Minnesota Twins could start a new pitching trend in 2019

With an innovative new manager on board, the Minnesota Twins could put forth a new style of pitching staff management in 2019

The Minnesota Twins are in a tough market where they always have to be conscious of their spending. That means they rely on their farm system heavily, but what happens when the farm system produces too much of a useful thing and not enough of a needed thing?

When the Minnesota Twins hired Rocco Baldelli to manage the club, many began to imagine the innovative things that he may do at the helm of the organization. Now, with the opening at pitching coach, the Minnesota Twins could bring in someone to work alongside Baldelli in a very innovative way to utilize their current resources.

Anyone who follows prospects will tell you about the folly of pitching prospects. Even the best ones are much bigger risks than the elite hitting prospects. When a top pitching prospect does turn into a top starter at the major league level, that’s a developmental win for a farm system.

The Minnesota Twins have had one of those “wins” recently with Jose Berrios. Berrios’ numbers may not overwhelm (12-11, 3.84 ERA, 192 1/3 IP, 61/202 BB/K, 1.14 WHIP), but he has shown that he is certainly a top of the rotation starter in the making. They have also developed Kyle Gibson, who has emerged as a solid inning eater.

Beyond that, the Minnesota Twins are looking at a sea of pitchers best described as #4 starters – guys who will give league average production for a good amount of innings and/or struggle with consistency, but flash brilliance when they’re on. So, with a manager that can be innovative, could the team make use of what is a glut of such arms that are ready for the major league level?

Currently, the third starter for the Minnesota Twins for the 2019 season is Jake Odorizzi. With Odorizzi projected at $9.4 million in arbitration, the team may choose to non-tender him or trade him before arbitration tenders are due. Odorizzi has a severe penalty when he faces a lineup for the third time. His first time through, he allows a .627 OPS, and his second time through that does rise, but just to .659. The third time, however, his OPS allowed in 2018 jumped 500 points to 1.159! If he is kept for 2019, he’s certainly a candidate for this method to be mentioned.

With starters like Stephen Gonsalves, Fernando Romero, Kohl Stewart, Adalberto Mejia, Zack Littell, Aaron Slegers, Dietrich Enns, Felix Jorge, Chase De Jong, and the returning Michael Pineda, coming back from Tommy John, the Minnesota Twins could have an abundance of arms for the 3/4/5 spots in their rotation behind Berrios and Gibson.

One way they could deploy those arms would be to use something that has been utilized often in the minor leagues but not truly implemented by a club at the major league level, a strategy called “stacking”. This would lead to a starter taking the ball, and unlike the opener strategy, where a pitcher goes one inning and then hands off to another who goes until he’s no longer effective, the initial starter would be keyed for 3-4 innings, to be followed by another starter who is prepared for 3-4 innings as well.

This would likely shape how the bullpen is set up, as with a 13-man pitching staff, stacking 3 rotation spots would require 6 pitchers, then you have Berrios and Gibson, so that is 8 already, leaving just 5 more spots. Already the team has Addison Reed signed along with Trevor May (who could be the team’s closer, but would also work in this stack role as a 2-3 inning guy as well) and Matt Magill in the bullpen with no options remaining. Outside of that, the rest of the bullpen could be pretty fungible, which would also make this more feasible.

The Minnesota Twins do have finances available to pursue a bullpen arm or two, or to even sign a free agent starter, so this could be out the window, but with the innovation of their new manager, the Twins could use their available resources to really maximize their chances of 2019 success by utilizing their depth of starting arms well.