Giants might have gifted the Twins a perfect solution to their bullpen issues

We’ve reached the home stretch of the season, and while Minnesota is just 3.5 games out of first place in the AL Central the team is moving in the wrong direction.

The Minnesota Twins appear to be running out of gas at the worst possible time. A sweep at the hand of the Atlanta Braves has revealed even more cracks in the facade, as a roster that wasn’t properly invested in over the last six months is coming apart at the seams.

Notably, the bullpen has been almost completely useless over the last month. Coming into the season the unit was perhaps the strongest part of the roster, and that remains true to an extent. Griffin Jax is arguably the best reliever in baseball right now and Jhoan Duran is a menace when he’s pitching up to the level he’s capable of. Brock Stewart has a sub-1.00 ERA and Jorge Alcalá was turning in a bounce-back season.

Outside of Jax, everything has come crumbling down. Duran has earned a loss in three of his last four outings, Alcalá can’t stop giving up runs, and Stewart is out for the season.

Minnesota is clinging to a Wild Card spot and seems destined to make the postseason, but if that happens the bullpen as it stands now will become a fatal liability unless something changes. A potential lifeline might have been tossed out, however, thanks to the San Francisco Giants waiving an old friend this week.

Twins have a perfect opportunity to add Taylor Rogers back to the bullpen at the perfect time

On Wednesday the San Francisco Giants waived a number of players, including left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers. He’s a former All-Star who Twins fans know well from his days in Minnesota, and he could be the perfect addition to help turn things around in the bullpen.

Rogers owns a 2.45 ERA and a 28.2 percent strikeout rate in just over 51 innings of work this year. That’s exactly the type of stuff Minnesota needs in its bullpen, and Rogers is a known quantity that should make a transition even smoother. He was the Twins’ closer when he was with the team, but any spot will do given how things are going right now, and it’s hard to see Rogers not vastly improving things — or at the very least giving everyone some confidence when Rocco Baldelli goes to his relievers.

There is, of course, a pretty massive hang up that will likely keep a reunion from happening. Rogers has two things the Twins have shown no interest in this year: an expensive contract and years left on his deal.

If the Twins claim Rogers they’ll be on the hook for the rest of his $33 million deal, which includes $12 million next season. Minnesota reportedly shied away from deals at the trade deadline that involved taking on future money, which complicates the team making a move.

That shouldn’t take the Twins out of the running, though. Money has been a frustrating issue all season but if Minnesota wants to truly compete in October then it needs to make a move to improve the bullpen.

Rogers has fallen right into their laps, and refusing to pursue him borders on admitting defeat. Then again, that’s par for the course with the Twins this season. Ownership refused to invest in the team when it mattered over the winter, so it might be foolish to hold out breath and hope that there’s been a change of heart now.

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