Nearly a month ago, Lou Hennessey wrote a piece highlighting four left-handed relievers the Minnesota Twins should pursue at the trade deadline: Matt Moore, Garrett Cleavinger, T.J. McFarland, and old friend Taylor Rogers. All four are intriguing options who would instantly become the team’s best left-handed reliever over Steven Okert, Caleb Thielbar, and Kody Funderburk. However, Cleavinger stands out among the group as the most enticing option.
The Baltimore Orioles chose Cleavinger in the third round of the 2015 MLB Draft out of the University of Oregon. Cleavinger, 30, spent three years as a starter in Baltimore’s system before they traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies along with Hyun-soo Kim in a trade package starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson headlined. He debuted for the Phillies as a reliever in 2020 before bouncing between the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, back to the Dodgers, and finally back to Tampa from 2021 through 2022.
However, the hard-throwing lefty has found a home with the Rays, posting a combined 3.31 ERA and 3.42 FIP over 69 innings pitched. Cleavinger has become one of Tampa Bay’s top left-handed relief options alongside Colin Poche. He uses a cutter, four-seam fastball, slider, and sinker and has the sixth-best pure stuff in Tampa Bay’s pitching staff, according to FanGraphs’s Stuff+ metric. The slider is his best pitch, with a 133 Stuff+ (100 is average). His other pitches rate out exceptionally well, with his fastball residing at 107, his sinker at 100, and his cutter at 114.
Cleavinger does possess some command concerns, evidenced by his 49-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Still, his repertoire matches what type of pitches Twins decision-makers and pitching development staff value the most. The organization prioritizes pitchers who throw balls with plus vertical movement (e.g., four-seam fastballs) and pitches that move to the “glove side” (e.g., sliders and sinkers). By possessing three pitches the Twins highly value, Cleavinger could seamlessly join Minnesota’s bullpen. He would instantly become the team’s best left-handed reliever ahead of the middling Okert, Caleb Thielbar, and inconsistent but still promising Funderburk.
Cleavinger is also an appealing trade target because acquiring him has minimal financial ramifications. Cleavinger is under team control until the end of the 2027 MLB season and will make roughly $300,000 the rest of this season. He is arbitration-eligible for the next three seasons, making his future earnings unpredictable. However, considering he is a mid-to-high leverage reliever who has netted only three saves in his career (a statistic that arbitrators value when assessing relievers), there is reason to believe his average annual value will remain affordable within Minnesota’s budget restrictions.
Cleavinger is an enticing southpaw who would immediately become the team’s best left-handed reliever. Addressing an important position of need while staying within Minnesota’s budget would be a great use of resources, especially considering that acquiring his services would require the team’s front office to part ways with minimal prospect capital. Although the upcoming trade deadline will likely be uneventful, teams will still be able to improve on the margins, and the Twins would be wise to do that by acquiring the Rays lefty reliever.
