Justifying the Pursuit of Another Reliever
You really can never have too much pitching
The Minnesota Twins have a full 40-man roster. This has been true for a while now, with the Twins even opening up a spot for recently-signed infielder Donovan Solano by moving starter Chris Paddack to the 60-day IL.
The Twins have the option to do the same with Royce Lewis if they choose to, though they may want to maintain that flexibility moving forward through spring training, depending on how some other things shake out.
Matt Canterino could also be placed on the 60-day IL, but that would start his service time clock. And while that isn’t necessarily a huge consideration for a player who probably won’t throw his first big-league pitch before the age of 26, teams don’t just needlessly do things like this, typically.
The Twins could save the Lewis roster spot to add a non-roster player to the team to start the season. Someone like Willi Castro comes to mind, especially if the Twins were to have some kind of injury this spring that necessitates any sort of addition on the position player side.
But with the additions the Twins have made, that doesn’t seem terribly likely.
So with that said, I’m of the mind the Twins should still add another reliever.
Let’s consider a few things. First, KSTP’s Darren Wolfson said the Twins had maintained some interest in Brad Hand. Hand graduated from Chaska High School in 2008 — as you’ve perhaps heard by now — and was a second-round pick of the then-Florida Marlins that year.
The Marlins used Hand as a starter and later in his tenure, a bit in relief, but nothing ever took and by age 26 he was on his way to San Diego, where he broke out in a big way. Hand had a 4.71 ERA in 288.2 career innings with the Marlins (with just 5.9 strikeouts per nine and 3.7 walks per nine); with the Padres the next parts of three seasons, he had a 2.78 ERA in 195 games (all in relief) and fanned 11.8 batters per nine innings — a run he continued to Cleveland before things went a little sideways after that.
Now, he’s heading into his age-33 season, and is coming off a season in Philadelphia that was more fine than particularly good. The 2.80 ERA in 45.0 innings looks good, but he fanned just 7.6 batters per nine, walked 4.6 per nine and held a WHIP of 1.33 and a FIP of 3.93. Luckily he suppressed home runs (0.4 per nine) because numbers like this will typically have a pitcher on the up-down to Triple-A (a luxury not afforded to a pitcher with Hand’s service time).
But to be fair, Hand didn’t have appreciable platoon splits last season — which can be a big-time bugaboo for lefties who don’t throw in the upper 90s.
Righties had a .637 OPS against him, including a .344 on-base percentage (eek) but just a .293 slugging percentage (that’ll work). Lefties had a .686 OPS against him, which will also work.
But it’s not necessarily about Hand, specifically.
MLB Trade Rumors lists the following relief pitchers still as free agents:
Like any free-agent list, once spring training has started, there’s plenty of driftwood here but also plenty of big-league experience. Bradley is just a few years removed from being a high-octane reliever for the Diamondbacks. Giles was in the discussion for best reliever in the game at one point, as was Knebel.
Richards threw hard enough as a starter that he might be interesting. Robles is a “been there, done that,” but his stuff will keep getting him work until he doesn’t hit 95 anymore.
On the left side, Britton is coming off major arm issues that have limited him to just under 40 innings over the last three seasons, but when he’s right he’s as nasty as anyone. Even when he’s not, he still induces grounders at a crazy rate (66.7 percent over his career). Smith’s home run issues lately are concerning, but his slider-heavy repertoire would seem to endear him to the Twins.
Nevertheless, this isn’t just about Hand. This is about the fact that the Twins should probably be in the market for another reliever — and who knows, maybe they wouldn’t even need to use the 60-day roster exemption for Lewis for this purpose, and instead could sign one of these guys to a minor-league deal and bypass the 40-man decision for now.
The main reason I’m honing in on relief help right now is that there are just so many variables when it comes to building a bullpen that the Twins need to leave no stone unturned in their path to building the best relief corps they can.
Last season, the bullpen was set up to be decent but not all that great with Taylor Rogers (before he was traded), Tyler Duffey, Caleb Thielbar, Jorge Alcala and Cody Stashak with guys like Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Jhon Romero and others in the mix but in no way certain to contribute.
The Twins swapped out Rogers for Emilio Pagan in a move that also netted them Paddack — we needn’t forget this — but was panned early when the former Twins southpaw got off to a great start with the Padres before things fell apart a few months in. Meanwhile, Pagan was pretty much a rollercoaster all season long and, arguably, single-handedly responsible for some of the most season-crushing losses of the season.
And when he wasn’t in those spots, sometimes it was guys like Tyler Thornburg and Jharel Cotton getting victimized. Guys like Juan Minaya, Yennier Cano, Cole Sands, Ian Hamilton and Austin Davis proved to be ineffective.
In fact, most of the good that came out of the bullpen last season should have been, in no uncertain terms, completely unexpected. Duran had perhaps one of the best seasons by a Twins reliever ever. Jax went from uninspiring starter to a late-inning bulldog. Thielbar turned around early-season struggles and was basically unhittable late. Trevor Megill looked like he had some of the pieces to be a factor in a big-league bullpen. Jovani Moran flashed good velocity and a nasty fading changeup.
But it was the guys who were counted on to contribute who fell apart. That trickles down even to Jorge Lopez. I still have high hopes for Lopez, but after making the All-Star team in the first half, he was M.I.A. for the Twins after the deadline with an uninspiring 4.37 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and ugly 1.29 K/BB ratio. Michael Fulmer was OK but not great after coming over from Detroit, and by that point in the season, it was pretty much all over for the Twins, anyway — even if nobody in charge was ready to admit it.
Alcala and Stashak were both bit by the injury bug, with the duo combining for just over 20 innings of relief total before their seasons ended extremely prematurely.
And don’t get it wrong; I think this bullpen is almost a 180 from last year’s unit to start the season. Duran is a monster. Jax and Thielbar are solid. I’m still big on Lopez, and beyond that, the Twins have a stable of live arms that can be dreamed upon.
But let’s take a look at the bullpen in terms of option years, thanks to Roster Resource:
I happen to think that’s a very good bullpen, but there are plenty of option years at play here. There’d be no reason for the Twins to feel bad sending Moran or Megill over to St. Paul to make room for a veteran like Hand or Bradley.
And if those guys don’t pan out, it’s nothing wagered, nothing lost with the two guys just a hop, skip and a jump away. It’s easy enough to go the route of the veteran looking to ride the dead-cat bounce. When that doesn’t work, you can go to whatever youngster is performing the best down on the farm.
The problem lies in handing the job to the youngster sight unseen. When that player fails — as many do — the team is left scrambling to find another youngster who also may need time to find their footing. At that time, the only veterans available are whoever is on waivers or the chopping block, a la most of the relievers mentioned above when things got dicey near midseason last year.
The odds that someone like Bradley, Smith, Hand or any of the others listed above coming in and transforming the bullpen altogether are virtually nil. But adding someone who has thrown some big innings and won’t look like a fish out of water if they have to throw a tight spot in the sixth or seventh inning because they’ve been there before is hardly reinventing the wheel.
The Twins have the roster spot; there are still a few interesting, if not wholly uninspiring options left on the market.
I still think they should add another reliever; we’ll see if they agree.