A few weeks ago, Minnesota’s bullpen looked like a real problem - the kind that can sink a postseason push before it ever gets off the ground. The Twins didn’t wait around for that to sort itself out.
They attacked it, bringing in Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter, and Tommy Nance to give the relief corps a completely different shape.
Now the group looks nothing like the one that broke camp in March. Derek Shelton suddenly has options, and in the late innings, options matter as much as raw stuff. With breakout closer Yoendrys Gómez and right-hander Andrew Morris already in place, the Twins have built a bullpen that can be deployed in layers instead of desperation mode.
Gómez is still the man in the ninth. Minnesota made mechanical tweaks after he arrived, and the right-hander responded with a 1.93 ERA while helping steady a shaky unit. His 21.0% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate aren’t eye-popping, but he kept delivering in the biggest spots.
The underlying numbers do leave some questions. Gómez carries a 4.50 FIP, a 5.24 expected ERA, and opponents have posted a 43.5% hard-hit rate against him.
That points to some good fortune along the way. Still, the Twins have no reason to yank him from the role.
Closers are about trust as much as anything else, and Gómez has earned that. If the regression shows up, Minnesota now has another high-end answer ready.
That next answer may be Morris. The deadline additions actually make his job more valuable, not less.
Instead of locking him into a traditional setup role, the Twins can use him as a flexible weapon - the guy who can enter when an inning is wobbling, finish a frame after an early starter exit, or wipe out a rally in the sixth before handing things off to Hoffman or Gómez. Long term, he still looks like a potential closer.
For now, this might be the best way to use him.
Minter fills the left-handed fireman role Minnesota had been hunting for. He arrived from the Mets with a 2.35 ERA over 23 innings, though his 4.01 FIP suggests some correction could come.
Even so, his career numbers against lefties are exactly what the Twins needed: a .614 OPS allowed and a 30.3% strikeout rate against them. He’s the kind of reliever you don’t save for a fixed inning; you use him when the opponent’s toughest left-handed bats are about to decide the game.
Hoffman gives Minnesota the same kind of leverage on the right side. His ERA with Toronto over the last two seasons sits above 4.00, but the deeper numbers tell a different story.
He has a 3.33 expected ERA and a .211 expected batting average, and his Chase Rate, Whiff Rate, and strikeout rate all rank in the top two percent of pitchers in baseball. That’s elite bat-missing stuff, plain and simple.
Keeping Gómez in the closer’s chair lets Shelton use Hoffman where he can do the most damage: against the heart of the opposing order, whether that comes in the seventh, eighth, or even ninth. In Friday’s win, Hoffman handled the middle of the lineup in the seventh, leaving the final two innings to Morris and Gómez.
That’s the kind of alignment playoff bullpens are built on.
Nance is part of the picture too, even if he’s not in the same tier as Hoffman or Minter. Minnesota brought him in before the deadline rush, and his role is straightforward: give quality innings and keep the higher-leverage arms from wearing down. The Twins needed that support badly earlier in the year.
And the group around them has started to turn the corner. Travis Adams, Kody Funderburk, and Taylor Rogers all found another gear in July after uneven first halves, and the results have shown up in the team numbers.
Since July 1, Minnesota ranks 10th in MLB in bullpen ERA and ninth in Win Probability Added. That’s not noise - that’s a bullpen pitching like it belongs in the conversation.
There may still be another move coming. Matthews, Prielipp, and Rojas remain part of Minnesota’s starting pitching depth, but September has a way of changing the math.
As innings pile up and priorities shift, one or more of those arms could wind up in relief. Power stuff often plays even better in one- or two-inning bursts, and all three have the kind of arsenal that could translate quickly.
The bigger point is simple: Minnesota didn’t just add arms at the deadline. It added structure. Gómez is the closer, Hoffman and Minter are high-end firemen, Morris can be moved wherever the game demands, and Nance plus the rest of the middle relief group give the Twins the depth they were missing for much of the first half.
No bullpen is ever truly done. Injuries happen, workloads build, and September always brings a fresh set of headaches. But compared with the group that opened the season, this version is deeper, more experienced, and built to handle meaningful games.
If the Twins are still around in October, this bullpen overhaul will be a big reason why.
In Other News...
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The Twins have already started building around the possibility that they cannot count on Ryan the same way they once could, which helps explain the addition of Dean Kremer for rotation depth. Even beyond the stretch run, Ryans situation now carries an offseason angle, since the club may have to weigh trade possibilities if the fit keeps getting harder to trust. The catch is that his recent struggles could also make that conversation more complicated, leaving Minnesota with a pitcher who still matters, but no longer feels easy to project. [Read more 🡒]
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Twins Suddenly Have A Tough Emmanuel Rodriguez Decision Ahead
Emmanuel Rodriguez has become one of the more intriguing names in the Twins system, but his path to Minnesota is getting harder to map by the day. The young outfielder still carries real upside, yet the combination of a crowded big-league outfield picture and his own injury history has made every step toward the majors feel more complicated than it should.
The bigger issue now is timing, because the Twins are heading into a stretch where roster choices, possible trades and Rodriguezs own health and performance will all matter. He has to keep pushing forward while the organization weighs how much room there really will be for him, and the answer could shape whether his future still runs through Minnesota or somewhere else. [Read more 🡒]