MINNEAPOLIS -- As far as Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson is concerned, if you're going to be a go-to leverage reliever in this league, you need a pitch that will get left-handed hitters out. And even as the Twins spoke of Jorge Alcala's continued maturation and development throughout his first consistent look at the Majors last season, that was his hold-up -- and the right-hander knows that.

"I felt like at the beginning of my career, I wasn't comfortable facing lefties or attacking them," said Alcala through interpreter Elvis Martinez.

The fastball and slider have been reliable pitches for the fireballer, who has thrown more pitches in excess of 100 mph than any other Twin in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), with his 15 surpassing the 12 thrown by Brusdar Graterol and the three by Juan Morillo. But for whatever reason, left-handers saw him well, and because of that, he needed to get to a point where his changeup was a reliable weapon.

It's there now. And that's why Alcala has emerged as a quiet force in the Minnesota bullpen following the July 30 Trade Deadline, a stretch that has featured 14 scoreless outings in 16 appearances, a 0.98 ERA, 22 strikeouts and only three walks in 18 1/3 innings. In that time, his 0.71 WHIP ranks sixth among all American League relievers to throw at least 10 innings.

"That's my best pitch in my mind," Alcala said. "I can throw it in any count against any hitter without being afraid. It's my best pitch. It works for me. It's the pitch that gives me the trust I have right now."

Whereas last season and at the start of this season, Alcala saw much of his action with the Twins trailing or in blowouts, he's now fully embedded in the leverage mix, with all but one of his appearances since the Trade Deadline coming in tie games or with the Twins up by four or fewer runs.

Even when the Twins pushed Alcala into bigger situations earlier in 2021, they'd often try to find him opportunities against strings of right-handed bats to limit his exposure to lefties. That's no longer the case.

"We wouldn't hesitate to pitch Jorge, at this point, in any situation," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We'd put him out there, really, to face almost anyone. In any competitive game, he could see himself out there. He's earned the opportunities because of the way he's pitched and the way he's responded. It's not necessarily a given that a guy is going to deal with adversity and respond and make the improvements. He has."

Alcala understands that it's been a process to get to this point. It's been nearly two years since he first made a cameo at the end of the 2019 season as a raw 24-year-old and following a full season of pitching in mostly lower-leverage situations. The Twins initially spoke of his mental adjustment to the big leagues -- and that came quickly, Johnson said.

Next came the bigger challenge: Workshopping that changeup into a weapon over the course of months and convincing Alcala that he can throw it in the zone as a weapon. Coupled with a noticeable shift towards the third-base side of the pitching rubber against lefties, all that work has paid off, with Alcala's changeup generating 3.3 inches of horizontal break more than average -- the 13th-best among qualified changeups in the Majors in 2021.

Left-handed hitters slugged .606 against Alcala in 2020. They slugged .554 against him through the Trade Deadline this season. Since then, they're slugging .304 with no homers off the 26-year-old.

"Now that he's really gotten used to it when you look at pitch usage, he throws it a lot more to lefties now," Johnson said. "As we know, early in the season, he really struggled to get lefties out. Now, I think that's flipped a little bit where he feels comfortable coming in against any lefty and throwing his changeup, his fastball [and] his slider to them at any time."

It's not just those pitches anymore, actually. Now that Alcala is pitching in tight games, Johnson notes that opposing hitters can tend to be more aggressive in those situations -- and they wanted to see if he could add a sinker as an additional weapon without going through too much trouble.

Fortunately for them, Alcala had tinkered with one in the Minors -- and it ended up being a decent one. They really started ratcheting up the usage in July, and it's proved an effective complement to his existing arsenal.

"I think we got lucky, if you really want the truth," Johnson said. "It's not easy for true four-seam guys. He throws a good changeup -- we just manipulated the changeup grip, obviously, to get more of a fastball grip, but give him almost the same mindset except while throwing the heater. We got lucky. It took off. He felt good with it. He felt like he could command it. It wasn't as tough of a process as we thought it would be."

All these results have obviously come in a small sample size since the Trade Deadline, but Baldelli indicated that Alcala is likely in a leverage role to stay, and Johnson spoke effusively of the improvements in the young right-hander's stuff.

"I'm grateful for the opportunity," Alcala said. "It's been a learning opportunity. I'm just happy that I'm doing it now."

The Twins will be in the market for late-inning arms for their 2022 bullpen -- and perhaps they had one answer on their roster all along.