The pitcher you didn't expect to dominate

This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Much of the Twins’ success, to this point, can be attributed to a starting rotation that has been among the very best in baseball. Though Pablo López was the one to receive a long-term extension, the best performance has come from a familiar face -- one who perhaps didn’t have the chance he deserved to show his best stuff last season.

Sonny Gray entered May as the Majors’ qualified leader in ERA, at 0.77, and that eye-popping number only tells part of the story.

At times, like in his 13-strikeout outing against the Astros or his seven shutout innings against the Yankees, Gray has looked borderline untouchable. At other times, he hasn’t had a feel for one or two of his pitches, and he’s had to figure out a way to pitch through traffic and put up zeros, regardless.

In that way, this month for Gray wasn’t just a testament to wipeout stuff and frontline dominance; it also represented grit and the hard work that went into somehow improving upon the 3.08 ERA he posted as the bedrock of the Twins’ beleaguered starting rotation a year ago.

“I don’t know if anyone in baseball could have had a better month than what Sonny Gray just gave us,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “For much of the month, he pitched great. He cruised. When things got difficult, when runners got on base, he was even better. In his starts, he’s certainly carried us. He’s set the tone every time he’s taken the mound; he’s given us everything.”

Lowest ERA, Twins history, through end of April (min. 30 IP)
T-1st. Gray, 2023 -- 0.77
T-1st. Ervin Santana, 2017 -- 0.77
3rd. Bill Krueger, 1992 -- 0.84
T-4th. Pete Redfern, 1980 -- 1.46
T-4th. Jim Merritt, 1968 -- 1.46

Even as Gray was the most effective of the Twins’ starters last season, pitching to his best ERA since his 2019 All-Star campaign with Cincinnati, he was, by no means, feeling like himself.

He’d never have admitted it publicly at the time, but Gray wasn’t fully physically ready to pitch at the start of last season, and that’s something he and the Twins more openly acknowledge now. The uncertainty around the lockout meant pitchers couldn’t ramp up with any confidence before the lockout was resolved, and when Gray arrived in camp, he was simply trying to play catch-up as he rushed a build-up into the season.

That’s part of why Gray, the senior member of the rotation, didn’t start last Opening Day -- and two starts into his ‘22 season, he made the first of his three trips to the injured list.

“Now, looking back on it, I can’t believe he pitched early in the year,” Baldelli said. “I don’t know how he did that based on where he was. … We probably went too fast with him last year. We didn’t rush him, but he probably should have taken a few weeks last year to just throw and get on an actual throwing program. It’s a miracle he was able to even compete early last year.”

Gray’s ‘22 numbers were still more than respectable, resulting in the best ERA by a Twins starter to throw at least 100 innings since Johan Santana’s second Cy Young season in ‘06. But undoubtedly fueled by those physical struggles of a year ago, Gray had a much different offseason entering ‘23.

Typically, players will take a few weeks to completely shut down and rest following the rigors of a full regular season. Not Gray.

That first week he got home after the Twins finished in a disappointing third place at 78-84, Gray still continued to do some light throwing twice a week, building that into three times a week in November. He mapped out his entire offseason -- “This is what October and November will look like, then December, then January.” -- and when Jan. 1 rolled around, he was already prepared to get back on the mound.

When Gray arrived in Spring Training in ‘22, he had not yet thrown a bullpen session. When he showed up in Fort Myers in ‘23, he’d already thrown about15 of them.

He’d worked to get physically stronger, with more endurance, and maintained his arm activity throughout the offseason. He changed his eating habits and his nutrition, changing his habits after 10 seasons in the Major Leagues along the lines of what he’d seen others do to get further along in their careers.

“The days became fun,” Gray said. “I enjoyed going to work out and getting better and trying to do that. It never became a monotonous thing, where kind of, that was the big part of my day. It was fun doing that.”

Along the way, he also rounded out his arsenal, developing his cutter and changeup to the point where he can play with a true six-pitch mix -- curveball, cutter, sinker, sweeper, four-seamer, changeup. That’s been pivotal to his success this year, as he’ll often admit after starts (more often than he’d like, he says) that he didn’t have all of his stuff working that day, but he still had enough different looks and weapons to figure things out as he went.

He’s one of only two pitchers in the Wild Card era (since 1994) to start a season with six consecutive starts of at least five innings in which he allowed no more than one run. And most important to him, the Twins have won five of those games.

“It is nice knowing that you put in work and then you can see results, in particular, in team wins,” Gray said. “It was nice coming in with a plan and continuing to get to spring to get better and try to continue to work on your craft and add this, add that, figure out this, figure out that, but also staying healthy and not getting satisfied.”