\n\tMinnesota finds itself in a similar position now. They’re projected to enter the 2026 regular season with a hodgepodge of trustworthy veterans in Justin Topa<\/a> and Cole Sands<\/a> and young, high-ceiling arms in John Klein<\/a>, Marco Raya<\/a>, and (most notably) Connor Prielipp<\/a>. Twins decision-makers would love for the organization\u2019s next star closer to develop internally. Klein, Raya, and Prielipp could be the first crop of young arms to receive that opportunity, with Prielipp possessing the stuff and arsenal necessary to quickly develop into that caliber of relief ace.\n<\/p>\n \n\tSelected in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft, Prielipp started two games in A-ball before needing to undergo Tommy John<\/a> surgery, effectively ending his 2023 season. The Alabama product pitched minimally in 2024 before breaking through last season, with a 4.03 ERA, 3.54 FIP, and 98-to-31 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 82 \u2154 innings pitched at Double A and Triple A. The organization deployed the then-24-year-old almost exclusively as a starting pitcher last season. However, the front office has already admitted that Prielipp could transition into a relief role<\/a> in 2026; he could be part of the club\u2019s Opening Day bullpen.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tPrielipp separates himself from Klein, Raya, and other contemporaries by possessing three of the most effective pitches in the Twins system, in his four-seam fastball, slider, and changeup. He complements his near-elite three-pitch mix with a sinker, a fastball variant the lefty added to his arsenal last season. A primary reason Duran and (to a lesser degree) Griffin Jax<\/a> developed into prized high-leverage arms was that they were able to maximize the shape and velocity of their pitches while maintaining the four-to-five pitch arsenal of a starting pitcher.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tBeing left-handed, Prielipp is a different pitcher than Duran and Jax. His breaking ball isn’t quite as devastating, because he will face many right-handed batters and have to lean more on his changeup\u2014though he did show the ability to change the shape of the slider last year, based on batter handedness. Still, Prielipp has the swing-and-miss stuff necessary to make the same transition as Duran and Jax. Sitting around 95 MPH as a starter, the lefty\u2019s four-seam fastball is inferior to Jax\u2019s, let alone Duran\u2019s. Once transitioned into a short relief role, though, he should add extra velocity and clean up the shape of his four-seamer, potentially reaching 97 or 98 MPH. If Prielipp can add velocity to his four-seam fastball, continue developing his sinker, and lean on his elite slider and plus change, he could join the ranks of San Diego\u2019s Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n<\/a> and Seattle\u2019s Jos\u00e9 A. Ferrer, becoming one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball and Minnesota\u2019s next All-Star-caliber closer.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Entering the 2022 MLB regular season, the Minnesota Twins’ 10-pitcher(!) bullpen was a smorgasbord of reliever archetypes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,6969,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-522056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-connor-prielipp","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115900573678274824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot2026-01-15112607.png.d7f85e13deb5500b4dff9abf9c1f5d7a.png\"\/)
\n<\/p>\n