How Twins are managing this rising relief star

MINNEAPOLIS -- Where would this Twins team be without Jhoan Duran?

As the club approaches the All-Star break, the traditional demarcation between the two halves of the baseball season, it's more than a fair question to ponder. The 24-year-old flamethrower has been a godsend for a bullpen that has struggled mightily at times, coming out of nowhere to become the consistent back-end presence that the Twins largely haven't been able to find elsewhere in the group.

It sure seems that Duran is on the fast track to establishing himself as the Twins' lockdown late-innings bullpen ace of the next half-decade to come, and looking from the outside, it seems that the quality of his stuff -- the fastball that is already the unquestioned hardest pitch in Twins history, the unicorn "splinker" pitch, the knee-buckling curveball, the hard slider -- always had him destined for this sort of relief role.

But did Duran ever imagine himself becoming this sort of closer-type late-innings arm?

"No," the soft-spoken right-hander said, simply.

Well, does he enjoy blowing up radar guns and locking down the finishes of games out of the bullpen?

"In reality, it’s OK," Duran said through interpreter Elvis Martinez. "I don’t think about it that way, but I always liked to be a starter. I always liked that."

Duran said, "God willing," he hopes to return to a starting role in the future, if the team would be open to it. But for now, with his 2.54 ERA, 48 strikeouts and seven walks in 39 innings, he has been -- and will continue to be -- the focal point of a bullpen that has otherwise been the weakness of a first-place Twins roster.

With that in mind, the Twins' coaching staff has had to ride a balance in Duran's usage. On the one hand, it's tough not to want the right-hander in every close game. On the other hand, they've also had to keep the long-term picture in mind, wanting to preserve him for the stretch run and postseason -- and wanting to keep him healthy following a 2021 season in which he only threw 16 competitive innings in Triple-A (due, in part, to elbow issues).

Often, that has looked like two-inning stints, spaced apart, with 10 of Duran's 31 appearances this season having spanned multiple frames. He has only thrown back-to-back days twice this season -- once in mid-May, then again last weekend in Texas.

Sometimes, it leads to in-game decisions like the one the Twins made on June 23 against Cleveland, when Duran threw a hitless eighth inning in a 1-0 game, came back out for the ninth, and was lifted after facing one more hitter instead of finishing out the game. There was another one, last Wednesday in Chicago, when he threw a nine-pitch ninth inning but did not return to the mound for the 10th inning, with an off-day coming up the following day.

"It's not like we haven't used him enough," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I think we've done a pretty good job of keeping tabs on him. With how productive he's been or how inexperienced he is and how little he threw last year, we're not trying to find ways to just pitch him more and more. Like I always say, if we could throw him every day or every other day for the whole season, we would. That's not how the game's played, though."

It's all in the name of keeping Duran healthy for the stretch run -- they hope. They're making these decisions to throw him in multi-inning stints more often instead of on consecutive days simply because it's what has worked so far, Baldelli said. All the while, they're trying to reduce the stress and mileage on his arm.

"What's more taxing? I don't know if either one is more taxing," Baldelli said. "We've thrown him two innings or multi-ups much more so than we've sent him back out there back-to-back days. That's worked well for us. It's worked well for him. So that's why we keep doing it."

Duran's carefully managed availability has been more noticeable of late due to all the close games the Twins have been playing and all the innings they've had to cover from the bullpen. Even so, Duran's 39 innings this season are ninth-most among all qualified American League relievers and put him on pace for 72 frames this season, the third-most he'll ever have thrown in a season as a professional.

Most importantly, Duran still feels healthy -- and that's the priority.

"I feel good," Duran said. "It’s irrelevant for me if I’m one inning or two as long as I’m given the ball. The manager gives me the ball, I’m happy."