The Minnesota Twins have one of the best and deepest bullpens in the league. They have relief buzzsaws like Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart who have shoved for them for the entire year, and they’re starting to get even more reinforcements to the back end of their relief corps. Jhoan Duran and Caleb Thielbar are healthy again, and they have gotten essential high-leverage outs for the club over the last few years.
Add in Justin Topa, who is wrapping up a rehab stint with Triple-A St. Paul, and the Twins suddenly have a pretty crowded bullpen picture.
Could they send one of their early standouts to the minor leagues to get stretched out as a starter?
After sneaking onto the roster following spring training, Cole Sands has had a magnificent first month of his 2024 campaign. He has a brilliant 1.98 ERA with 13.2 K/9 and only two walks across 13 ⅔ innings pitched. While he has mostly pitched in low-to-mid leverage spots, the club has started using him later in ballgames, usually for one inning at a time.
While it’s encouraging to see Sands succeeding at the game’s highest level, would the Twins be wise to send him down to Triple-A to stretch him out as a starter?
The Twins have a plethora of options for one-inning relievers, and they’re also three or four deep with backup options in St. Paul.
Minnesota’s starting rotation depth chart is probably the thinnest group of all the departments on its roster. Hopefully, Pablo López, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and Chris Paddack can continue holding their own in the first four spots of the starting pitcher corps. However, current back-end starter Simeon Woods Richardson and the recently demoted Louie Varland are understandably going through substantial growing pains as they try to establish themselves as MLB-capable starter options.
David Festa is the club’s top pitching prospect who’s closest to the majors. While his recent stretch has opened some eyes, he’s only pitched 23 innings above Double-A. It’s going to take some time for him to cement himself in the long-term rotation plans, much less get called up to make his debut.
So, if Sands can get stretched out as a possible starter, he could make a few starts for the Twins when duty inevitably calls. If the club is lucky enough to never need that level of depth in their rotation, it’s easy enough to send him back into a relief role. Still, they’d have the flexibility to use him for multiple ups in a game if needed.
There’s still plenty that Sands can work to improve in his arsenal, which would increase his likelihood of remaining in the major leagues. In his last prospect rundown for Fangraphs near the end of last season, Eric Longenhagen laid out what Sands can continue to work on:
While it looks pretty, Sands’ slider has been hittable in the zone and he has started to prioritize a harder, cuttery breaking ball over time, and now that he’s back in the big leagues, you can see that it has more horizontal movement and less vertical action than it did last year. Results have been mixed so far, as Sands’ augmented breaker is generating fewer whiffs. Ideally his breaking ball and split will both be able to miss big league bats.
Sands is already improving with that pitch, as his cutter has generated a 27.3% whiff rate. However, he’s allowed a .500 slugging percentage on that offering, which has become his go-to option in putaway situations.
Perhaps some time with Triple-A to fine-tune his arsenal while building his arm up for a bulk role is for the best. Longenhagen seems to concur that the 26-year-old’s likeliest role going forward with the club is one that is essential to long-term success. “Sands has a four- or five-pitch mix and a quick-paced, short-armed delivery that disrupts timing,” he said. “[He] is likely destined for a long relief role in which he pitches heavily off of all his secondaries.”
