Twins' Bullpen Needs Some Fresh Faces

The stats are out there, the Twins bullpen is one of the worst in all of baseball as some of the worst teams in the league have lucked into better units for the back end of games. The waiver claims such as Tyler Thornburg and Jharel Cotton continue to churn with several similar tier pitchers waiting in Triple-A. Instead of continuing this seemingly endless attempt to get any kind of value out of these types of pitchers, it’s time the Twins try something new. With several younger arms in St. Paul’s rotation, it may be time to switch them over to the bullpen to help a big league club that has no help on the way for another month.

Josh Winder
Winder has become one of the Twins' better starting pitching prospects these last couple of years and was fantastic in his first start off of the IL in the doubleheader against Cleveland. His long-term outlook still looks very much like a middle-of-the-rotation starter. The Twins don’t need that right now.

Winder began the season in the bullpen as a long reliever, something the Twins could definitely use. They could keep him in that role, or perhaps shortening his outings could help him limit his innings after his recent trip to the IL for shoulder issues for the second year in a row. Winder’s 96 mph fastball we’ve seen occasionally in starts may play up to 97-98 in the pen, and paired with his slider and changeup, Winder could become a major weapon in a bullpen that desperately needs it. The Twins can always stretch him back out next season and return him to a starters role assuming they don’t take the same route they did with this year’s bullpen.

Cole Sands
Sands is seen as more of a fringy starting pitching prospect but has been pretty good in St. Paul recently. The righty has thrown 14 innings since he was demoted allowing only two runs and striking out 16 batters. While it would be nice to keep him as starting pitching depth for this year, perhaps it’s Winder who fills that role and Sands who makes the bullpen transition.

Sands has one pitch that could be an absolute weapon in a bullpen role in his 70-grade curveball. Pitches that grade out that high are the ones you can bump up to throwing over half the time in shorter stints and become absolutely dominant. While he only throws 92, it’d be safe to bet on seeing more 94s which doesn’t sound like much but would pair very well with a legitimate breaking ball. He’s also only halfway to his 2021 innings total and doesn’t have any injury concerns, making him a candidate to play an early-season Griffin Jax role pitching multiple innings when the team needs it.

Ronny Henriquez
Acquired in the Mitch Garver trade, the Twins were aggressive with Henriquez, sticking him in AAA as a 22-year-old and keeping him in the rotation despite many scouts believing he was a future reliever. To be quite honest, it’s hard to say why he’s still a starter at this point. The 5’10 right hander (who’s reportedly shorter than listed) has a near 7 ERA in 44 innings in the Saints rotation.

Henriquez has everything you’d want in a reliever, as his fastball has a very high spin and can already touch 98 mph. He has two usable secondary offerings in the slider and changeup which both can be plus pitches at times. Even as a starter he’s typically been around 10 K/9 in his minor league career, making his potential as a reliever easy to dream on. Perhaps it’s unfair to say that the likelihood of Henriquez sticking in the rotation is low, but it’s certainly lower than Winder or Sands. He’s also already on the 40-man roster, which may entice the Twins to switch him to a role that gets them value out of his roster spot sooner rather than later.

Perhaps Sands or Winder are able to come up in the next few days and fill a bulk role, but Henriquez may be the favorite to make the transition and just become a traditional dominant reliever for the rest of his career.

The Twins have a massive mess on their hands in a bullpen that’s solely responsible for a 10-game swing in the AL Central. In addition to relievers just not being effective, the coaching staff is also failing to effectively manage a 13-man pitching staff as we saw Thursday when they had to try to close out a win with Tyler Thornburg because there were no other options. Not only could one of these minor league starters add quality to one of baseball’s worst late-game units, but having already been stretched out they can make that 13-man pitching staff feel more like 14 by being able to provide bulk innings.

One thing is for certain, if they’re going to wait until the deadline to add, they need to start preparing these arms to be relievers immediately. We’ve tried the reclamation waiver wire route, and it’s safe to say that continuing down this road could take the Twins out of the running before it comes time to add at the deadline. For a front office that talks so much about a pitching pipeline and relied so heavily on it this season, it’s time to take a leap and turn to the youth movement. What we’re doing right now simply isn’t working.