{"id":677324,"date":"2026-04-17T01:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677324\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:57:23","slug":"the-twins-starting-rotation-is-carrying-a-heavy-load-for-good-reasons-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677324\/","title":{"rendered":"The Twins’ Starting Rotation is Carrying a Heavy Load, for Good Reasons – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust as everyone drew it up at the beginning of the season, the Minnesota Twins are battling the Cleveland Guardians not only for the top spot in the American League, but also for second place for innings pitched by starters in the American League. The rotation\u2019s usage is a far cry from what had been one of the biggest grievances hurled at former skipper Rocco Baldelli<\/a>: a quick hook on starters. What has changed to bring the Twins’ starting rotation into such a different place from a usage standpoint?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLast season, the Twins finished 13th in the AL for innings from starting pitchers; they only topped the Athletics and the White Sox. Two seasons ago, the Twins were seventh\u2014much better than 13th, but still quite a way from that second-place spot they currently sit in after taking the series from the Boston Red Sox. It’s not hard to identify the main reason why this year’s team has hewed closer to the blueprint of a club built around a strong starting rotation: solid performance. The unproven starters the team turned to after L\u00f3pez went down, Taj Bradley<\/a>, and Mick Abel<\/a>, have been nothing short of remarkable to start the season.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOther factors have also contributed to the choice to let starters work deeper. The offense has actually been providing run support. If we take, for instance, Bailey Ober<\/a>\u2019s outing against the Red Sox on Monday evening, he gave up four runs over six innings. Three of those runs came somewhat early in the game during the third inning. Since the Twins already had 11 runs on the board, though, there wasn\u2019t even a thought of getting Ober out of the game that early. Instead, Derek Shelton<\/a> could simply let Ober battle through and cover a few more innings. Over the last two seasons, Baldelli frequently admitted that the flow of the game forced him to remove starters before he’d have ideally done so.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOber\u2019s recent outing is really the only example that fits that mold exactly, but it isn\u2019t the only way run support helps out the rotation. What has been a more regular occurrence is good run support paired with good pitching performances. In that scenario, pitchers likely have a psychological edge, allowing them to pitch more freely. They get some extra time to recover and refresh themselves while the offense goes to work, and when they’re on the mound, there’s more margin for error and less anxiety.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery pitch isn’t a do-or-die situation like it has been for the Twins for long stretches in recent seasons, when the offense struggled to produce. We especially saw this last season, when what was supposed to be a dominant bullpen always had to pitch with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel in order to carry the Twins to a win, because there was little to no offense behind them.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf this group were underperforming, of course, a strong offense wouldn’t be enough to have them eating this many innings. Joe Ryan<\/a> continues to be Joe Ryan, somewhat vulnerable to external influences but immensely talented and competitive. Bradley is doing his best to impersonate Ryan\u2019s first full season with the Twins, quickly cementing himself as the number two starter in the rotation. He has a longer track record and a sturdier build than Ryan had back then, though, and can be trusted to work a bit deeper than Ryan could be. Abel is dealing right now, and Ober, despite his decreased velocity, is giving the team competitive outings and keeping them in it. Simeon Woods Richardson<\/a> is the closest of the bunch to drawing concern, but his track record gives him some leeway. The success of the rest of the group gives him even more.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, the team also lacks the deep, high-powered bullpen Baldelli had over the last few years. That could be a motivating factor in Shelton’s decision to allow longer starts. Regardless of the motivation, until there is a more solidified path through the pen, getting that extra inning or two from a starter will pay dividends for the club. The volume they’ve provided has shielded Shelton and his team from the roster’s weaknesses. For as long as he can afford to do so, we’re likely to see Shelton keep trusting his starters, and letting them get deeper into games than we’ve seen in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just as everyone drew it up at the beginning of the season, the Minnesota Twins are battling the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1455,5158,822,60,3190,4,763,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-677324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-joe-ryan","10":"tag-mick-abel","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-twins","13":"tag-minnesotatwins","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-taj-bradley","16":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116417570008520141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677324","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=677324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}