{"id":540127,"date":"2026-01-27T05:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540127\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:44:27","slug":"minnesota-twins-new-signing-makes-prediction-for-2026-mlb-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540127\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Twins\u2019 New Signing Makes Prediction for 2026 MLB Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Twins<\/a> went 70-92 last season and finished fourth in the American League Central.<\/p>\n

It was a rough year that saw the team trade away most of its bullpen at the deadline, but newly signed reliever Taylor Rogers thinks there is reason for hope.<\/p>\n

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Rogers signed a one-year, $2 million deal to return to the team that drafted him in 2012 and feels good about where things are headed.<\/p>\n

Rogers Sees Similarities to 2016<\/p>\n

“I like this young group that is here,” Rogers told Bobby Nightengale of The Star Tribune.<\/a> “You guys remember 2016, we lost 103 games. We were thin in the ‘pen with a full 40-man roster. In 2017, we make the playoffs, so there’s no reason why can’t do that again.”<\/p>\n

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The comparison makes sense. In 2016, the Twins finished 59-103<\/a> and had the worst record in baseball.<\/p>\n

One year later, they won 85 games and became the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after losing 100 or more games the previous season.<\/p>\n

Rogers was part of that 2017 team and saw firsthand how fast things can change.<\/p>\n

The left-hander spent six seasons in Minnesota and made an All-Star team in 2021 before getting traded.<\/p>\n

Why This Signing Makes Sense<\/p>\n

Bringing back Rogers helps fill a big hole.<\/p>\n

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The Twins traded away Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe<\/a> during the deadline fire sale last summer, and they finished with one of the worst bullpen ERAs in baseball.<\/p>\n

Rogers posted a 3.38 ERA<\/a> with 53 strikeouts in 50 2\/3 innings between the Reds and Cubs last season.<\/p>\n

His sweeper remains strong, as hitters batted just .168 against it in 2025.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old knows the organization and can provide leadership to a young group.<\/p>\n

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Other Bullpen Options Heading Into Spring Training<\/p>\n

Even with Rogers on board, the Twins have work to do.<\/p>\n

The current mix includes Cole Sands, Justin Topa and Kody Funderburk as holdovers, along with Eric Orze who was acquired from Tampa Bay<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n

Young arms like Connor Prielipp and Marco Raya could compete for spots.<\/p>\n

New manager Derek Shelton expects the bullpen to look different by spring training, and Derek Falvey said more help is coming.<\/p>\n

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“We’re close to being able to add some guys that will fill out some experience in that group, but we’re going to need some young guys to step up,” Falvey said.<\/p>\n

The Twins could use help from their farm system<\/a> to fill roles.<\/p>\n

Minnesota opens 2026 on March 26 against Baltimore, and if Rogers is right about this group, the Twins could surprise people just like they did in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins went 70-92 last season and finished fourth in the American League Central. It was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[18241,143,5,6440,9707,161,7792,7883,6439,3276,4576,7666,6438,15636,822,60,3190,4,168,1116,2550,6922,148,5046],"class_list":["post-540127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-american-league-central","tag-baltimore","tag-baseball","tag-brock-stewart","tag-cole-sands","tag-cubs","tag-danny-coulombe","tag-eric-orze","tag-griffin-jax","tag-jhoan-duran","tag-justin-topa","tag-kody-funderburk","tag-louis-varland","tag-marco-raya","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-rockies","tag-seth-halvorsen","tag-tampa-bay","tag-taylor-rogers","tag-twins","tag-victor-vodnik"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115965478128065141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540127","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=540127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}