The Twins have spent this season writing a bullpen record no club wants attached to its name. Jeff Hoffman was the 15th different pitcher to notch a save for Minnesota last Tuesday, setting the American League mark for most pitchers used in that role in a single season.
That kind of churn tells the whole story. This wasn’t just a matter of mixing and matching arms; it was a bullpen constantly searching for stability and rarely finding it.
Aaron Gleeman noted on X that no other Twins team had ever had more than nine pitchers record a save. The major league record stands at 17, set by the 2025 Diamondbacks, but Minnesota’s issue is less about chasing history than about trying to figure out who, if anyone, can handle the ninth inning going forward.
Yoendrys Gómez has been the most prominent name in the mix, even though he didn’t begin the year in Minnesota. The Rays had him in their bullpen plans, but he struggled to hold up there, posting a 6.23 ERA and minus-0.3 bWAR in nine relief outings. He picked up one save before his final appearance against the Cleveland Guardians on April 29, then joined the Twins.
Since then, Gómez has led the club with 21 of its 45 saves, though even that comes with a wrinkle: one of those saves came with another team. Minnesota has also leaned on six other pitchers with at least two saves, using some in emergency situations and others in longer looks to see who could stick. For much of the year, the bullpen felt like a unit trying to extinguish fires one inning at a time.
There was a long stretch when Gómez looked like the answer. From early May through mid-August, he put together 42 dominant relief appearances.
During that span, Minnesota went 33-9 in games he pitched out of the bullpen, and Gómez worked to a 1.88 ERA with six holds and 19 saves, without blowing a save chance. September has not been nearly as kind.
In nine appearances this month, he has a 9.00 ERA, along with 10 strikeouts, seven walks, two saves and two blown saves.
That creates the central question for 2027: does Minnesota trust Gómez enough to give him the ninth inning again, or does Hoffman become the preferred closer after arriving at the trade deadline and pitching well in relief? In 20 appearances, Hoffman has a 2.50 ERA, a 3.77 xFIP and 0.5 fWAR, while keeping up his 13.5 K/9 pace, which ranks among the better relief strikeout rates in the league.
The internal alternatives are not exactly overflowing. Ober belongs in the rotation.
Funderburk is usually reserved for left-on-left work. Minter profiles in that same type of role.
Cody Laweryson still lacks the experience. Sands has not given much reason to stay in the conversation.
Orze has 0.5 fWAR, but his 5.66 ERA and 3.3 K/BB rate do not make for an easy sell.
Even if Minnesota looks outside the organization for a closer, that would be a less likely path. Either way, the Twins still have to sort out how the rest of the bullpen should be arranged.
Hoffman will be entering his age-34 season and has 3.0 bWAR, an 18-18 record, a 3.37 ERA and a 3.31 FIP. He has remained a reliable strikeout arm and has closing experience with two teams over the last three seasons.
The case for him is real. So is the case for Gómez at his best.
And it’s hard to ignore that Hoffman lost the job with both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays, with his early-season inconsistency eventually leading to Louis Varland taking over.
Minnesota’s decision-making looks even trickier when you remember what happened after the trades of Jhoan Duran and Louis Varland. Duran solved the problems Hoffman created in Philadelphia, and Varland cleaned up the ones left behind in Toronto.
Maybe Hoffman’s strong finish in Minnesota becomes the beginning of a new closing chapter. Maybe Gómez’s better stretches still carry more weight. Either way, that call is one the Twins will have to make this offseason.
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