Minnesota Twins: 5 non-tendered free agents that could make intriguing signs
By Nate Palmer
Jared Hughes
If the Twins front office does like a pitcher in the mold of Brandon Kintzler or Bryan Shaw and happens to not sign either of those two, Hughes could imitate the two pretty well. The worm-killer has turned in back to back solid seasons but the Milwaukee Brewers decided to turn him loose instead of paying the reliever a projected $2.2 million for his services in 2018.
Hughes boasted a 3.02 ERA in 2017 and groundball rate of 62.2 %. He gets his work done with a sinker that averaged a velocity of 94.5 mph in 2018. Hughes also has proven to be able to handle a decent innings load cracking 59 innings each of the past two seasons and pitched 67 innings for a career high in 2015 with the pirates.
A knock on Hughes could very well be his walk rate that was 3.62 BB/9. That with the normal low strikeout numbers which are common in a pitcher of Hughes style, making those induced ground balls very important. If this is a role that Falvey and Levine value, Hughes could be a cheap signing that could be an extreme groundball pitcher for the Twins.