Over the 2019 and 2020 season, the Minnesota Twins were able to build themselves one of the most dominant bullpens in the franchise’s recent memory and one of the best in all of baseball. They weren’t on the elite level of the 2015 Royals, but they were still a group with talent that could get the job done.
The team finished the year ranking fifth in baseball in both league-adjusted FIP and ERA according to FanGraphs. Those are really good numbers, especially for how hard it has been for the Twins to put together a bullpen in the past.
The team hasn’t had a group of relievers this good since the days of Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, and Joe Nathan were leading the group in the late 2000’s. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have built a consistent division winners since they took over the front office after the 2016 season, but the bullpen they built was downright bad in the first two years here.
This begs the question; How do Falvine and the Twins go about building their bullpen? What’s changed so much in the last two years that has made the Twins’ bullpen go from a weakness to a strength that they lean on so often?