The Minnesota Twins sent a win-now message ahead of the trade deadline, acquiring right-handed starter Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles, left-handed reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets and right-handed relievers Jeff Hoffman and Tommy Nance from the Toronto Blue Jays.
By adding three relief arms, the Twins addressed their biggest issue at the time. Unfortunately, the moves haven't been enough to put the Twins in a winning position, and the bullpen is still struggling. Since Minnesota acquired Nance, Hoffman and Minter, the Twins rank 26th in bullpen ERA at 5.02. For reference, the Twins' bullpen ranked 27th with a 4.93 ERA after last year's deadline, when we saw Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe get traded.
Since making bold moves to improve their bullpen at the trade deadline, the Twins rank 26th in MLB with a 5.02 ERA from their relievers.
— Nick Nelson (@NickNelsonMN) September 15, 2026
Last year, after dismantling their bullpen at the deadline, they ranked 27th with a 4.93 ERA.
It's hard not to believe Minnesota would be in a much better spot in the standings if the Twins' bullpen had performed better after Aug. 3. Even just a few more wins would've been enough to keep the Twins in the postseason race.
Why has the Twins' bullpen struggled so badly lately?
It's worth noting that the new acquisitions aren't the reason for the Twins bullpen's post-trade-deadline failure. Nance's results haven't been great, but he was a much cheaper acquisition than Minter and Hoffman. And even so, he has a solid 3.48 FIP with Minnesota, suggesting he's been unlucky with the Twins.
Meanwhile, Minter and Hoffman have been fantastic since joining the Twins. Minter had a rough outing against the Yankees on Monday, but the weather wasn't great, and he allowed just three runs over 17 1/3 innings for the Twins before that. Hoffman has posted a 2.45 ERA with 22 strikeouts over 14 2/3 innings with Minnesota.
The real reason the Twins' bullpen has struggled since Aug. 3 has been the regression of Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez. Before the trade deadline, those two right-handers were arguably the Twins' two best bullpen arms. Since then, they have been the worst, with Morris posting an 8.36 ERA over 14 innings and Gómez a 6.00 ERA over 12 innings since Aug. 3.
Also, while the Twins' bullpen has technically been worse post-trade deadline this year than last, the underlying metrics have been much better. After this year's deadline, the Twins' bullpen ranks 17th in expected ERA (3.99), 11th in FIP (3.85) and 10th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (14.6%). After last season's trade deadline, the Twins' bullpen ranked in the bottom 10 in all those categories.
Long story short, the Twins' bullpen has been a major disappointment lately, but fans should feel much more confident about the team's relievers entering 2027 than they did before this season.
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