Minnesota Twins positional recap and predictions, part 9- Relief pitchers

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NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 25: Addison Reed #43 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on April 25, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Matt’s predictions

I think that Hildenberger, Rogers, May, and Reed all are pretty much guaranteed slots in the rotation at this point. That’s a pretty nice core to build around. There’s a nice combination of talent, age, and experience there and it could be the start of something pretty good. There are some question marks in who fills out the bullpen around these 4, but I really don’t think the Minnesota Twins are too far away from having a really great bullpen.

To fill out the ‘pen, I think the Twins will be trying to sign 2-3 solid relievers this offseason. There are so many different guys available that it’s really difficult to say who they’ll end up with, but I would love to see at least one, ideally two, of Kelvin Herrera, Cody Allen, Brad Brach, and Joe Kelly make their way to Minnesota. Each have good talent and experience and would be fantastic additions to the reliever corps. While all four of those guys likely will receive interest from a bunch of teams around the league, I don’t think any of them are going to get contacts so big that the Twins will be excluded from the conversation.

With that said, I think the Minnesota Twins will likely end up signing at least one lesser tier reliever at some point this offseason. This could be someone similar to a Justin Wilson or Adam Warren as previously mentioned, or it could be someone else most people have never heard of before. After all, Matt Magill worked his way up from signing a minor league contract in January to becoming a pretty reliable reliever.

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These types of signings are pretty common, if not for anything more than some depth in the minor leagues. With how much the bullpen roster can change from time to time over the course of the year, don’t be surprised or discouraged to hear the Twins have signed someone you haven’t heard of before.

So, I believe the Twins will try to address about 2-3 slots in the bullpen through free agency, in addition to a depth signing or two. From there, I think the bullpen can be rounded out in house. My assumption is that the Twins would prefer to keep Gonsalves and Romero as starters even if they don’t win the jobs out of spring training and may elect to have them in the minors as a starter rather than in the majors as a reliever.

That would make it a bit easier to deal with the inevitable spot starts and temporary starters as well. Guys like De Jong, Littell, and even Michael Pineda could all wind up in the bullpen, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two of them round out the back end of the bullpen in 2019.

Summary

All in all, it’s hard to give a final grade to the 2018 Minnesota Twins bullpen. Some players pitched very well, others not so much, and many fell somewhere in between. The 2019 opening day bullpen will look drastically different than the 2018 opening day bullpen as a result of the trading of Ryan Pressly, Fernando Rodney, and Zach Duke. Yet, there will certainly be some familiar faces out there as Trevor Hildenberger, Taylor Rogers, Trevor May, and Addison Reed are all but locks for the bullpen. Moya will likely see time in the MLB as a reliever at some point in 2019, as well a variety of others that might not win starting jobs.

Next. Minnesota Twins have checked in on Sonny Gray. dark

Then, with a ton of money available and a huge range of relief pitchers available in free agency this offseason, it’s highly likely the Twins make some additions to the bullpen through that avenue. There’s a great start to the bullpen already, and with a few good moves, the Minnesota Twins could quietly assemble one of the better relief pitching groups in the league.

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