The St. Paul Saints are making life work without a normal five-man rotation, and they’re doing it by leaning hard into flexibility.
At Triple-A, that kind of patchwork is often the only way forward. Pitchers are constantly moving up and down from the majors, prospects are getting their first taste of the level, and injuries keep forcing teams to improvise.
For the Saints, the challenge has been even sharper lately. Right now, Ryan Gallagher - Minnesota’s No. 17 prospect per MLB Pipeline - is the only pitcher working as a standard starter.
So the Saints have adjusted. Rather than asking every arm to fit a classic starter’s mold, they’ve been using a four-day plan for pitchers who are getting starts even if starting isn’t necessarily their long-term home. The group has included Aaron Rozek, John Klein, Ty Langenberg, Kendry Rojas and Ricky Castro, though Castro went on the 7-day IL Sunday with a right rotator cuff strain.
That approach has put more responsibility on veterans who can handle whatever the staff asks of them, and Rozek has been the perfect example. He’s spent enough time in the Twins system to have seen just about every possible minor-league role, and this season he’s adapted to the Saints’ constantly changing setup.
“I’m throwing the ball well. I don’t really care what role I’m in, as I’ve said in the past,” Rozek said.
“I just care about getting innings and competing out there with the team. Obviously, yeah, it’s not traditional, but right now it’s working.
That’s all we can do is trust the process and see where it leads us.”
Saints manager Brian Dinkelman said the group’s mix of arms gives the club enough options to piece together games in different ways.
“We’ve got a lot of traditional starters now. We have guys that are on the three- or four-day rotation, multiple innings out of the bullpen each day,” said Saints manager Brian Dinkelman. “We have enough arms to find ways to get guys in there and get through multiple innings that kind of just help bridge the gap to the next guy.”
That doesn’t mean the Saints can simply set it and forget it. Because of all the movement that comes with Triple-A, they’ve still had to get creative in games, especially when scoring gets out of hand. In some series, that has meant using a reliever to handle the first or second inning before handing the ball to the bulk pitcher.
Trent Baker was one of those relievers when he started last Sunday, June 21, in St. Paul’s 15-12 loss to Omaha.
Marco Raya had done the same before his call-up to the majors last Wednesday. Even with the more stable four-day plan, the Saints still have to juggle innings and find ways to make the whole week fit together.
“It definitely gets tricky, and I think like, you can kind of look at the grand scheme of the week, figure out what’s best for each guy,” said Ricci.
“Sometimes we get creative, use guys in dirty innings, like maybe to just clean up an out or two to make sure they’re getting some consistent work. Whoever gets consistent work today, the guys realize we’re tight on coverage, so we had some bullpen guys throw higher intensity and touch and feels in pens so they’re still getting some high-intensity work.”
The Saints have settled into a more recognizable group lately with Rozek, Gallagher, Langenberg, Klein and Rojas, but even that setup is temporary. Rozek is the only one of that group on the four-day plan, and he’s been stretched out well enough to go six innings in two of his last three starts.
Still, there’s no guarantee the group stays intact for long. Bailey Ober began a rehab assignment at High-A Cedar Rapids on Sunday, and the Twins could move him to St.
Paul to fill a rotation spot. That kind of shuffle is part of the job at this level.
The Saints aren’t chasing a traditional rotation for tradition’s sake. They’re trying to put pitchers in the spots that help them develop and prepare for the majors, and that’s the bigger picture driving the whole setup. Rozek said the workload hasn’t felt like a major adjustment.
“I typically feel good enough to throw on that fourth day in a five-man, six-man rotation, so it’s not a big change,” said Rozek.
He also noted that the season itself tends to shape how pitchers respond physically.
“Obviously, throughout the course of a year, we’ll see how it goes. A lot of guys have had success, and I think just in general it ebbs and flows throughout the year, kind of where your soreness happens throughout the year, versus a traditional five-man rotation or six-man rotation. So it’s always a learning curve, and it’s fun.”
Ricci said that structure is a big part of why the arrangement can work.
“Well, I think that’s part of the beauty of that role, is those guys still get structured work,” said Ricci. “I think those guys, they get a few different things: They get exposure in the bullpen experience so they’re not always starting.
Sometimes they get brought into dirty innings; they can get used to coming into innings out of the pen. And we still get that touch and feel in between outings.
“We get them off the mound, we get them some quality work and get some reps in. So it’s kind of like it’s the best of both worlds, where they are technically are on a schedule, so we can almost treat them like a starter, with just less volume between outings.”
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