The Twins have made a number of modest free-agent deals this season — a first baseman and a catcher come to mind — but what most Twins fans have been waiting for and most worried about, I think, is whether the club is going to augment the bullpen in any significant way.
Why should anyone be worried about that? Well, after you jettison 10 players at the trade deadline, including the team’s best relievers, you have a tendency to think that not all is well in the world and, of course, once the Twins made those moves last season, the club sank faster than a rock tossed into the Mariana Trench. We are concerned, to say the least.
Well, the state of the bullpen improved a little bit on Friday after the Twins announced the team is reuniting with lefty reliever Taylor Rogers on a one-year deal for $2 million.
“I told my agent (before) the Winter Meetings to pop by the Twins and just let them know I was interested,” Rogers told MLB.com. “Kind of didn’t hear anything, really until Wednesday. … Then they called on Wednesday, and I was flying up here on Thursday. So once the interest was mutual, I was like, let’s just do it.”
Rogers spent six seasons with the Twins. He notched 30 saves for the club in the breakout season of 2019, pitching to a 2.61 ERA across 69 innings with 90 strikeouts, good enough for a strikeout rate per nine innings of 11.7. He also was an All-Star in 2021.
Some standout moments in 2019:
- April 20: Rogers fans five over two innings to preserve a 6-5 win over the Orioles.
- June 2: Rogers strikes out the side on 11 pitches in a 9-7 win over the Rays.
- July 6: Rogers again fans five across two-plus innings in a 7-4 win over the Rangers.
“When Tyler Duffey gave up three runs and retired only two hitters in the seventh inning to make it a one-run game, (Twins manager) Baldelli immediately went to his best relief pitcher,” the Star Tribune reported on July 6.
“And he never took him out.
“We thought this could have been a good day for him to go multiple innings,” Baldelli said, since Rogers had thrown only 19 pitches in the previous eight days.
“It was a good, efficient effort by him to go that length, and not throw many pitches while also getting the results that he got.
“Those results? Seven batters up, seven batters down, five of them by strikeout.”
Although most Twins fans likely will welcome the Rogers addition, he is now 35 and he didn’t pitch well for the Chicago Cubs last season. In limited action, he pitched to a 5.09 ERA across 17-plus innings.
Extra innings…
–Rogers finally was traded, along with slugger-in-the-making Brent Rooker, to the San Diego Padres in 2022 for pitcher Chris Paddack and reliever Emilio Pagan.
There’s a deal the Twins probably wish they never made.
Source: Newspapers.com