Rocco Baldelli believes a pitchers arm will fall off after 80 pitches

— Vikeologist™ (@Vikeologist) April 13, 2022

See, the Twins relied more on relief pitchers last season than almost any other teams in Major League Baseball. They had the 2nd fewest “quality starts”, as a staff, and allowed their starters to go just 4.8 innings per game, the 4th-lowest average in the MLB.

Rocco Baldelli Vows to Change

That’s a bold strategy to deploy when your bullpen is terrible, which theirs was. And some fans (a loud group of them) have grown so frustrated with how Rocco manages the pitching staff that they don’t even want to hear about how deep a starting rotation of Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and a healthy Kenta Maeda looks on paper. ‘What does it matter if they aren’t allowed to pitch beyond the 5th inning?’, they say.

Well, Rocco Baldelli has a message for those fans. He agrees and told reporters on Wednesday that the Twins plan to pitch their starters much deeper into games this season.

“I expect more out of our starters this year than we had last year,” Baldelli said. “We have several guys that, what they do and what they probably take most pride in, is giving you a good, deep effort into a ballgame. Some guys that are not satisfied giving you five good innings. They want more than that out of themselves. … We want these guys to make it difficult on us. We want them to keep pitching.”

Quote via The Athletic

2023 Starters > 2022 Starters

Why the change? Well, according to Rocco, last year’s team didn’t have the starting rotation talent to pitch deep into games on a regular basis. Looking back — and this doesn’t absolve him of anything because the bullpen was bad too — he was probably right.

A decrepit Dylan Bundy and crumbling Chris Archer to go along with youngsters like Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober, wasn’t a recipe for late-inning success. Even historically reliable late-inning starter, Sonny Gray, had horrible numbers when left to pitch deep into games last season. Even if he did get upset when pulled early.

Baldelli wants starting pitchers to carry Twins

As pointed out earlier, starting rotation talent isn’t something the Twins lack in 2023. It’s a staff that is stacked with starters who have already proven themselves at this level. Because of that, Rocco expects big things, even going as far as saying he wants the staff to carry the team, this summer.

“I told our guys, I want our pitching staff to carry us this year,” Baldelli said. “I told them every great team that I’ve ever been with has had great pitching. When you look around our clubhouse, you have to prove it first. None of these words ultimately are going to get us where we need to be. But we have a chance to have a great staff, I really do (think). But (live bullpens) and discussion and boasting doesn’t get you anywhere. You’ve got to do it starting on game one, one win at a time.”

Quote via The Athletic

No matter what the reasons were for why Rocco Baldelli pulled starters early in prior years, he appears on a mission to change that in 2023. We’ll see if that proves true.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

Minnesota Twins players will arrive in Fort Myers throughout the weekend and all are expected to be in town by Sunday. Opening Day will be April 7 at Target Field. This is a pro baseball team, however, that’s far from being ready to compete in just 27 days.

Pitching Please

Yes, the Twins could use a starting-caliber shortstop. Neither Jorge Polanco nor Nick Gordon are answers for the game’s most difficult defensive position (outside of catcher). Reeling in a nice DH and/or backup centerfielder would be welcomed, as well. But what the Twins NEED, if they hope to compete in the AL Central, is pitching. Mostly, high quality, front line starting pitchers. At least two of them.

Outside of their latest reclamation project, Dylan Bundy, the Twins don’t have a starting pitcher on roster with more than 126 MLB innings under his belt (baseball-reference.com). If forced to list five guys in order, I guess it’d be:

1. Joe Ryan – 26.2 IP
2. Bailey Ober – 92.1 IP
3. Dylan Bundy – 770.2 IP
4. Randy Dobnak – 125.2 IP
5. Lewis Thorpe – 59.1 IP

Falvey’s Pitching Promise

Shortly after baseball’s return was announced, Twins’ President of Baseball Operations, Derek Falvey, told media that he and the front office are determined to address their extreme need for proven arms.

Pitching is the top priority, as usual. The Twins have been impressed, during two weeks of minor league camp, by their pitching prospects, some of whom could reach Target Field this year. But with a rotation that currently includes righthanders Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan, who have thrown 118 major league innings combined, plus reclamation project Dylan Bundy and Randy Dobnak each coming off the worst year of their career, it’s too risky to count on the kids.

“We need some veteran presence too, so that’s going to be a focus of ours here,” Falvey said. “We’re going to contact as many teams and agents as possible to work that market.”

Derek Falvey (via Star Tribune)

Better Late Than Never?

Mr. Falvey conveniently forgot to mention one important point when he spoke on Thursday. This same front office has already passed up multiple opportunities to address their pitching problems pre-lockout. Instead, the Minnesota Twins sat on their hands and watched while much of the league was making trades and signing free agents back in November, in preparation for the December 2 lockout.

Oh, Byron Buxton handed them an extension deal on a silver platter. That saved pitchfork nation from running the Pohlads out of town. Apparently, that was all the offseason energy the organization could muster before baseball was frozen in time.

Just to catch you up on all the #MNTwins offseason moves.

— OF Byron Buxton signed a 7-year, $100-million extension.

— RHP Dylan Bundy signed a one-year deal.

That wraps our 2021-22 Twins offseason tracker. More to come soon.

— danhayesmlb (@DanHayesMLB) March 11, 2022

Walk The Walk, For Once.

And now, all of the best free agent pitching options are gone. So, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine are left mostly to a trade market that they have been hesitant to dive into since arriving in Minneapolis a half-decade ago. Consider me skeptical until a legitimate insider announces a deal that sends a #1 or #2 starting pitcher to the Minnesota Twins.

If Falvine can’t find multiple top-end starters in the next week or two, their promise to compete for a playoff spot in 2022 will ring even more hollow than all of the countless number of times they’ve promised to find more pitching.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

#MNTwins are pursuing 3 starters: Ryu, Keuchel and Bumgarner

“The Minnesota Twins are pursuing [INSERT TOP FREE AGENT SP HERE].”

Oh, if I had a Nickel…

… I’d be rich af, at this point; going on three years into this new Minnesota Twins regime, lead by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine “Falvine”. MLB insiders around the league are feasting on the hot stove right now. It’s the best time of year for those MLB reporters who crave the big scoop…. and all of those people on the inside, have heard the Twins being mentioned on just about every big available starting pitcher update they’ve dropped in recent years. The only two big time pitchers the Twins haven’t really been tied to, are the two biggest on the market this offseason, Stephen Strasburg and Garrett Cole.

From Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish 2 seasons ago…. to both the Craig Kimbrel (I know he’s not a starter but he helps prove my point) and Dallas Kuechel negotiations that dragged past the trade deadline last season…. and now into what’s become this offseason’s 40-yard Free Agency Dash… we’ve heard the Twins mentioned in the list of teams who always make a “substantial offer”.

Unless you think all of the reports over the last 3 seasons are #FakeNews, you can’t deny the fact that the Twins have been finalists in all of these discussions. Facts are facts. At first, that was exciting. Never, had we gotten the opportunity to even see the Twins mentioned in these talks. I’m surprised the national insiders knew how to spell Twins before Falvine took over… and that’s not a shot at the intelligence of these national reporters.

But now… the glamour of being mentioned by national MLB insiders has worn off on a lot of the Minnesota Twins fanbase and NONE of those discussions bore the fruit of a big-name-pitcher being signed by the this big-time-promise “Falvine” regime.

So now, we have media members and optimistic fans around Twins Nation, who are wondering why a faction (arguable on the size of said faction) of the fanbase is losing patience and demanding the Twins bear that big time free agent fruit ASAP. Yet, I’m left questioning those “optimistic” media members and fans, on why they aren’t more eager to be World Series contenders at an even more serious level than what we tasted last year?

Negative Twins fans, what’s your deal?@PhilMackey wants to know. pic.twitter.com/SrzCLflIUH

— SKOR North (@SKORNorth) December 10, 2019

The Twins are a Brett Favre-type Free Agent pitcher away from being world series contenders next year. They are a younger Brett Favre-type away from being legitimate contenders for a handful of years to come. On top of that, the Twins need to spend $40 Million dollars before the season starts, just to get back to last year’s payroll and they have nowhere to spend it beyond 1B and SP.

We’ve heard repeatedly that the Twins will jump out the window and into free agency, once it opened up for them to make their move… Yet here that window is now, currently the size of the entire wall it once sat on, creating a vaccuum-like vortex that is trying to pull the Twins, with tornado-like force, into the Free Agency wilderness… but Falvin still refuses to jump out like they once promised they’d do.

I was rubbed the wrong way when the Twins didn’t even place a call to Strasburg or Cole. I was over the whole fucking thing when they pulled back early on Wheeler. Give me whatever excuse you want. They’ve expired their excuses, and lost that benefit of the doubt. Now, it’s time to put up or shut up and I’m starting to feel like this organization will do their best to avoid spending big money unless they are forced to.

So until they prove me wrong, I’ll continue to force the action like they apparently need. Seeing is believing at this point. Nothing else is good enough.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

THE TWINS HAVE ACQUIRED A LEGIT STARTER!! OMG!!

FINALLY!! With one trade the Twins bring optimism and excitement back to the organization. We have acquired (RH) Starting Pitcher, Jake Odorizzi from the Tampa Bay Ray’s in exchange for Jermaine Palacios. The Venezuelan-born RH hitter is a young, promising, shortstop prospect in our farm system. SS is a position the Twins have stocked with depth (Polanco, Gordon, Javier, Lewis). To acquire our most clear and dire need, in SP, the Falvine Train unloaded what might be our 4th best SS prospect.

This offseason has been a disappointing and frustrating one to say the least. We were teased with the potential signing of guys like Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani, and trade possibilities that included the likes of Chris Archer. But, only to be sold hope that would, once again, turn to let down. Whispers of the “Pohlad pocket protector” mindset were rumored to have been heard around town. Our “small market”, lovable, Twins were unsurprisingly on the same old track to signing former above-average pitchers like Anibal Sanchez (which made Johnny Minnesota as nervous as me), and taking the “wish upon a shooting star” mentality. Trying to find a pitcher with even a glimmer of what he used to be many years ago, at a heavily discounted price… (WEIRD).

I mean hell, we went to arbitration and won with “the roller coaster ride” that is Kyle Gibson (more sarcasm). For a measly $300,000? I know that sounds like a lot of money, and it truly is in OUR world as normal every day people, and even to Kyle Gibson. BUT in Major League Baseball, to the Twins Organization, where there is no salary cap, teams like the Red Sox and Yankees use $300,000 to wipe their overpaid asses in their ownership suites. We have seen this too many times!!

But last night, to all of our surprise, they finally added a bona fide, top-end rotation guy, with a very respectful track record. I found myself singing “We’re gonna win Twins” while tucking my kiddos into bed, tonight. Palacios is a good player (ranked ~20th-best organizational prospect by the writers of the Twins Prospect Handbook at TwinsDaily), but to give up a guy that’s had some injury issues and slightly disappointed, for an above average player in Odorizzi, at a position of great need, who can ALSO contribute immediately, was a HUGE WIN! (Deep breath)

You can imagine my kid’s surprise when I busted the Twins song out… had them checking the window to see if we still had snow.

It’s amazing how one trade can spark a flame of optimism. Especially when the pessimistic feelings towards our organization’s front office ran wild in recent weeks (crickets chirping).  I was in disbelief that we wouldn’t even Target our most OBVIOUS need with a realistic viable option. But with one trade the belief kicked in a bit. Especially, with the pitching names that are still available in free agency.

And, Odorizzi still has a year left of arbitration AFTER 2018, meaning the Twins have a stockpile of options after this year. They can sign him long-term or have the arbiters decide his 2019 salary based exactly on his play in 2018. Talk about some motivation for a guy who has seemed plenty motivated throughout his career.

Odorizzi has a career ERA of 3.83. Yes, there are some caution points: his career win-loss record is 40-38, but that’s with the Tampa Bay Rays who have been buried in their division for years, without much help offensively. He also had a barrage of injuries last year, that held him to just 143.1 innings, including this one in August, but he continued to battle back, finishing the season with a 1.03 ERA in September.

Now, like I mentioned earlier there are some intriguing names left in free agency. For instance; Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, and Chris Tillman to name a few. If we can add one of these 4 free agents, where we obviously WON’T have to give up future assets to acquire them, then I’ll be even more ecstatic than I am now (my kids might hate me). I hope the Twins pull out their checkbook for one of these guys. It would turn an obvious weak spot into an above-average in a matter of a few pen strokes. And, we’re talking starting pitching, which has been few and far-between, for our beloved Twins.

Ervin Santana >> Jose Berrios >> Jake Odorizzi >> Free Agent?? >> and then 5th starter: (Kyle Gibson / Adalberto Mejía / Anibal Sanchez???)

Doesn’t that sound nice!!? And, we aren’t even talking about some of the top pitching PROSPECTS who could contribute this season (Gonsalves, Romero, Littel and others). Holy depth! Not to mention the benefits this could add to our relief pitching, as well, which has already been MUCH improved this offseason.

Good job Twins!! You’re on the right path. Of course I could go for some depth in other areas and maybe a DH, but I will just leave it at this, and let the optimism sizzle for a few days.

Brian Hanson
Minnesota Sports Fan
MinnesotaSportsFan.com