Will the Minnesota Twins keep Jake Odorizzi?

The Minnesota Twins’ starter enjoyed a career season in 2019, but could he be somewhere else in 2020?

As was the case for most of the 2019 season, the Minnesota Twins have a conundrum surrounding their pitching staff this winter. Although the results were promising during the first couple months of the season, the unit as a whole tailed off toward the end of the year, leaving the Twins left wondering what exactly they will do with their four starters that are pending free agents.

One of the four starters that are slated to hit the open market is Jake Odorizzi. During his first season in Minnesota, the results weren’t great as the right-hander looked like a lesser version than he had shown in Tampa Bay. With a 7-10 record, 4.49 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP, the Twins were made to look like fools after acquiring Odorizzi late into spring training.

But with a contract year looming in 2019, Odorizzi turned it on at the right time. After sitting down with pitching coach Wes Johnson, Odorizzi took his advice to heart and got off to one of the best stretches of his career.

In his first 13 starts of the season, Odorizzi went 9-2 and posted an absurd 1.92 ERA. What’s even more impressive where his peripheral numbers, holding opponents to a .186 batting average while issuing just 15 walks in 70 1/3 innings. To put it into perspective, the 1.91 walks per nine innings ratio in that stretch was nearly two walks lower than the 3.8 BB/9 he posted in 2018.

That start to the season helped pave the way for the 29-year old to earn his first All-Star selection, but the rest of his season left something to be desired. Much like the rest of the starting rotation, Odorizzi came back to reality in his final 17 starts, posting a 6-5 record, but also seeing his ERA jump to 4.77 and his BB/9 rise to 3.14 over the final three months.

With Odorizzi returning to be a five-or-six inning pitcher (which was a godsend considering the state of the Twins’ rotation by the end of the year), it begs the questions of who exactly Odorizzi is as a pitcher and what the Twins are going to do as he hits free agency.

One solution that has been tossed around is extending Odorizzi a qualifying offer at one year and roughly $18 million. In what is essentially baseball’s version of the franchise tag, Odorizzi can either accept that offer or hit free agency with teams requiring to give up draft pick compensation to sign him.

The other option for the Twins is to let him walk and try to find another pitcher that could bring a little more upside. One name that could be tossed around is Madison Bumgarner, but other mid-tier options such as Zack Wheeler and Rick Porcello could also interest the Twins at a cheaper price.

If Odorizzi has his way, he would be staying in Minnesota. However, he also knows that the decision is out of his hands.

"“I really enjoyed my two years here, “Odorizzi told Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com after the Game 3 loss on Monday. “If I’m back, great. I’ve really taken a liking to here. But if not, I wish nothing but the best. This is a great group of people from top to bottom.”"

As of now, the situation for the Twins potentially losing four starting pitchers in free agency could force the issue in retaining Odorizzi. If they feel they can’t land one of their targets in free agency, they could try to strike a short-term deal with Odorizzi while also adding some other options to fill out the rotation.

With Odorizzi being one of their more effective pitchers down the stretch, his fate in Minnesota could be one of the biggest storylines this offseason.