Ed. Note: On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins placed Jorge López on the 15-day mental health injured list. This story was published before that news broke. The Springfield Gorge refers to a fictional location in The Simpsons universe.
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has said that Bart the Daredevil is his favorite episode of the 34-season show. Fox originally aired it on Dec. 6, 1990, making The Simpsons the network’s highest-rated series that week. In it, Bart Simpson witnesses legendary daredevil Lance Murdoch do a death-defying stunt at a monster truck rally and is inspired to emulate him.
Bart injures himself trying to jump over the family car but is undeterred. He continues to attempt increasingly more dangerous stunts. On a class trip to the Springfield Gorge, Bart tells his classmates that he will jump the gorge on his skateboard next Saturday. There’s no going back once he said that. His doctor may discourage it; his father may forbid him from doing so. Bart won’t have it. He’s committed to the stunt.
Jorge López isn’t a daredevil, but he’s trying to pull off a high-wire act again. López came up as a starter with the Milwaukee Brewers and owned a 6.04 ERA from 2015 to 2021. Milwaukee, the Kansas City Royals, and Baltimore Orioles tried to get the 2011 second-round pick to reach his potential as a starter. But López didn’t start dominating until Baltimore turned him into a closer last year. López owned a 1.64 ERA when the Minnesota Twins traded for him at the deadline.
ESPN gave Minnesota an A- for the trade. “The only quibble with this deal from the Minnesota perspective,” wrote Bradford Doolittle, “is whether the Twins might be able to get a better closer from another club.” Conversely, he gave Baltimore an F, saying that they can’t act like they’re rebuilding when they’re 2.5 games out of a playoff spot. “From a value standpoint, I’d rather bet on López outproducing any of these four prospects over the next three seasons.”
Doolittle didn’t see Yennier Cano’s ERA hovering around 1.00 in Baltimore. Few did after he had a 9.22 ERA in Minnesota and an 18.69 ERA with the O’s. Instead, he was concerned about López repeatedly leaping over the gorge after only doing it for half a season. Granted, López was an All-Star last year before producing a 4.37 ERA with the Twins. But that’s the thing about closing. Either you clear the gorge, or you fall into it. There aren’t any innings left if you blow the lead.
Rocco Baldelli made López the closer immediately upon receiving him in the trade last year. But after López blew multiple saves, he turned to Jhoan Durán in the ninth. Durán is more than capable of closing, but there’s an argument that Baldelli should deploy him in high-leverage situations rather than exclusively the ninth. Durán can pitch multiple innings, and even the best hitters in the league have trouble with his splinker and 103 mph fastball. However, they can’t do that when López can’t close.
López is more valuable to the team as a setup man or a closer than in any other role. However, given that his ERA has spiked from 0.00 in the first month of the season to 9.00 in May and June, the Twins have to do whatever they can to get him right. They have to get him to hit the taxi gap in the warehouse and do a car ollie downtown before he tries to clear the Springfield Gorge again. On Thursday, he got through the middle of the Detroit Tigers lineup unscathed in the eighth, only to relinquish three runs on five hits in the ninth.
Baldelli said it was more about getting López, who’s only pitched three times in June, settled on the mound again.
His velo is fluctuating a little bit. Anyone watching can see that. Some of the pitch selection is something else that we can talk about. But truthfully, I think he’s just trying to get comfortable. I think he’s just trying to find that All-Star caliber, late-inning reliever stuff. And he’s trying to find it in different ways right now, and we’re going to try to help him continue to find it.
For now, he is going to be pitching in some different spots and some different roles, and I think he knows that and understands that, and we can even clarify that if necessary, too. But we’re going to help him get back to where he needs to be because we want him there, and believe me, he wants to be there, too.
López didn’t seem overly concerned about his velocity fluctuating or pitch selection against Detroit. However, he pointed out that he’s more comfortable going one inning, unlike Durán, who pitches two with aplomb. “Having a positive mindset, we stuck to the plan, but unfortunately, they beat the plan,” he said. “I’m more of a one-inning pitcher. But we’ll see how it progresses – if we stay [at] one or two innings.”
Ultimately, López doesn’t need to be more than a one-inning pitcher. But he has to be able to set up Durán and occasionally close games if he’s going to offer Minnesota maximum value. He’s not close right now, but he was two months ago. The gorge may be massive, and it’s probably going to be a long, winding road to get there. But López has crossed it before, and he’s determined to do so again.
