Fort Myers – The Minnesota Twins have already begun to move some of their minor-league starting pitchers into full-time relief roles. Marco Raya had already been working in long relief over his nine final outings with the St. Paul Saints last season, and the Twins are committed to keeping him in that role for 2026.

Raya pitched in 18⅓ innings over those final nine outings and had a 4.91 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, .203 opponents average, 21.5% strikeout rate, and 11.4% walk rate in that stretch. While walks and some unlucky hits led to a high ERA, he still allowed much less contact than he had up to that point in the year, with an opponents’ average of .280 over 80⅓ innings.

Now that his role in the bullpen is certified for 2026, Raya is confident he will be able to showcase the strengths of his pitching that came up short last season.

“I mean, it’s going to help a lot, help a ton,” he said. “Just getting that experience coming out of the bullpen and just getting that routine down for me. And those last seven outings, eight outings last season, felt really good, and it wasn’t too hard of a transition. So with how this spring has been going, I’m in a really good spot and feeling confident about going into this year.”

Marco Raya looked sharp in his first inning of work this spring on Monday, facing the minimum on just nine pitches, striking out one of the Tigers hitters, and seeing his fastball velocity top out at 96 MPH. It’s an encouraging start for what could be ahead, especially given Raya’s use as a long reliever to end last season.

But the Twins are not quite ready to shorten his workload to make him a short-inning reliever to start 2026. Raya will be on the same plan as teammates Travis Adams, Pierson Ohl, and John Klein were on last season, pitching a maximum of 4 innings every 4 days.

The Twins had not quite been ready to move him into the relief role as the off-season began. That allowed Raya to continue his off-season routine as he normally would if he were still a part of the Saints’ Opening Day rotation plans.

“When I got here, I had that conversation that I will be moving to the pen primarily now, so I am built up as a starter, and I feel like that kind of helped me there,” said Raya. “Like I said, moving forward, just trying to perfect that routine, moving out of the pen, and like I said, feel like I’m in a pretty good spot, so looking forward to it.”

Raya has spoken with his teammate Adams, who the Twins used in the short relief role in the Twins bullpen before the end of 2025. Since Adams was already on the four-day plan for all of 2025, the short relief transition was easier for him.

“I think just with how, obviously, I came with the four day, I think just how the last month, month and a half transitioned more into a one, two-inning guy,” Adams said. “So I think it’s an easier, a quicker transition for me to do it than the guys they have going a little bit slower.”

Nevertheless, Raya will be building up in a short role this spring, which will help him build up to the bulk relief role. Raya is still an outside candidate to make the team out of spring training. With Minnesota’s bullpen fully in rebuild mode, he’s hoping to make his case to reinforce the back end as he works toward his MLB debut in 2026.

Raya has the stuff to be an effective reliever with a high velocity fastball and a nasty curveball to get hitters to chase outside the zone when working in pitcher’s counts. He will be a part of the Twins bullpen in 2026, but it’s a matter of when.

With so many names pitching for an open spot for Opening Day, Marco Raya will need to make a compelling case in Live BPs and game action to be one of the guys the Twins add into the mix for Opening Day.

“Primarily moving to the pen and just focusing on that and trying to get a spot on the big league team,” said Raya. “Help the team get some wins.”