When the Minnesota Twins signed Brock Stewart to a rarely two-year minor league contract in 2022, they knew he had MLB upside waiting to be tapped into. They didn’t realize they were holding onto an absolute weapon. Now in the second half of the pact that he signed last year, the righty has a sterling 0.86 ERA across 21 innings at the MLB level. Is this a mirage? Or has this front office found yet another hidden gem in the scrap pile? By looking at his numbers from the first few years of his career, and realizing how big of an asset he is to Minnesota’s current bullpen, it’s clear that Stewart has gone through a career-reviving transition. He’s not just a former top-prospect who never lived up to the hype. Now, he should be known as Brock the Glock™ — the newest weapon out of the Twins’ bullpen.
Stewart’s career outlook wasn’t always as rosy as it looks now. While the Los Angeles Dodgers had high hopes for their former top prospect leading up to his debut in 2016, he was never able to put it all together as a starting pitcher. Through his first three seasons of his MLB career, Stewart worked almost exclusively as a starting pitcher, accumulating a 4.84 ERA with little firepower across 11 starts. In those 80 innings, he had only 68 strikeouts and 40 walks allowed. His fastball topped out in the low-90s, and his swinging-strike rate hovered around the 10-11% range. That’s not the worst clip we’ve seen from a back-end starting pitcher, but it’s far from what many expected as Stewart rose through the minor league ranks. It’s also eons away from the player we’ve seen with the Twins this year.
In 2023, Stewart has a blistering fastball that averages 97.3 MPH (82nd percentile) and elite 2582 RPM spin rate (93rd percentile). Opponents are only hitting .152 against his heater (4th-best in MLB), due in large part to the fact that he has a league-leading 51% miss rate on that offering. And as he told Twins’ MLB.com beat reporter Do-Hyoung Park, after getting his first save since 2017 a few weeks ago, he couldn’t be happier with the results he’s seen with the Twins thus far.
“I’ve been through quite a bit,” Stewart said. “To have my best stuff now at 31 years old, I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled to help this team. I just wanted to get back into pro ball. And here I am in the big leagues, helping a winning ballclub win games. Thrilled, man.”
The Twins have to be elated to have this gun in their holster, too. While Jhoan Durán has been the relief ace that many expected, others in Minnesota’s relief corps haven’t fared nearly as well. Caleb Thielbar has been sidelined twice with an oblique injury. Griffin Jax battled some bad luck but is starting to return to form. And Jorge López has been through the meat grinder since being acquired at last season’s trade deadline.
When you think about it, Stewart has transformed into the pitcher that the Twins thought they were getting when they traded for López. He’s a late-inning weapon with growing strikeout numbers and really good raw stuff behind his pitches. They both have issues with allowing too many free passes (4.7 BB/9 for Stewart, 4.5 for López since coming to Minnesota), which is the one gripe that many could feasibly have with Minnesota’s new setup guy. Both pitchers were former starting pitcher prospects who have gone through career revitalization recently. Now they’ll both be tasked with playing a key role in the bullpen picture through the rest of the season.
Is that too tall of a request for Stewart? Are we making too much out of a short sample size? While it’s not out of the question, we’ve asked the same question on a few different occasions throughout the tenure of this front office. When Matt Wisler came up and raised eyebrows in his lone season with the Twins after signing a minor league deal, many were initially quite skeptical.
The same can be said for Thielbar when the Twins re-signed him in 2020, and he’s been one of their best arms for them across the last four seasons. There were even questions about how effective Jax and Durán would be after moving to bullpen roles after being career-long starters. It doesn’t mean that Stewart is a lock to maintain his stellar numbers for the next three and a half months, but he and Minnesota’s decision makers deserve the benefit of the doubt, at least.
Stewart has provided the fire-power that the bullpen desperately needed. As long as the team does the work necessary to keep his arm locked and loaded, he should get plenty of shots going forward.
