St. Paul – The Minnesota Twins added minor-league starting pitching talent during the trade deadline fire sale. Adding Mick Abel, Taj Bradley, and Kendry Rojas pushed some pitchers out of starting roles, specifically at Triple-A.

Christian MacLeod was one of the pitchers who moved to St. Paul’s bullpen after the deadline. MacLeod was Minnesota’s fifth-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Mississippi State. He made one Triple-A start last year, and he has remained at Triple-A after a busy trade deadline.

MacLeod has gone through an adjustment period in Triple-A. He owned a 6.83 ERA with the Saints, allowing 33 hits, 23 walks, and five home runs in 27 ⅔ innings going into his last outing on Friday.

So when the Saints called him out of the bullpen to hold a 4-3 lead to end their 12-game losing streak, he knew he’d have to give it his best for his team. MacLeod entered the game in the fifth and delivered 3 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, two walks, and setting a season high of seven strikeouts.

“It felt great,” said MacLeod after Friday’s game. “You know, baseball is a really funny game. You go through weird spurts like that, obviously, we’re giving our all day in and day out, just some tough luck losing 12 straight, but it’s good to be back on the winning side of things and looking forward to keep this momentum going.”

“It’s huge and it’s a huge confidence booster for him, because he’s had a few that haven’t gone the best for him, where he falls behind and stuff like that,” said Saints catcher Patrick Winkel. “And he did fall behind sometimes tonight, but what he did very well was not give in to 3-0, and this guy is going to walk.”

Up until this recent call-up to St. Paul, MacLeod has been a full-time starter in his pro career. The Twins Player Development staff has opted to move MacLeod to the bullpen full-time, and he seized the opportunity.

“I love it,” MacLeod said. “Any time I’m on the mound, I’m happy, whether it’s starting or relieving, doing whatever. I’m just happy to be on the mound, but I really do like to be coming out of the bullpen. You’re out there more often, and you’re getting to see hitters more often, so I enjoy it.”

The Saints are using MacLeod as a long reliever, and he’s thrown a minimum of 2 ⅓ innings in his relief outings. The Saints have needed long relief options because most of their starters have thrown five or fewer innings in each of their outings.

Only Andrew Morris has pitched six full innings for the Saints in their last two turns in the rotation during their 12-game losing streak. So for them to get a career-best outing for MacLeod to end the losing streak, it solidifies why his transition into a full-time reliever needs to be gradual, downsizing his workload, rather than rushing it.

“That’s when we needed it last night for sure,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said on MacLeod’s performance. “It was a very close ball game, and you have to have guys go out there and put up zeros, and he threw four of them for us, so that was great.”

“It’s a really good feeling,” said MacLeod. “It’s been a little bit of a grind since getting to Triple-A, and [I’ve] been working with the pitching coaches a lot. Been working on mixing different pitches, some mechanical tweaks. Been really working hard with those guys, so huge credit to them for believing in me and working with me.”

MacLeod’s best opportunity to crack the Twins roster will be as a reliever. He may not have the kind of stuff lefty prospects Connor Prielipp and Dasan Hill have, but MacLeod could still work himself into an effective left-handed reliever in a specialist role.

He’s already been talking with veterans such as Erasmo Ramirez, Darren McCaughan, and fellow lefty Aaron Rozek about their moves into the bullpen and how it has changed their routines and approaches to matchups from their time as starters. It’s been a huge help for MacLeod as he’s become accustomed to life in Triple-A and taking what he’s learned into the off-season, so he can be a non-roster invite option for the Twins bullpen next spring.

“I think coming up here last year, you know, when I got promoted this year, I had a better understanding of what to expect, even though I was here for one game,” MacLeod said. “You know the clubhouse, you know the stadium, you know how things work a little bit. So I think that helped me out really well.”