Minnesota Twins: 5 questions that need to be answered before the end of the season
By Nate Palmer
What to do with all of these Triple-A relievers?
The Twins have a whole bunch of relievers that have been in Triple-A or back and forth between Rochester and the majors that it would be nice to know if they are major league ready. The Twins will need to fill the roles of Zach Duke, Ryan Pressly, Matt Belisle, and maybe even Fernando Rodney depending on what they do with his option come 2019.
The end of 2018 is the perfect opportunity to get those guys some major league innings to see what they have to offer the Twins. It is still absolutely maddening that the Twins seems unwilling to give Alan Busenitz more of a run in the Twins bullpen. Busenitz has been very efficient at Triple-A tossing 36.0 innings with a 2.00 ERA and 10.3 K/9. He hasn’t done as well in his 13.0 major league innings this season, but that is why this is the perfect moment to see him work on getting major league hitters out. Busenitz’s strong end to 2017 should give at least an audition through the end of this season.
John Curtiss is another pitcher who deserves a longer look with the Twins. In Triple-A this season he has a 3.29 ERA and a 10.5 K/9 over 41.0 innings. He has only seen time in parts of two games in the majors. Like Busenitz, it wasn’t good as he gave up 3 runs in 0.2 innings but there is no better time than now in a lost season to see what Curtiss may be able to provide for 2019.
Thankfully, it seems manager Paul Molitor is finally letting Matt Magill have some time on the mound. He looks like he could help the Twins in 2019 as he currently holds a 3.86 ERA over 39.2 innings and a respectable 8.8 K/9. Tyler Duffey, Luke Bard, Jake Reed, and Nick Anderson should all really get some time if possible as well.
The Twins bullpen could look very different next season. The Twins need to start figuring out if they can fill those rolls from within or need to go seek out what is available on the free agent market this offseason.