The Minnesota Twins continue to build their bullpen with the addition of closer and set-up man Addison Reed on a 2 year and almost $17 million deal.
The Minnesota Twins have had one thing on their mind this offseason, pitching. While all the attention and discussion lately had turned to waiting out Yu Darvish and what might happen with the top starter on the market, the Twins have reportedly agreed to sign reliever Addison Reed to a 2-year almost $17 million deal.
Free-agent reliever Addison Reed in agreement with #MNTwins on two-year deal for slightly under $17M, sources tell The Athletic. Pending a physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 13, 2018
As the Twins have made a point to upgrade the bullpen, Reed will join fellow new additions Fernando Rodney and Zach Duke in the Twins revamped bullpen. Reed also sets a mark in Twins free agency history as the first reliever the Twins have ever signed from outside the organization to a multi-year deal.
Reed has experience as both a set-up man and a closer and has proven effective in both roles. In 2017 Reed appeared in 77 games and pitched 76 innings with a 2.84 ERA and a 9.0 K/9 rate. He began the season with the New York Mets as their closer earning a save in 19 games. Reed was then traded at the trade deadline to the Boston Red Sox where he filled in as a set-up man to Craig Kimbrel.
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For the Twins, while nothing has officially been said at this point, the assumption would be Reed would likely be coming in as a set-up man as Rodney has previously been promised the closer role. What is really nice for Paul Molitor now, is that if something were to happen to Rodney like injury or a rough patch, the Twins have someone who has handled the closer role to turn to if say Trevor Hildenberger wasn’t quite ready for that role. Signing Reed also bumps everyone down a spot in the bullpen potentially allowing Hildenberger to now shut down the 6th or 7th inning instead of the 8th adding strength and depth to that unit.
While Reed isn’t a typical power type arm, he still finds a way to miss plenty of bats. He uses a 92-93 mph fastball that has movement to it and combines it with a slider as his primary offspeed pitch. Reed used those pitches on his way to induce batters into a 13.7% swinging strike in 2017.
With all that said about Reed, the Twins also were able to get him at an incredible price. At the beginning of the offseason, MLB Trade Rumors ranked Reed as the 16th overall free agent and 3rd best reliever. They projected him to sign a 4-year and $36 million deal. The Twins got Reed to sign for fewer years and slightly less money per season. Reed’s contract is now the third good-looking contract the Twins have signed a reliever to this offseason.
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Even with three significant bullpen additions, the Twins could still possibly extend their payroll to have money to spend on adding Darvish. Maybe the addition of Reed will help has the Twins make their pitch to Darvish as well. Only time will tell, but this is another great way for the Twins to bolster this year’s bullpen without completely blocking some of the upcoming young guys. The next thing to monitor in terms of the bullpen is what Ryan Pressly and Tyler Duffey‘s roles will be (or not be) with the 2018 Twins.