The Twins tore their bullpen to the studs when they dealt their top five relievers prior to this summer’s trade deadline. One of their top offseason priorities will be building it back up.
That process began on Tuesday when the Twins dealt 22-year-old minor-league pitcher Jacob Kisting to the Tampa Bay Rays for MLB reliever Eric Orze, a 28-year-old who has posted huge strikeout numbers in the minors. With so many vacancies in Minnesota’s bullpen, Orze looks like a virtual lock to make the team out of spring training and hold either a medium or high-leverage role.
How did he get here?
Back in 2020, Orze was drafted by the Mets in the fifth round out of New Orleans. The Illinois native had a strong first professional season the following year, rising from High-A to Triple-A while posting a 3.08 ERA with 67 strikeouts and 14 walks in 49.2 innings. He struggled a bit in 2022, with a 5.13 ERA in Triple-A, but he had 64 Ks and just 14 walks.
Orze’s control slipped in 2023, when he had a 5.31 ERA with 81 strikeouts and 41 walks in 61 frames. But he bounced back from a couple difficult seasons with a strong 2024 for the Mets’ Triple-A team in Syracuse, posting a 2.92 ERA with 84 strikeouts and 31 walks in 61.2 innings. He made his MLB debut in July of that year and would make one more appearance for the Mets later that month.
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Last November, the Mets traded Orze to the Rays for outfielder Jose Siri, which proved to be a steal for Tampa Bay. Siri went 2 for 32 at the plate across 16 games for New York. Meanwhile, Orze got his first extended opportunity to pitch in the big leagues and acquitted himself nicely. In 41.2 innings for TB, he had a 3.02 ERA with 40 strikeouts, 19 walks, and a 1.37 WHIP.
Orze is listed at 6’4″ and 205 pounds. His primary pitch, which he threw nearly half of the time this past season, is his 84 mile-per-hour splitter, which can look nasty when he locates it. He also throws a 94 MPH fastball about a quarter of the time, and a slider at 89 the other quarter. Orze has 90th percentile extension, per Baseball Savant, and he was very good at avoiding hard-hit contact in his rookie season. He only allowed four home runs in his 33 appearances.
What’s his outlook in Minnesota?
This feels like a good upside swing for the Twins, who need to keep adding intriguing and/or proven arms in their bullpen. Orze has had solid results in 43.1 career MLB innings, although his walk rate and WHIP are the primary concerns that made him available for the low cost of Kisting, a 14th-round pick in 2024.
On one hand, the Rays are such a smart organization that it tends to raise your eyebrows when they give up on a player. On the other hand, they did trade Joe Ryan to the Twins for a couple months of Nelson Cruz in 2021.
Orze probably projects as a solid middle-inning reliever (think someone like Cole Sands or Justin Topa) with the potential for more. Across 251.1 career minor-league innings, he has a 3.83 ERA with 338 strikeouts and 110 walks. Led by his splitter, he possesses big-time swing-and-miss stuff, though as is often the case, it comes with some concerns about command. New Twins bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins will try to maximize what Orze does well while helping him clean up some things that have given him trouble.
The video below shows Orze striking out the side against the Twins this past May.
What’s next?
This will be the first of several bullpen additions this offseason for the Twins. The good news is that there are a wide variety of ways to acquire legitimate bullpen production. You can make a trade, like the Twins just did. You can sign free agents, usually for fairly cheap. Or you can convert a young starting pitcher in your organization into a reliever — and the Twins have plenty of candidates who could go that route.
The current bullpen options on the Twins’ 40-man roster include Orze, Sands, Topa, Kody Funderburk, Travis Adams, Pierson Ohl, John Klein, and a bunch of starter-to-reliever candidates. Much more work is needed in that area.
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