MLB: The Top Five Worst Bullpens

5. Minnesota Twins

2016 has really been a year to forget for the Minnesota Twins. Their 15-win mark on June 2 is good for dead last in all of baseball. While the team has played terribly in just about every facet of the game, bottom five in starting pitching and hitting, the bullpen has been an atrocity especially at the back end. Glen Perkins, Kevin Jepsen and Trevor May are all having disastrous years.

Perkins has pitched in two games, blew a save on April 10 and has been on the DL ever since. After a nice start for May, he finished up the month of May giving up 15 runs over a 22.1-inning stretch. Jensen is the closer by default and he’s given up multiple leads, which the Twins don’t get often, to go along with thirteen runs allowed in 18.1 innings.

It really is a dagger in the chest for Minnesota to have all three of these guys pitch this way because they had high hopes for all three coming into the season. All three did have their questions marks though.

“I’ve had to use these people that we’d like to think of in other roles,” manager Paul Molitor said. “It’s very rarely when we’ve used anybody in the setup role or a closing role. So I pretty much just have to get through games sometimes, which is not the way you want to manage a bullpen.”

Aside from the three headed travesty at the back of the pen, the rest of the relievers haven’t been good. Collectively, their bullpen is pitching to a 4.49 ERA which is good for fifth worst, and they’re being worn out. With 180 innings pitched, that puts them 13 above the MLB average. Batters are hitting a robust .281 average against them — MLB average is .243.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Minnesota’s bullpen, Phil Hughes has been sent to the pen to try and get his mojo back. Instead of inflating the team starters’ ERA, Phil can now contribute to one of the worst pens in the game.

Next: Detroit