Back in 1818, poets Percy Shelley and Horace Smith saw an advance screener of “Ozymandias,” the 14th episode of Season 5 of “Breaking Bad,” the one where Walter White’s empire, business, and family crumble before him. Bryan Cranston’s performance so moved them that each of them worked on a sonnet to capture the feeling of the episode.
Shelley’s version won out, at least in the imaginations of popular culture, with these words ringing out to this day.
“My name is Ozymandias: King of Kings
Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
No thing remains beside. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare.
Those words, ironically, have proven to be not only powerful but also enduring. When “Ozymandias” finally aired after being trapped in development hell for nearly two centuries, Cranston himself read the words inspired by his character.
Minnesota Twins fans had better prepare for those same words to resonate at Target Field during the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings for the next two months.
No thing beside the bullpen remains after Thursday’s trade deadline. Closer Jhoan Duran? Gone to the Philadelphia Phillies. Set-up men Griffin Jax and Louis Varland are now with the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays, respectively. Danny Coulombe (1.16 ERA) and Brock Stewart (2.38 ERA) are also out the door.
Add all that up, and we’re talking 201.1 innings — more than half of the team’s 399.1 relief innings this season. Combined, these five relievers had a dazzling 2.59 ERA with 10.9 strikeouts per nine and a 3.81 K-to-BB ratio. Their 23rd-ranked bullpen ERA doesn’t hint at it, but the top of Minnesota’s bullpen was mighty. The unit was tied for ninth in strikeout rate, second in walk rate, and ninth in home run rate. The unit’s 5.2 WAR bested every team except for the San Diego Padres.
Granted, to dismantle a bullpen that strong so very thoroughly was profitable in terms of prospect capital. Thanks to the Duran and Varland trades, the Twins nabbed the second, fifth, and 10th-best prospects that moved at the deadline, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. But at what cost?
Remember: No thing beside remains.
Please give a warm welcome to your new closer, Twins fans. Cole Sands has had a decent season and earned some of Rocco Baldelli‘s trust. But despite a decent 4.11 ERA in 46 innings, Sands has just 36 strikeouts, well below-average for a reliever these days. Justin Topa is a 34-year-old pending free agent. It’s safe to say he’s not part of the future.
But who is? Varland seemed poised to take Duran’s spot as Closer of the Future, with a breakout season and four (!!!) more seasons of team control. Maybe you’re intrigued by Travis Adams or Pierson Ohl, two 25-year-old relievers who got called up on Friday, but they’re by consensus not top-20 prospects in the Twins organization.
Presumably, top pitching prospects in the high minors like Connor Prielipp, Mick Abel, Andrew Morris, C.J. Culpepper, and Marco Raya won’t all make the rotation. That could easily make for a decent pipeline to the bullpen. But none are guaranteed to be MLB-quality relievers, let alone great ones. It is worth noting that we identified five names to fill five long-term spots, leaving little margin for error.
That’s a significant problem for a Twins team that has any aspirations to compete in the next few years. If you don’t have a bullpen, you don’t have a team. Minnesota found that out in the second half of last year, when a 4.89 ERA from the ‘pen helped the team drop out of a playoff spot. Burning the whole thing to the ground is easy, but rebuilding it is another story.
Derek Falvey has shown a lot of confidence in his pitching pipeline, and building this 2025 bullpen gives him some credibility that he can do it again. The Twins home-grew Duran, Jax, and Varland, and picked up Coloumbe and Stewart off the scrap heap.
How repeatable is that? Especially without someone like Varland providing a foundation?
Sure, it’s clear that the 2024-25 Twins formula didn’t work, and the bullpen was a big part of that formula. Relief pitching was at a premium at the deadline, and the Twins had five solid-to-great options to sell off and build up a stack of lottery tickets for the future. What Minnesota did makes some sense, even without the spectre of the Pohlads selling the team. At the same time, taking a mighty bullpen and completely destroying it may easily lead to despair.
