For years now, the Minnesota Twins have been exceptional at finding fringe starters and turning them into lights-out relief weapons. From their bullpen aces like Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax, to exciting setup options like Louie Varland, Cole Sands, and Brock Stewart, virtually all of their top relief options were one-time starting pitcher prospects.
We know the club is great at identifying which players can make this transition, and at what point in their career. Still, despite their success in this area, it seems like each of these arms has quickly turned into one-inning supernovas instead of multi-inning stars.
And as all you fellow astronomers know, the opposite of a supernova is called an unnova, where the star doesn’t flare out but collapses into a black hole.
Zone Coverage’s Theo Tollefson reported that the Twins had called up Travis Adams to make his major league debut. The instant reaction was that he would fill a similar role to one that he’s been filling with the St. Paul Saints – that of a piggyback for the starting pitcher that can sop up some innings. The Twins hope he can find a way to fill that responsibility without leading to another black hole on a competitive team.
So, who is this new arm, and does he have a real shot at sticking around as a long man in the relief corps?
A sixth-round draft pick in 2021 out of Sacramento State University, Adams fits Minnesota’s prototype as a college starter at a non-premier program, who the club identified as someone who could benefit from a few mechanical tweaks. He follows guys like Zebby Matthews, David Festa, and even Bailey Ober in that regard. These tweaks may not have had the same effect on Adams’ upside. He didn’t see the same jump in velocity on his fastball. Still, it has become clear that his floor has improved dramatically.
Now he’s a reasonable bet to be a back-end starting pitcher or a low-leverage bulk reliever.
Adams doesn’t have the same put-away capability as someone like Matthews, who can consistently put minor leaguers away by overpowering them with a hard fastball.
Instead, Adams sits in the mid-90s with his heater, with his slider being his go-to secondary offering. That yacker will be his calling card if he carves out a role with the big-league club. His cutter and changeup give him four usable pitch options. However, therein lies the problem. Adams has a starter’s repertoire but lacks the tentpole offering that accelerates this type of pitcher’s career to the top level. Instead, Adams needs to get by on pitchability and strong control.
“Dating back to his college days, Adams has always been a strike-thrower, and he did an excellent job of limiting walks in 2024,” wrote MLB Pipeline in their pre-season profile for the 25-year-old. “His ceiling is limited because of a lack of plus stuff, but if he can keep improving his pitch usage, he could fit in the back end of a big league rotation soon.”
While the immediate outlook of his role has shifted since that writeup, expectations for the former Hornet remain consistent.
His opportunity is interesting because it only becomes sustainable if Adams does a mediocre job. As Aaron Gleeman and John Bonnes like to reference on their Gleeman and the Geek Podcast, if someone in this position immediately struggles, he’ll return to Triple-A for some more cooking until the need arises again. However, if he’s really good, the Twins will almost automatically remove him from long relief and plunge him into high-leverage spots at some point.
It’s the nature of the job for bullpen guys, especially for a group that has been leaned on pretty heavily in the first third of the season. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing when that graduation happens. It can cement someone like Adams as a standout one-inning guy if that’s where he’s finding the most success. Letting it fly for one inning at a time can do wonders for a good-not-great prospect. Just ask Duran, Jax, Varland, Stewart, and Sands.
So, as nice as it would be to have someone in the relief corps who can go two-plus innings, the only realistic way we’ll see it happen won’t necessarily make the team that much better.
But what do I know? I’m just an amateur astronomer who makes loose analogies in his baseball writing.
