Minnesota Twins Free Agent Possibility: Craig Breslow

Could Craig Breslow be a possibility for the Minnesota Twins?

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at candidates to throw into the bullpen mix for the Minnesota Twins. Ideally the candidates would be a lefty and as a bonus, would have a great strikeout rate. Names like Antonio Bastardo and Matt Thornton are still available but would most likely be out of the Twins’ price range. We’ve been focussing on more inexpensive relievers who still could be valuable. Of those still available, we’ve looked at Franklin Morales (here), Randy Choate (here), Manny Parra (here) and Joe Beimel (here).

Today we’ll look at the possibility of Craig Breslow.

Breslow was drafted by the Brewers in 2002 and made his MLB debut with the Padres in 2005. Breslow has been inconsistent over his 10 year career so far. Some years he’s been very reliable and other years he’s been ineffective or worse. Two of his worst seasons are his two most recent seasons. He’s put up a dismal 4.98 ERA, 5.30 FIP, 1.617 WHIP, 1.5 HR/9 and a 1.63 SO/BB over that span. So why are we even talking about this player? Well in 2013, he had perhaps his best season, posting a 1.81 ERA, 3.60 FIP, 1.123 WHIP and 0.5 HR/9. The year before that his line was 2.70 ERA, 3.33 FIP, 1.168 WHIP, 0.7 HR/9 and 8.7 K/9. Breslow seems to almost have a pattern of stringing together a few bad seasons, followed by a few good ones. Maybe he’s due for some good ones again.

Breslow also showed a side of him in 2015 that we hadn’t seen yet. He made the first start of his career. He made two starts in total and was pretty good. He allowed two earned in 9.1 innings. In fact Breslow was hoping to find a team who’d be willing to let him stretch out again in the spring. The Twins aren’t necessarily looking for a swingman but the versatility couldn’t hurt.

Breslow has a 3.31 ERA, 4.07 FIP, 1.308 WHIP, 0.9 HR/9 and 7.1 K/9 over his career. He has fairly even splits (.701 opponents OPS vs righties and .686 vs lefties). His fastball was 89.9 MPH in 2015 which is his career average. He also throws a curve, slider and change up.

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Breslow made $2 million in 2015 and was bought out of his 2016 option by the Red Sox. Coming off two poor seasons, his asking price shouldn’t be very high. As with Joe Beimel, if the Twins can get Breslow on a minor league deal and an invite, they should. But it wouldn’t make sense for the Twins to commit much more than that to him.

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