The Twins didn’t go shopping for headliners at the 2026 MLB trade deadline, but they may have found exactly what they needed anyway. Four pitchers - left-hander A.J. Minter, right-handers Tommy Nance and Jeff Hoffman, and starter Dean Kremer - have settled in quickly, and Minnesota’s staff has looked sharper since the deals came together.
Kremer has been the clearest example of that upgrade. In three starts with the Twins, he has posted a 3.12 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP over 17 1/3 innings.
He has allowed nine hits and five walks while striking out 15 batters. The rough patch came in the sixth inning against the Phillies on Sunday, when four of the six runs he has surrendered as a Twin crossed the plate.
Outside of that one frame, he’s been excellent, and he might have been removed before some of the damage if things had broken differently.
There’s been a tweak behind the performance, too. Kremer has slightly raised his arm angle since joining Minnesota, and that has helped him create more ride on his fastball.
His splitter has paired well with it, and the cutter has been a weapon as well. Against Philadelphia on Sunday, that cutter produced six whiffs on seven swings.
For a club looking for stability in the rotation, that’s the kind of early return that stands out.
Nance has been just as useful, even if he arrived before the rest of the deadline group. The Twins got him on July 10, nearly a month ahead of the deadline, and he has been a problem for hitters ever since. In 13 1/3 innings with Minnesota, he has given up only two runs, along with 12 hits and five walks, while striking out 16.
The strikeouts are the part that jump off the page. Nance’s strikeout rate has climbed nearly five percentage points compared with his time in Toronto, and his slider has been the pitch driving that jump.
It has been his main weapon in both usage and swing-and-miss, and it kept working in his most recent outing Wednesday, when he generated six whiffs on 16 pitches. He’s been a monster.
In fact, I’d argue Nance has been better than his former (and now current, again) teammate, Hoffman.
Hoffman has certainly helped, even if the ride has been a little bumpier. Since joining Minnesota, he has allowed two runs in seven innings and struck out 10 batters.
But the walks have followed him, too. Hoffman has handed out six free passes, an 18.2% walk rate, and that helps explain how Derek Shelton has deployed him.
He has mostly worked as a seventh-inning arm for the Twins, a spot that takes advantage of the swing-and-miss stuff while limiting the exposure to the inconsistency that has come with it.
When everything is lined up, Hoffman still brings the loudest stuff of the group. He can miss bats with the best of them and look like a dominant late-inning reliever. But there’s also a reason Louis Varland took over his closer role in Toronto, and a reason Hoffman’s ERA and underlying numbers don’t always tell the same story.
Minter has been every bit as steady as advertised. He was already productive in New York before the deadline, and that hasn’t changed in Minnesota. Over 10 appearances, he has allowed one run in 8 2/3 innings, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out five.
His strikeout total is down, but the contact against him has been weak. Opponents have put 26 balls in play against Minter, and their average exit velocity sits at just 81.5 MPH.
Only five of those balls have been hard-hit. The Twins didn’t bring him in to rack up strikeouts; they wanted a dependable left-handed reliever.
That’s what he’s been.
None of the four arrivals came with much star power, but all four have delivered. Minnesota is coming off a sweep of the Braves and currently holds the final American League Wild Card spot.
If the Twins are going to keep pushing toward October baseball, they’ll need this pitching group to keep holding up. So far, there’s every reason to think it can.
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The harder question is how quickly the rest of his game catches up. His plate discipline still needs work, with a chase rate that points to the usual rookie growing pains and a strikeout-to-walk profile that shows there is room for refinement. Shortstop has been its own test, too, as he adjusts to big-league speed and angles, even if his confidence at the plate has started to improve over his last seven games. For the Twins, the intrigue is no longer whether Culpepper can impact the roster, but how much patience they should have while he figures out the details. [Read more 🡒]