Minnesota Twins Sign New Flamethrowing Reliever

This offseason the Minnesota Twins need to bring in additional talent. They will be tasked with doing so, despite limited funds. You can expect president of baseball operations Derek Falvey to get creative, when it comes to roster management.

RHP Alex Speas signs with the Minnesota Twins

On Sunday morning, he took an early stab at a low-risk high reward former Houston Astro, signing free agent pitcher Alex Speas to a minor league deal. His agency, Munger English Sports Management, shared the news.

Congratulations to @alexjspeas on inking his new deal with the @Twins pic.twitter.com/1sQvwMCiyF

— Munger English SM (@MungerEnglishSM) November 24, 2024

Speas has to be quite happy with how the free agency process played out for him. He switched representation earlier this month, and it took Munger English only a matter of weeks to find him a contract. The right-handed pitcher was a second-round pick for the Texas Rangers back in 2016.

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He is now 26-years-old and has made brief cameo appearances in the big leagues for both Texas and the Houston Astros. Coincidentally, the only big league game he pitched in 2024 came against his new employer.

Alex Speas is a hard-throwing righty known for his high strikeout rates in the minors. If the Twins can help him with his command issues, this might end up being a sneaky good pickup. https://t.co/eLkFaRe316 pic.twitter.com/F3XrKsnqra

— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) November 24, 2024

What are the Twins getting in Speas?

There isn’t much to glean from four innings at the major league level. On the farm though, it’s been a mixed bag. He has missed multiple seasons due to injury, and posted a 12.13 ERA across 29 2/3 innings at Triple-A last year.

Speas owns a career 13.9 K/9 across 171 1/3 minor league innings. That’s what the Twins are clearly trying to harness. The problem is that the strikeout rate also comes with an 8.4 BB/9 tally. Speas sat at 98.5 mph on his fastball last year for the Astros.

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No one has been able to figure out the control issues yet, but this signing looks like a more aggressive project along the lines of Hobie Harris a year ago. Maybe Minnesota can strike gold and make it work.