Twins counting on pitching staff as Spring Training begins
Asked on the first day of Spring Training in Fort Myers what the key to the upcoming season will be for his team, Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli cited the team’s pitching staff, which he believes could be an elite group.
“To be a late-season team,” Baldelli said from the team’s dugout at Lee Health Sports Complex, “we are going to have to rely on our pitching staff.”
Quietly, the Minnesota Twins staff produced some of the better individual pitching seasons in Major League Baseball last year.
Bailey Ober posted the fifth-best WHIP (walks and hits per inning) for pitchers with 160 innings or more and batters hit just .208 against him – making him the ninth-hardest pitcher to hit against in the big leagues for starters with 160 innings or more.
Pablo Lopez, who went 15-10, was tied with four other pitchers for the third-most wins in the American League. His 1.999 walks per-nine-innings was the ninth-best in the majors.
Joe Ryan was also threatening one of the best seasons in the majors before being shut down with a shoulder injury. While a 7-7 record might not have seemed elite in another era, his win-loss record hid some of his more top-tier numbers. His 0.985 WHIP placed him in the top five in the majors for those with 135 innings pitchers or more. Hitters batted .217 against him, which put him just behind National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, who was 10th in the majors with a .216 batting average against.
For Ryan, the road was toughest among the starting pitching staff in getting back to Spring Training after his season was cut short due to injury. Ryan said he is healthy after working hard in the offseason on strengthening his shoulder. His shoulder is “feeling good,” he said.
Ryan was noted for working on his pitching during the offseason before Spring Training began. Ryan called it “a normal offseason.”
Before starting his bullpen session Thursday, Ryan meticulously moved the dirt around in front of him to establish his landing spot in the dirt. “A lot of guys are throwing today,” Ryan said. “I wanted to make sure it’s ready for me.”
When he started throwing, Ryan looked as sharp as he has before. While other pitchers took time between pitches, Ryan worked quickly. At one point, he was throwing pitches in a rapid-fire motion almost as quick as the catcher threw it back.
“It feels good to be throwing a ball,” Ryan said after completing running drills. “Obviously it’s a little hot today. It’s just good to be out here and get a nice lather in and throw a bullpen.”
Ryan said his delivery Thursday felt “really smooth.”
Ryan credited his success last year in part to working with the staff. “They keep the information flowing,” he said. During his bullpen session Thursday, staff used electronic software to show him the movement on his pitches.
“I’m just working on staying consistent,” Ryan said.
Baldelli said he was not surprised with how well Ryan has bounced back from injury. “It’s the timeline we were hoping for,” he said. Baldelli said Ryan healed quickly and is a durable pitcher. “He has a loose-frame body,”
Ober, the towering 6’9 right-hander who is one of the club’s great homegrown successes since being drafted out of the College of Charleston in 2017 and pitching lights out with the Fort Myers Miracle in 2019, is trusted by Baldelli.
Baldelli said Ober is “as reliable as a pitcher arguably we have had the last few seasons.”
Baldelli said Ober has made “tremendous strides throwing.”
Ober said he felt that his season last year “was good overall.”
Ober said he will be working this spring on his mechanics and “to be as consistent as possible and try to have that same mindset going into this year. Just trying to improve every single day, trying to be as good as I was, just keep on trying to add something and just keep on improving. It’s day to day in this sport. You can’t look to far ahead and you can’t look too far behind so you just got to stay present.
Ober considers pitching a craft and wants to perfect his craft. “Pitching is an art and the way you throw is a very dynamic move and there is always ways to improve that and make it more efficient. So just trying to be in tune with how I am feeling and trying to get better,” Ober said.
“You know you are going to have a really good chance to win when he throws,” Baldelli said.
In his first pitch of his spring training bullpen, Ober’s pitch hit the catcher’s mitt like thunder. While Ober has not been known as one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the majors, his height and reach and the movement on his pitches make him tough to square up. Ober said any increased velocity he gains “is a result of work you put in. It’s the timing of mechanics. If you are on time naturally, your velocity is going to be a tick up. So I am working on the process of throwing and the mechanics on the mound. That is particularly my focus.”
Ober’s control is another one of his leading stats in the game. His 2.17 walks per nine innings last year ranked him in the top 10 of the American League.
As far as prepping for the season, the North Carolina native and resident said “Nothing crazy. Just hung out with my kids.”
Baldelli named Pablo Lopez the Opening Day starter for the team. Lopez spent his winter in Miami working with “one of my best friends” Astros reliever Luis Contreras. Contreras, like Lopez, is a native of Venezuela. “We have a good rapport,” Lopez said. “We play catch. Give each other feedback. We have a good thing going. We push each other. It gives plenty of confidence for the upcoming season,” Lopez said.
“Last year in the second half I was able to find a groove in my mechanics. Just continue to harp on those things, those mental cues on the mound,” he said.
Lopez looked electric in his first bullpen session Thursday of Spring Training at Lee Health Sports Complex in Fort Myers.
Lopez was sixth in the American League last season in strikeouts with 198, while posting a 4.08 ERA. Lopez said he will be working this spring on staying ahead in the count. “When you look at trends, percentages, there are some things you can clean up a little bit. So just clean up on those,” he said.
Baldelli will have some decisions on how the rest of his rotation shakes out. He will be choosing from a group that includes Chris Paddack, who returned from Tommy John surgery last season only to suffer a forearm strain.
Simeon Woods Richardson, whom the Twins acquired when they traded pitcher Jose Berrios to the Blue Jays in 2021, posted a 4.17 ERA last year across 28 starts. The team also called up homegrown prospect David Festa in August last year after Ryan went down. Festa posted a 4.90 ERA while striking out 77 batters in 64 innings.