4 Left-Handed Relievers the Twins Could Target This Week

[Matthew Trueblood]

Since Taylor Rogers has been a bit less effective this summer than over the previous two years, the Twins could use a bit more southpaw stability in their bullpen. With a few days left before the trade deadline, they have an opportunity to make just such an addition.Historically, left-handed relievers go hand-in-hand with the trade deadline. Almost every contending team could use one more good lefty for tough matchups in middle relief, and yet, teams in rebuilding modes still often have such a pitcher lurking on their roster. This season, thanks to the three-batter minimum rule and its constraints on reliever usage, the demand figures to be a bit dampened, but the Twins are among the teams who could still be in the market. Here are four left-handed pen men who could add something meaningful to Minnesota’s pitching staff, without costing too much.

 

Tony Watson, San Francisco Giants: Let’s start with the bad news on Watson: his velocity is down. Like, way down, from the mid-90s at his peak, to 93 miles per hour over the past two seasons, to an unimpressive 90 miles per hour. Watson is 35, so a velocity drop isn’t exactly unexpected, but this one is severe, even given the interrupted ramp-up to this strange season.

 

Watson’s success has never been rooted in overpowering speed, though, and he’s making up for the lost zip on his heat by doing the other things he’s always done well. He’s leaning more on his changeup (against righties) and his slider (against lefties), and he’s pitching from a lower arm slot than ever. Watson has always excelled at matching his release point on all of his pitches, creating deception even without wicked movement. He throws plenty of strikes, and gets ground balls. He’s only making the prorated share of $3 million, on a one-year deal, so the Twins could take him on without any major financial concerns, and given that he’s a rental, the Giants have little leverage in trade negotiations.

 

Adam Morgan, Philadelphia Phillies: When healthy, Morgan has been an above-average reliever for each of the last three seasons, across a total of 134 innings. He’s well on his way to making that a four-year streak this year, mostly by ratcheting up the usage of his wipeout slider. Opposing hitters have whiffed on over 30 percent of the sliders Morgan has thrown in 2020, and that makes him an excellent fit for the Twins’ bullpen. They’re a team that loves good sliders and pitchers who throw them at a high rate, and Morgan is even starting to show confidence in the pitch against right-handed batters.

 

Just 30 years old and with a fastball that can still scrape 95 miles per hour, Morgan could be a medium-term investment for the team. He’s under team control through 2021, making him a potential, partial replacement for Trevor May or Sergio Romo in a setup role for next season. He doesn’t require heavy engineering in order to be effective, but with an unusually deep repertoire for a reliever, he offers Wes Johnson plenty with which to work. In the short term, he could be a bridge between the Twins’ high-octane right-handed arms, including coming into messy situations and pitching out of them, thereby circumventing the three-batter rule. Given the Phillies’ place in the standings and their fan base’s feelings toward their bullpen, prying Morgan loose doesn’t figure to take a major haul.

 

Justin Wilson, New York Mets: Wilson sports a hideous ERA, but that belies his real performance for the Mets, both this season and throughout last year. In fact, in all but half of one year over the last half-decade, Wilson has been a fairly fearsome power arm, relying heavily on a riding four-seamer and a cutter that can neutralize both left- and right-handed batters.

 

Wilson has seven holds for the Mets this season. In their first two games of the season, he entered in the eighth inning, with New York nursing one-run leads, and each time, he struck out Ronald Acuña, Jr. on four pitches to end the frame, with the tying run on base.

 

At his best, Wilson focuses solely on the four-seamer and the cutter, each of which have high spin rates and force unproductive contact at the top of the strike zone. His problems, when they do crop up, tend to be in mechanical rhythm and alignment, and those are precisely the problems Johnson has been adept at solving over the last two years. The cutter has been a minor specialty of the Twins, too, although more so among starting pitchers. Wilson’s ability to handle batters on either side of the plate (and the remaining potential for the team to reintroduce the true slider into his arsenal) make Wilson an appealing potential addition, and his impending free agency should make him a cheap target.

 

Angel Perdomo, Milwaukee Brewers: Let’s get weird, and dare to have a little bit of fun. Imagining the Twins paying a princely sum for arbitration-eligible, Taylor Rogers-redundant Josh Hader isn’t that fun. Imagining them swooping in to grab a pitcher who could still have major upside and be under team control for even longer, at virtually no cost, is fun. Angel Perdomo is fun.

 

Twins fans who remember Perdomo’s unsuccessful and soporific (and, literally, balky) appearance during Kenta Maeda’s near-no-hitter might not think so, but there’s a ton to like about the gigantic left-hander. His fastball sits at 95 miles per hour, and touches 97. He has a slider with two-plane movement and a decent changeup. The Brewers signed him as a minor-league free agent in November 2018, and in 2019, he split his season between Double- and Triple-A. He pitched 69 innings, struck out 107, and walked 44.

 

Obviously, Perdomo’s control issues are the major drawback for any team considering relying on him in the short- or long-term future. There are good reasons to wonder whether he’ll ever be able to fix those problems, but there’s also plenty for Wes Johnson to work with. Perdomo stays closed as he strides down the mound, but could delay trunk rotation better through landing with his front foot. If he did so, he would also be able to achieve more stability and better posture from foot strike through release, and he’d therefore be more likely to throw consistent strikes. Mechanically, those are things the Brewers don’t necessarily emphasize, but we’ve seen multiple pitchers get better in these areas since Johnson came aboard.

 

Perdomo would be a bit of a project, and for that reason, he’d cost very little. Having a six-foot-eight lefty figure out control late and blossom in their mid- to late-20s is hardly unheard-of, though, and if the Twins could land him and help him implement key tweaks, he’d be under team control for six more years, in addition to lightening the load of key relievers down the stretch.

 

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[mikelink45]

I will defer to you because none of these arms interest me and I do not have your acquaintance with lesser known relievers.  

 

It would seem odd that Philadelphia has been trading to shore up its relief corp and we would find a good one in their scrap pile.

[TFRazor]

If we're going to do this, then just do it. Pay the price for Hader and move on.

[Thebigalguy]

I am worried about Rogers, though relievers do have hiccups. I think we should stay in house. I expect Rogers to come around. If we trade, I don't want to lose anything valuable in a season like this one, when even a Series title will come with an asterisk. I do have faith in Falvine, though, given their track record so far, but I've never quite forgiven them for trading away Pressly to the Astros. If Alcala can get it done this year, however, all is forgiven and I'll tip my hat to them, especially if Celestino proves his worth. In a season like this one, my advice is to keep what you have and play it close to the vest.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Given the Phillies’ place in the standings and their fan base’s feelings toward their bullpen, prying Morgan loose doesn’t figure to take a major haul.

The Phillies are currently in a playoff spot and just traded to upgrade their pen. I’m not sure it will be that easy to acquire one of their better-performing relievers right now.

[twins_89]

The guy that I'd go after is Robbie Ray. Put him in the bullpen and let him work with Wes Johnson (or let him start if Odorizzi/Hill/Bailey can't stay healthy). If his issues can be fixed he would be an interesting option for the play-offs either starting or out of the pen.

[ChrisKnutson]

I know he just came off the IL, but don’t forget about Sean Doolittle. Definitely could provide similar boost to the team like Romo did last season both on the field and in the clubhouse.