Jhoan Duran admitted to feeling butterflies when the bullpen phone rang on opening day. After he gave up two runs in four innings, Joe Ryan‘s day was over. But Gio Urshela had cut the Seattle Mariners’ lead in half, and Rocco Baldelli had called upon Duran to keep the Minnesota Twins within one.
“I got a little nervous,” said Duran, who made his major league debut on Friday. “Not going to lie.”
The first batter Duran faced, Ty France, singled to right. Jesse Winker singled to center, and both runners advanced when Duran threw a wild pitch. Suddenly, Duran had runners on second and third with nobody out.
Pitching coach Wes Johnson ran out to the mound to calm his rookie pitcher down. It must have worked because Duran struck out the next four batters he faced and stranded France and Winker.
“I would say a pretty ideal way to get him in there,” said Baldelli. “We’re in a good, tight ballgame, right in the middle of the game.
“I’d like to get everyone in as soon as possible.”
We’re going to have to define everyone, but Baldelli is managing an overhauled roster that the Twins put together immediately before the season. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine’s approach was tepid before the lockout. They only signed Dylan Bundy, 29, a former top prospect who had a 6.06 ERA last year with the Los Angeles Angels.
But Falvey and Levine acted fast once the lockout ended in mid-March. They unloaded Josh Donaldson’s contract and picked up Urshela and Gary Sanchez from the New York Yankees. They traded last year’s first-round pick, Chase Petty, to the Cincinnati Reds for Sonny Gray and signed Chris Archer to fill out the rotation. Finally, they traded All-Star closer Taylor Rogers to the San Diego Padres for Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagán.
Rookie pitchers Ryan, Duran, and Josh Winder are an important part of that mix.
The Twins gave up two of the most beloved players in the clubhouse to get Ryan and Duran. They acquired Ryan in the trade that sent Nelson Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays. His rookie status is still intact despite making five starts last year. Duran is the first prospect to reach the majors from the Eduardo Escobar trade in 2018. Minnesota selected Winder in the seventh round of the 2018 draft.
The Twins could have made Gray (32) or Archer (33) their opening day starter. Both have experience starting on the first game of the season. Instead, they turned to Ryan, 25. When he took the mound on Friday, Ryan became the third player in the expansion era (since 1961) to start on opening day within the first six games of his career.
It looked like the Twins were going to put Winder, 25, in the rotation to start the year. However, they traded for Paddock, who effectively took his spot. Still, instead of sending Winder to Triple-A, where he would join top prospect Jordan Balazovic, they opted to put him in the bullpen.
Baldelli could have opted to have Duran make his debut in a lower-leverage situation. Instead, he picked up the phone on opening day and asked his rookie reliever to keep the game within one.
“It played out in a good way where he was able to just get his feet wet at the beginning of that outing,” said Baldelli, “but then settle in and throw the ball really well. It took a little bit for him to get to that point, but once he found himself, he was showing a lot of people what he could do.”
Duran threw an 100 mph fastball, a “splinker” at 96 mph, and mixed in an 87-mph curveball. He struck out three straight to get out of the fifth inning and got, Julio Rodríguez, the first hitter he faced in the sixth, looking.
“I don’t think anyone on the field,” said Baldelli, “could even look at that and not realize that that was pretty special.”
The Twins have every reason to be precious with their pitching prospects. Pitchers frequently get hurt, so teams put them on pitch counts. They’ll lose confidence if they get hit around early in their careers.
It’s only natural for Falvey and Levine to think they may have gotten a starter who throws 100 mph when they acquired Duran or drafted a middle-of-the-rotation arm in the seventh round when they selected Winder. But Duran and Winder are success stories if they record major league outs this year, whether or not they eventually start in the majors.
It’s wise for Minnesota to get their best pitching prospects on the roster as soon as they can. They need to get their pitching pipeline going this year if they’re going to field a competitive team, and not every pitching prospect will find a home in the rotation. That’s not to say that they should rush Balazovic, Simeon Woods Richardson, or Matt Canterino just for the sake of getting them to the majors. But they shouldn’t be treating their prospects with kid gloves either.
They aren’t so far, and Duran rewarded them for doing so on opening day. Duran looks like he has closer stuff, which isn’t a bad thing for a team that just traded its best reliever. He had answered the call.
