The Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff has been one of their biggest strengths this year. Minnesota’s starters lead all of baseball in quality starts with 63, and they have also consistently ranked near the top of the majors in strikeouts, ERA, and innings pitched all year. Pablo López, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and Kenta Maeda have all turned in brilliant performances at times this season as part of a five-man rotation. The Twins initially brought Dallas Keuchel up to fill Joe Ryan’s spot while he recovered from injury, and then he took a perfect game into the 7th inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates last Sunday.
Because the Twins have a solid rotation one through five and with Keuchel emerging as another option, it’s only natural to wonder if they’ll move to a six-man rotation. When you have as deep of a rotation as the Twins do, with another depth piece joining within the last few weeks, it’s a good idea to change up the roster construction a bit to give your team their best chance to win every night.
There are a few different benefits that a six man rotation would offer the Twins, at least in the short term. One of the biggest issues for Sonny Gray this year has been getting outs once he gets to the third time through the order, and an extra day of rest would likely help Gray deal with his fatigue. With Joe Ryan returning from injury, Minnesota needs to make room for him, and adding an extra spot would help them solve that problem. Finally, a six man rotation would benefit Bailey Ober as well. Ober has never pitched as many innings as he has this year. Giving him an extra day would ensure that he is able to be at 100% in every one of his starts.
Pablo López has undoubtedly been Minnesota’s No. 1 starter in the second half. Before Thursday’s start against the Texas Rangers, López had posted a 0.47 ERA in August. He’s also second in the American League in strikeouts, only four behind Kevin Gausman of the Toronto Blue Jays heading into Friday’s games. The Twins need an ace they can count on to go deep into games down the stretch and in the postseason, and López definitely fits that bill.
The Twins are fortunate enough to also have multiple other starters who have ace potential. Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan each had incredible starts to the year and were in the top 5 of MLB.com’s AL Cy Young rankings at one point. They have each fallen off a bit in the second half. Gray hasn’t been able to pick up wins for over a month, and Ryan got injured and started giving up home runs. With that being said, they each still have the ability to shut down opposing bats.
Gray’s inability to earn wins was partially due to a lack of run support from the lineup in his starts. And the hamstring injury Ryan played through likely resulted in him giving up all those home runs. Once those issues are resolved, Gray and Ryan could be a massive part of the Twins rotation heading into the final month of the regular season and beyond.
The other members of Minnesota’s hypothetical six-man rotation (Ober, Maeda, and Keuchel) are not exactly ace material, but they do all have the potential to give the Twins regular solid starts. Ober has posted a total of 11 quality starts on the season, and Maeda has added 5. Keuchel has a much smaller sample size on the year, only making three starts for Minnesota.
However, Keuchel has done his job with aplomb for the most part. On Sunday, he even flirted with perfection, retiring the first 19 batters he faced. We obviously can’t expect Keuchel to return to Cy Young form in the last few weeks of the season, but he showed that he’s definitely still got it in his most recent start.
Six-man rotations aren’t common in baseball, but the Twins are in a unique situation right now. Their regular starting staff has been incredibly consistent front-to-back for most of the year. Even after the rotation has taken a step backward since the break, they still rank near the top of the league in several categories.
Many fans and media members have suggested that this year’s rotation may be one of the deepest that the Twins have ever had. It makes perfect sense to at least try to maximize its potential by having all hands on deck. If the entire staff can perform up to its potential as the season winds down, Minnesota has a real chance to be a dangerous team in postseason play.
