terms of true relievers, he ranks third on the lefty depth chart behind Rogers and Gabriel Moya. There's a great chance he'll see time in the majors again if that remains the case. The Vasquatch has dominated the minor leagues, pitching to a 1.52 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 13.4 K/9. Who’s Next on the Farm? Before we get to the prospects, there are a few minor league veteran guys who have an outside chance at working their way up into a low-leverage role. Guys like Ryne Harper, Dario Alvarez, Mike Morin, Zack Weiss and Jeffery Ames. I’m sure the Twins will add a few other relievers on minor league deals. Some of those guys won’t even last through spring training, but others will get an opportunity to show what they’ve got in Rochester. This front office seems to be intrigued by fringy relief pitchers, though they’ve mostly acquired them through waivers (Matt Magill, Oliver Drake, David Hale, Dillon Gee, Nik Turley and Drew Rucinski among others). I assume they’ll continue to be active on that front as well. The guys this front office do not seem to like are all the relief pitchers drafted in the earlier rounds under Terry Ryan. Jake Reed is pretty much the last man standing among that group. He’s 26-years-old and has 61 Triple-A appearances under his belt, so what are they waiting for? Well, behind Reed’s sterling 1.92 ERA in the 89 innings he’s pitched for the Red Wings the past two seasons is a less impressive 8.4 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. Still, production is production, and Reed should be the first man up if the front office is in the position where they need to add a relief arm to the 40-man roster. It’d be a shame if he doesn’t get a look at some point. Another name of note in Triple A is Ryan Eades. Drafted in the second round as a starter back in 2013, Eades has primarily worked out of the bullpen the past two seasons. After posting just a 6.9 K/9 in 2017, he hiked that all the way up to 10.4 K/9 last season. The really great part was that he also lowered his walk rate from 3.4 BB/9 to 2.6 BB/9 last year. Eades was outstanding in the six starts he made, posting a 0.45 ERA and 0.90 WHIP, but the longest he went was four innings. Could he be the perfect opener? Eades is 27-years-old, so there’s really no use in leaving him in the minors should an opportunity present itself. Behind Reed and Eades is another bunch of guys who’ve only reached Double A. Tyler Jay is certainly the highest-profile name among them. For me, the question is does the velocity come back? If it does, I could see Jay move up very quickly. If not, well, he didn’t exactly inspire confidence by posting a 4.22 ERA and 1.58 WHIP last season. So let’s forget about Jay for a minute. The name I really want you to come away from this article with is Cody Stashak. The Twins converted him to the bullpen last season and it was a roaring success. The 24-year-old right-hander was one of the best pitchers in all of Double A. It’s not like Stashak was a failed starter by any means. In 2017, Stashak had a 3.89 ERA, 1.10 WHIP over 16 starts. His strikeout rate was a fairly modest 7.8 K/9, but he was certainly getting the job done. Stashak was forced to the DL in late July, had a few rehab appearances out of the bullpen with the GCL Twins, then made his final three outings of the year in relief for Chattanooga. I’m not sure the reasoning behind why they decided to keep him in the bullpen, but it’s looking like a very wise decision. In 2018, Stashak had a 2.87 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 11.2 K/9. He also continued to have very good control, posting a 2.3 BB/9, giving him a K:BB ratio of 4.93. There were 289 players who pitched 50 innings or more in Double A last season. Stashak ranked fifth in K-BB%, eighth in FIP, 12th in strikeout rate and 16th in swinging strike rate. It was basically your dream scenario when you move a guy to the pen. Here’s a quick look back at one of Stashak appearances from last year just to give you an idea of who he is. This is every single pitch of this particular outing, so there’s no sugar coating involved. I’d hoped to pull some more video on him, but MiLB.tv was malfunctioning, so this also wasn’t a cherry-picked outing. It just happened to be the one I was able to get. Stashak also ended the year particularly strong, allowing just two earned runs over his final 23 innings (0.78 ERA). If he carries that performance over to this season, he may be knocking at the door for his major league debut. This front office has made some eyebrow-raising decisions with relief prospects, but most of the guys they’ve passed over had some degree of wildness. That hasn’t been an issue for Stashak. Speaking of guys who moved from the rotation to the bullpen, there’s also Devin Smeltzer, a lefty who the Twins acquired from the Dodgers in the Brian Dozier trade. He didn’t have the same type of dynamite transition as Stashak, but his strikeout rate did see an incredible jump. After striking out just 53 batters in 70 1/3 innings as a starter (6.8 K/9), Smeltzer rung up 30 batters in just 25 1/3 innings out of the bullpen (10.7 K/9) in 2018. One guy who could be a huge x-factor is Jorge Alcala. The flame-throwing right-hander who the Twins got from Houston in the Ryan Pressly trade could really rocket up to the majors if he successfully transitioned to a relief role, not that I’ve heard that’s the plan for him. Alcala made 16 starts and another eight appearances in relief in 2018, performing about the same in either role. He struck out 104 batters in 99 1/3 innings last season. Anybody who hasn’t pitched in Double A is a longshot to make it all the way up to the majors in one year, but hey, Andrew Vasquez did it. Quite a few members of last year’s Miracle bullpen were college draftees who will now be entering their age 24 or even 25 seasons. Guys like Hector Lujan, Ryan Mason, Alex Robinson, Colton Davis, Adam Bray and Tom Hackimer. If one of them really takes off, there doesn’t seem to be much reason not to fast track them, though a Vasquez-type ascent would be surprising. More than 160 players are featured in the Prospect Handbook.We had a ton of fun putting the book together and we’re really excited for people to read it. Recognizing these minor league players for their efforts and ability is a big motivating factor in the project, so we would love for you to pick up a copy. Download attachment: Handbook.jpg Click here for more information on the 2019 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook Click here to view the article

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Twins have come to an agreement with free agent left-handed starting pitcher Martin Perez. It's believed to be a one-year deal with a club option for 2020. Jon Heyman tweeted that the deal is for $3.5 million. Perez, 27, has spent his entire career with Texas and has a 4.63 ERA in 141 games. He's coming off a rough 2018 in which he was demoted to the Rangers' bullpen.In 15 starts last season, Perez had a 6.78 ERA and .186 WHIP over 74 1/3 innings. He was much more successful after he was moved to the bullpen, pitching to a 2.45 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, though that was just a sample of 11 innings. Perez was once among the top prospects in the game, topping out at No. 17 on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospect list. He made his major league debut as a 21-year-old, and his relative youth among free agents is one aspect that makes him unique. Perez has never been able to overpower hitters, as his career 5.5 K/9 indicates, but he's a groundball machine. His career groundball rate is an excellent 51.1 percent. There were only two qualified starting pitchers who topped that mark in 2018. Still, that low strikeout rate really limits his upside. That's always been curious to me, because it's not like Perez is a soft-tosser. His average fastball velocity was 92.7 mph last season, not far off from Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson while being comfortably ahead of Jake Odorizzi. But, of course, there's more to getting strikeouts than just velocity. Perez had the eighth-lowest swinging strike rate among the 173 pitchers who logged at least 80 innings in 2018. The changeup is considered his best pitch. Here's a look: Despite the fact that he's pitched in a pretty hitter-friendly environment over his career, Perez actually has better numbers at home than on the road over his career. Still, maybe there's a case to be made that he's a good change of scenery candidate. Taking a look at Perez's pitch usages over his career, it doesn't appear anybody with the Rangers ever really pressed him to tinker around. The biggest difference you see is that he threw his sinker more last year. Download attachment: PerezPitches.jpeg Just looking at that, I wonder what things might look like if Perez threw fewer fastballs and increased the usage of his changeup and slider. Just a thought. So it seems the three main positives when it comes to Perez are his youth, the fact that he's left-handed and his ability to induce ground balls. It'll be interested to hear what the financial terms of the deal are and how the front office envisions him fitting into the big picture. The 40-man roster is full, so we'll also be keeping an eye out on who will be exposed to the waiver wire once the deal becomes official. UPDATE: Jon Heyman is reporting the deal is for "about" $3.5 million. We may not know how exactly that's structured until the deal becomes official. It's worth noting that what was originally reported as Blake Parker's deal ($3.2 million) ended up being quite different in the end ($1.8 million plus incentives). Click here to view the article

Bud Norris has had a weird past couple of years. First Half (74.2 IP) 2.65 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 25.8 K-BB% Second Half (45 IP) 6.00 ERA, 1.78 WHIP, 7.5 K-BB% An obvious takeaway would be that he simply wore down as the year progressed, but there's probably more to it than that. He's definitely a guy who has piqued my interest. If you can solve that issue and help him become more consistent you could have a great weapon on your hands.

Player A 2018 4.70 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 4.56 FIP, .307 xwOBA ,89.3 avg. exit velo Player B 2018 4.71 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 4.76 FP, .285 xwOBA, 88.4 avg. exit velo A is Cody Allen, B is Gabriel Moya. Just sayin'

This new Twins coaching staff is talking a lot about rethinking the way things have been. I'd love to see them try to give relievers longer appearances and see how it goes. You don't see many relievers averaging under an inning per appearance in the minor leagues. In fact, Hildy himself averaged four ours per game in the minors. They can do it. Cranking up the length of appearances/pitches per outing would obviously mean there will be more days where certain guys will be unavailable. That means you need a deeper pen of guys you can trust. You need multiple guys you can trust to protect a lead. I think that may be the biggest obstacle in the Twins implementing that strategy.

Baseball America does such a great job at covering international signings. Here's what they wrote about Ozoria at the time of his signing: Dominican shortstop Daniel Ozoria turned 16 on Aug. 24, making him one of the youngest players in the 2016 class. Had he been born more than a week later, he would have had to wait until 2017 to be eligible to sign. The Angels added Ozoria shortly after his 16th birthday on a $125,000. His youth shows in his extremely thin, underdeveloped frame at around 5-foot-9, 135 pounds, but the actions and instincts are there for him to play shortstop. Ozoria has clean hands, a nose for the ball and can make throws on the run from different angles with an average arm. The biggest thing for Ozoria will be getting stronger, which should help his tools, including his arm and fringy speed, improve. That process could take time though, and might hold him back initially at the plate, but he does make contact against live pitching. Ozoria trained with Felito Cueto. The way I see it, this is basically a free lottery ticket. The Twins were going to lose Curtiss either way. Nice to see they got something for him, though it's not like Ozoria would crack my top-50 Twins prospects or anything like that.

The Twins may lead the league in candidates for Comeback Player of the Year. Up and down the roster and all over the diamond you can find guys coming off disappointing seasons who you can pin high hopes on for 2019. That being the case, Trevor Hildenberger has gone somewhat overlooked. It’s easy to forget just how good he was for the Twins prior to his second-half struggles last year.Hildenberger pitched to a 2.66 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 19.4 K-BB% in the first 81 1/3 innings of his big league career. He gave up multiple runs in just five of his 73 appearances over that stretch. Unfortunately, the memory of Hildy that lingers on through this offseason is his final 33 2/3 innings of last year. Trevor had a 9.36 ERA, 1.93 WHIP and 11.6 K-BB% and gave up multiple runs in 10 of his 37 games of that stretch. It was an unbelievable downswing. On the surface, it may not seem like Hildenberger’s workload went up all that much from 2017 to ‘18. He pitched nearly the same number of innings, but went from appearing in 58 games between the majors and minors two seasons ago to 73 in 2018. That may not seem like a big difference when stretched across a full season, but fewer off days means less rest, which means less recovery. That applies to both the physical and mental side of the game. There were only 10 pitchers who appeared in more games than Hildenberger in 2018. You have to go back to 2010 to find the last Twins pitcher who appeared in more than 73 games (Matt Guerrier, 74). Joe Nathan only appeared in 73 games once as a Twin, his first season with the club. Glen Perkins never reached that mark, topping out at 70. Even “Everyday” Eddie Guardado only topped 73 outings twice in his 17-year career. Hildenberger joined Kris Atteberry on this week’s edition of the Twins Hot Stove show, which you can find on the podcast page at the team’s official site. One of the topics they discussed was that heavier workload. “I think I can take a lot away from 2018,” Hildenberger said. “There were some ups and there were some downs, I think I was a little less consistent in the second half. You know, 73 appearances was a lot. I took a couple weeks off and then I got right back after it in October and I’ve been training to get my body ready for another long season and another heavy workload.” In addition to getting prepared for the long slog of the regular season, Hildy is also tinkering with the idea of giving hitters even more different looks. “In terms of specifics, I think fastball command is really big for me, I think everything starts off that,” Hildenberger said. “If I can locate my sinker down in the zone to both sides of the plate, working it in and out, and then maybe finding another offspeed pitch to throw from over the top so they don’t just sit dead red when I come over the top with a fastball.” Hildenberger threw from that over the top arm slot 6.1 percent of the time in 2018, a grand total of 71 pitches. Among those, 66 were four-seam fastballs and five were changeups, per the data available on Baseball Savant. On Jeremy Hefner’s Role The other guest on this week’s Twins Hot Stove Show was Jeremy Hefner, who is transitioning from advance scout to taking over for Eddie Guardado as the bullpen coach. Well, sort of. The Twins are updating things, and Hefner’s official title is actually assistant pitching coach. “The game is changing ... you don’t have one guy in charge of the bullpen and one guy in charge of the starters,” Hefner said. “Me and Wes (Johnson) are going to tag team. These are our guys and our group and we’re going to work together to get the most out of them.” Hefner had high praise for his new coaching collaborator. “Wes is great. His knowledge base on bio-mechanics, on pitch usage, on TrackMan stuff, on relations with a pitcher — he’s had a long track record of being able to execute on all of those things," Hefner said. “I’ve learned a ton from him. He’s going to be great for the Twins.” Click here to view the article