Baldelli eyes longer starts for Twins' rotation

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Whether in press conferences, on social media or even from the occasional smattering of boos around the stadium when manager Rocco Baldelli would emerge from the dugout to pull his pitcher, the Twins’ quick hooks on their starters have been one of the most persistent topics of contention over the last several seasons.

This year, Baldelli expects that to change.

“I expect more out of our starters this year than we had last year,” Baldelli said. “We’re not out here to simply kind of go back on some of the strategies we implemented last year, but the truth is, I do expect probably some more bulk, pitching a little deeper in games from some of our starters.”

The game has certainly trended toward having pitchers avoid facing opposing hitters for a third time -- but the Twins have occupied an extreme in that regard.

The Twins led the Majors last season with 70 starts shorter than five innings, the most such outings in club history. In second place? The 2021 team, also led by Baldelli. Minnesota starters only faced opposing hitters for a third time in 448 plate appearances last season, by far the fewest in the Majors. That forced the team to lean more heavily on a bullpen that ranked 11th of 15 among AL teams in combined wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and threw more frames than all of those teams except the Rays.

The difference this year will be that the Twins are much more confident in the quality and longevity of the group they’ve assembled. Consider, for example, that Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer were responsible for 30 of those 70 short starts last season -- and both are now gone, replaced in the rotation by Kenta Maeda and Pablo López.

Perhaps the Twins will still take it easy on Maeda’s workload, since he’ll be pitching for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery. But much like Tyler Mahle, they brought in López to be a workhorse in the rotation, with the right-hander having completed five innings in 25 of his 32 starts last season and pitching into the seventh inning in 11 of those outings.

Much of the early hooks from last season stemmed from tight game situations and having pitchers like Bundy (4.89 ERA) and Archer (4.56 ERA) avoid facing the opposing lineup for the third time. There are no longer any such starters who will have to be shielded in that way, between Maeda, López, Mahle, Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray.

“That’s what I’m referencing here -- we have several guys that, what they do and what they probably take most pride in, is giving you a good, deep effort into a ballgame,” Baldelli said. “That presents good opportunities for me and for [pitching coach Pete Maki] and for the pitching coaching staff, and gives us some good decisions that we’re going to have to make. We want these guys to make it difficult on us. We want them to keep pitching.”

In fact, there was some awareness of that last sentiment from Gray last season, as he acknowledged that he also had to pitch more effectively in such situations (.271 average against and .696 OPS against when facing a lineup for the third time) to make that decision more difficult.

But this season, he agrees that one through five, this rotation is much more capable of that.

“I truly believe that the starting pitcher, they're the tone-setter,” Gray said. “They're the first player to go out there and touch the ball, go out there and set the tone, go out there and be confident, go out there and tell these guys that, 'Hey, come on, let's go win a game.' And I think we've got guys to do that.”

It’s not just that Baldelli wants more longevity out of his starters this year; he has his goals for that group set far beyond that, as he hopes the staff will anchor this team’s success throughout the season.

“I told our guys, I want our pitching staff to carry us this year,” Baldelli said. “I told them every great team that I’ve ever been with has had great pitching. When you look around our clubhouse, you have to prove it first, so none of these words ultimately are going to get us where we need to be. But we have a chance to have a great staff, we really do.”