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  • BREAKING: Twins to Sign RHP Alex Colomé

    Seth Stohs

    By Seth Stohs

    The offseason may have progressed slowly, but the Twins front office continues to cross things off of their To-Do List. After signing Nelson Cruz, the Twins have now added reliever Alex Colome to their roster, signing him to a one year, $6.25 million contract with an option for 2022.

    Image courtesy of Quinn Harris, USA Today

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    The 32-year-old Colome has spent the past two seasons with the Chicago White Sox and accumulated 42 saves while posting a 2.27 ERA. He was an All Star in 2016 with the Rays when he posted a 1.91 ERA and had 37 saves. The next season, he had 47 saves.

    Colome has a lot of late-game, closer experience. He’s got 138 saves over his eight MLB seasons. While his strikeout rate has gone down the last couple of seasons, his overall performance has been very good.

    It’s probably because his pitch-mix is more conducive to weak contact than missing bats. Over the past two seasons, he has thrown a 90 mph cutter over 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time he throws a mid-90s fastball that averaged 94.5 mph in 2020.

    Now, will he be named the Twins next closer as Bob Nightengale mentioned in his tweet?

    https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1357085208898461701

    That might be a different question. Rocco Baldelli never really named Taylor Rogers the closer over the past couple of seasons, even though he was the primary pitcher in that role. And, ultimately, it really doesn’t matter.

    Simply look at the back end of the Twins bullpen now. Rogers and Colome both can close out games. Tyler Duffey made huge strides and should be relied upon in late-inning situations. Hansel Robles is coming off of a bad, short season, but he has late-inning and closer experience.

    In addition, Jorge Alcala started getting more and more high-leverage situations in 2020, and Cody Stashak has been quite reliable in his opportunities. And hard-throwing Edwar Colina should be an option sometime in 2021.

    https://twitter.com/DanHayesMLB/status/1357095069434658816

    Clarification: It is a mutual option for 2022 at $5.5 million. If Colome declines it, the Twins don't have to pay the $1.25 million.

    The Twins could still add another reliever, or sign more guys to minor league deals. With this move, the Twins roster will be at 40.

    At 5:45, watch an all-new Twins Daily Offseason Live in which we'll discuss the signings of Nelson Cruz and Alex Colome.

    Seth Stohs has been blogging about the Minnesota Twins since May 2003. A founder and owner of Twins Daily, Seth has been a Twins fan for 40 years and has a passion for covering the minor leagues and prospects.
    Follow Seth Stohs on Twitter: sethtweets

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    Trov

    Trov 2,980

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Mutual option deals are always interesting.  I mean the only way both agree are if both sides believe the value is what they would get on open market, and both like the situation.  My guess it will not be picked up, because either Twins will not want to pay it, or Colome feels he can get more.  

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

     

    Some interesting talk on MLBTradeRumors about the Colome signing. Seems to be a rather heated debate about Colome's expanded stats (FIP, xFIP, K%, GB%, etc).

     

    Some seem to think he's been very lucky for his entire career, others say that in this player's case, you can throw those expanded stats out the window. I'm guessing the Twins did their homework and I trust they know what they're doing. Good signing.

     

    I frankly don't care how he gets outs. Just so long as he's effective. He has a history of getting the job done, looking forward to watching him in a Twins uniform.

    All things being equal, I think the Twins prefer guys with all those shiny expanded peripheral stats.

     

    But smart small and mid-market teams zig when conventional baseball zags. Colome has significantly outperformed his FIP in roughly half his seasons played. He has outperformed his FIP in all but one season. This isn't a two year blip of aberrant performance, he has some ability to outperform peripherals year after year.

     

    And if that allows the Twins to get a $7-8m pitcher for $5m, I do that all day long.

     

    On top of all that, the Twins have shown they can pluck a pitcher from even the best-run MLB franchises (say, the Dodgers) and make that pitcher even better with a few tweaks. And the Sox are a well-run franchise but they're not the Rays, Dodgers, or Yankees.

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    jmlease1

    jmlease1 6,071

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    It's a solid signing, shores up the bullpen nicely. he's not going to put up the SSS stats he did in 2020 over the course of the season, but there's no reason to think that he can't be similar to any of his previous three seasons, overall. 

     

    I don't think he's going to be the "closer" because I don't think we're going to have that kind of role defined, but I'm sure he'll be called upon to finish many games. I feel pretty good about the bullpen right now: Colome, Rogers, Duffey, Alcala, Robles, Stashak, and Thielbar. Rogers is going to be deployed in more matchup related scenarios and guys like Robles & Colome will end up throwing a bunch of 9th innings that are actually lower leverage. There's probably going to be 1 more guy in there...who won't end up pitching enough to stay sharp. there are some interesting young arms to provide some depth, the top guys are good enough that if one or two of them get in a slump you can pull back on them a bit, give them lower leverage spots without screwing yourself.

     

    I think they could use to sign one more starter (veteran on a make-good kind of deal) to compete for the 5th spot/provide depth, but that's about it. If there's a good deal on a better starter, I'd love of them to go for it...but I don't feel like they need to do it, only if it's the right guy at the right number.

     

     

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    diehardtwinsfan

    diehardtwinsfan 14,830

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

     

    All things being equal, I think the Twins prefer guys with all those shiny expanded peripheral stats.

     

    But smart small and mid-market teams zig when conventional baseball zags. Colome has significantly outperformed his FIP in roughly half his seasons played. He has outperformed his FIP in all but one season. This isn't a two year blip of aberrant performance, he has some ability to outperform peripherals year after year.

     

    And if that allows the Twins to get a $7-8m pitcher for $5m, I do that all day long.

     

    On top of all that, the Twins have shown they can pluck a pitcher from even the best-run MLB franchises (say, the Dodgers) and make that pitcher even better with a few tweaks. And the Sox are a well-run franchise but they're not the Rays, Dodgers, or Yankees.

     

    So Colome provides evidence of the God particle of modern stats?

     

    I like the signing. Cannot complain on the contract/price... would like another starter though.

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    Danchat

    Danchat 11,131

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    If we sign someone else who do you think are the first to DFA?

    For me, It'd probably first be Gibaut, then Thorpe, Astudillo, Wade Jr, Waddell. Not sure where to put Gordon since he's only got one option left and has had problems getting on the field, but is the only backup SS on the 40 man.

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    Vanimal46

    Vanimal46 28,724

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    Some interesting talk on MLBTradeRumors about the Colome signing. Seems to be a rather heated debate about Colome's expanded stats (FIP, xFIP, K%, GB%, etc).

     

    Some seem to think he's been very lucky for his entire career, others say that in this player's case, you can throw those expanded stats out the window. I'm guessing the Twins did their homework and I trust they know what they're doing. Good signing.

     

    I frankly don't care how he gets outs. Just so long as he's effective. He has a history of getting the job done, looking forward to watching him in a Twins uniform.

    At the end of the day I’d rather have a player who outperforms their advanced stats in a positive way than the inverse. I’m still haunted by Ricky Nolasco’s low FIP numbers as he tossed beach balls to batters.

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

     

    So Colome provides evidence of the God particle of modern stats?

     

    I like the signing. Cannot complain on the contract/price... would like another starter though.

    No, but also believing modern stats are infallible is little better than quoting RBI when discussing player projections. Modern stats are superior to what came before but even if they're 98% accurate (throwing out a random number here, not saying they're that accurate) that still means they're inaccurate for 2% of players. If players like Ricky Nolasco can routinely underperform their peripherals, it stands to reason the opposite can be true as well. I don't think it happens often - and it happens far less frequently than the anti-sabr crowd says - but it still likely happens because we don't have a stat that captures everything that happens on the field, much less one that captures what happens between a player's ears.

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    se7799

    se7799 464

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Great article and signing. Im not anti-sabr by any means. But. I do have to question the extreme of saying pitcher wins, ERA, saves, and RBI stats don't matter. Isn't the ultimate goal to win games, prevent runs,and score runs? For example to the anti pitcher win stats...Id much rather have a pitcher win 20+ games with a lower strike out percentage than vise versa. Just my opinion.

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