Julian Merryweather’s season could have unraveled the moment the hamstring trouble hit. Instead, he turned a delayed Triple-A return into a stretch of useful innings, steady work, and a strong finish with the St. Paul Saints.
The veteran right-hander was sidelined by a hamstring injury in spring training, then had to deal with another setback in mid-May. That pushed his return to Triple-A all the way to July 22, and by the time he got back on the mound, he had only 17 relief appearances left before the season wrapped up.
Still, Merryweather made those innings count. He closed the year with a 2.00 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP, a .177 opponents’ average and a 31.4% strikeout rate across 18 innings.
“Everything’s been feeling really good,” Merryweather said during the Saints’ final homestand in September. “Feels like the injury and the hamstring are in the rearview, so we can just focus on competing and in-game decisions, which is a lot more fun to be working on.”
That in-game work became the point. After nearly four months away - not counting rehab outings - Merryweather had to get his timing back against Triple-A and MLB-caliber hitters. He leaned into the tactical side of pitching, and that’s where he felt the progress show up.
“Just the competitive side of the game, breaking down hitters, going after certain scouting reports, and just how you’re attacking guys is the main bread and butter of what I’ve been trying to hone in on,” Merryweather said.
“At least nowadays with pitch clock and everything, you have to be pretty quick with making those decisions out there, so that’s been the one thing I’ve gone back on over a few outings, where maybe I should have done this or that. But again, that’s the fun stuff where, like I’d rather be working on that than health stuff, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
Once he was back, Merryweather also settled into a familiar role for a veteran reliever at Triple-A: the guy younger pitchers can lean on. He became a sounding board for Saints arms trying to find their footing, especially first-year relievers C.J. Culpepper and Marco Raya.
“We’ve got a good mix of guys who’ve been up and guys who haven’t gotten the opportunity yet and knocking on the door,” Merryweather said. “It’s a lot of fun to help guys along, more on the mental side, I think, because we’re all so different physically, mechanically, and stuff, that there’s not a lot of things where I can go, ‘Hey, work on this, work on that.’
“It’s more just mentally what to think about going forward, getting that call up, kind of how you’re going to mentally handle that,” he said. “That’s the stuff that’s fun to talk about with guys because you can give them a little piece of your experience and they are super open-minded and fun to talk to.”
His clearest shot at a Twins bullpen job came while he was on the IL in April and May, but that chance never materialized in 2026. Even so, he left Minnesota appreciative of the experience and of the season he put together despite the interruptions.
For a reliever who will soon be 35, the numbers and pitch-stuff results pointed to a season that stood out as his best on the mound since his last full major league season in 2023.
And Merryweather isn’t done yet. He’s looking ahead to 2027, hoping for another crack at the big leagues after spending this year helping others get ready for theirs.
“Guys who are new to the bullpen might be getting used to a new role; that’s a common conversation, a topic down there, guys setting routines and whatnot,” he said. “That’s the stuff you’ve got to go through by yourself at the end of the day.
You can only prepare yourself so much. Once you actually get yourself into a big-league bullpen and know how everything works, it gets you better at just preparing for it at any level, really.”
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