There are a ton of questions the Minnesota Twins need to answer this offseason, not the least of which is what upgrades the team can make to the starting rotation. Last season Minnesota's pitching was a massive letdown from what we saw a year prior, as the unit broke down in just about every way imaginable.
Pablo Lopez was a shell of himself, Joe Ryan suffered a season-ending injury, and the gamble on guys like Chris Paddack, Anthony DeSclafani, and Louie Varland did not pay off. Things weren't all terrible but the starters taking a step back was something the ultimately hurt the team in the long run.
Once again the Twins are entering a winter where they need to decide how to meaningfully add to the roster without breaking the bank. That could lead to the team using internal options and reshuffling things rather than adding outside help, a path that seems to be leading them toward moving top reliever Griffin Jax to the rotation.
Not only are the Twins apparently thinking about this in a serious way, the sales job on how great the move could be has already begun.
Twins think Griffin Jax can be a frontline starting pitcher in 2025
The idea of Jax moving to the rotation seems a bit strange since he's the team's best reliever and was consistently clutch out of the bullpen. He probably should have been an All-Star and is the one sure-thing the team has in a unit filled with giant question marks.
Nothing if official, but that success has seemed to only further embolden the Twins to believe that whatever Jax was doing in relief work will translate into success as a starter.
Speaking with MLB Network Radio this week, bench coach Jayce Tingler made the bold proclamation that the Twins see Jax as a potential 'frontline' starter, should he make the leap to the rotation.
"There's no doubt, I don't know if you can replace him. I think it would be a bunch of guys having to step up," Tingler said. "With that said, the hardest thing to do is find, draft or develop starting pitching. He could potentially be a frontline guy. So, I think we've got to explore all those things."
What makes Tingler's comments notable isn't the idea of moving Jax to the rotation -- we've heard this idea before. It's that he's selling it as though the team would be essentially adding a top free agent starter without needing to sign one, which is textbook Pohlad progaganda.
This would also mark the second straight offseason where the idea of adding a 'frontline starter' is teased without any serious followthrough.
It's hard to judge this move before actually seeing how it plays out, but we've been down this road before and have a pretty good idea of how it might go. Each Louie Varland has seen success as a reliever the Twins parlay that into trying to use him as a back-end of the rotation starter.
He has flamed out each time this move was made.
Granted, Jax was more than just a successful reliever and he could end up being a stronger starter than most other guys the team has tried this with. Even if he does live up to the hype, the Twins would merely be creating a new problem rather than making the team as a whole better.
Taking Jax out of the bullpen means replacing him, which then adds pressure to the gamble that Cole Sands, Brock Stewart, and Jhoan Duran will take big leaps forward to fill the gaps.
There's a world where it all works out perfectly, but hoping and wishing things go well is not a winning strategy. It might be a cheap one that satisfies the greed of frugal owners, but it's simply more of the same laziness we've seen from the team in the past.
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