After hammering out deals with the rest of their arbitration class last night, the Twins have now also agreed to a one-year deal with left-hander Taylor Rogers, tweets Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Rogers, who has served as the Twins’ primary closer over the past two seasons, will be paid a $6MM salary next year.
Rogers, 30 in two weeks, had a handful of rough outings in 2020 but has emerged as one of the more effective lefties in the game over the past several seasons. Dating back to 2018, he’s given the Twins 157 1/3 innings of 2.80 ERA ball with a 2.62 FIP to support that mark. Along the way, he’s tallied 41 saves and averaged 10.8 strikeouts, 1.8 walks and 0.74 homers per nine frames while inducing grounders at a solid 46.7 percent clip. Rogers did post a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings this past season, but a 24-to-4 K/BB ratio and a sterling 2.84 FIP paint a more favorable picture.
Rogers’ return will give the Twins some continuity, but the surprising decision to non-tender Matt Wisler thinned out a bullpen that was already facing a good bit of turnover. Trevor May has already signed with the Mets, and the Twins declined their $5MM option on veteran Sergio Romo. Right-hander Tyler Clippard, too, is a free agent. Those four pitchers combined for 94 2/3 innings of 2.85 ERA ball with a 122-to-32 K/BB ratio and eight saves in 2020. Suffice it to say there’s some work to be done.
This was the third of four trips through the arbitration process for Rogers, who first qualified as a Super Two player following the 2018 season. The Twins control him through the 2022 season. With Rogers’ deal now in place, the Twins are already done with their entire arbitration class. They non-tendered left fielder Eddie Rosario and Wisler last night while also announcing one-year deals with right-hander Jose Berrios ($6.1MM), center fielder Byron Buxton ($5.125MM), righty Tyler Duffey ($2.2MM) and catcher Mitch Garver ($1.875MM).
Those moves place the team’s 2021 payroll at about $92MM — or about $40MM shy of what would’ve been last year’s Opening Day payroll mark, as was projected to be the case in our Offseason Outlook on the Twins. It’s not clear just how aggressively owner Jim Pohlad is willing to spend in the aftermath of 2020’s revenue losses, but in addition to the glaring needs in the bullpen and the likely hunt for a rotation upgrade, the team has also been negotiating a potential return with designated hitter Nelson Cruz.
He had a .400 BABIP in 20 innings. Definitley got unlucky and it was amplified because of the short amount of time.
That is true, but they were making contact with him at an alarming rate. I don’t have the numbers, but hitters were making contact at a much higher clip than they were in 2019.
75.8 percent in 2019 and 78.3 percent in 2020. His contact rate was up, but not alarmingly so.
The greater problem was a more pronounced jump in hard-hit rate, but given that he was elite in hard-hit rate allowed from 2018-19, it’s hard not to wonder if that would’ve evened out over a full season. Velocity was fine, swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates were in line with or better than the prior season.
I smell a Hendricks or yates signing coming with the release of wisler
I don’t understand why they would pay so much more money for those guys when they had a dominant reliever in Wisler for pennies on the dollar.
Not sure Wisler was all that dominant though.
3.34 FIP
FB less than 92 mph
5.0 BB/9
So many bullpen arms available everyone is expecting to find value there. Twins have their anchor.
Count me 100% in favor of making an aggressive offer to Liam Hendricks, who, imo, is one of the elite closers in all of MLB. Yates, if healthy, would be a good upgrade, but with Hendricks’ proven record and familiarity with AL hitters, he should be Falvey/Pohlad’s #1 target to upgrade bullpen. IF, if, this should happen it would allow Rogers to slide back into an 8th inning role with Tyler Duffey. Don’t understand cutting loose Clippard as he was a solid and reliable arm last year. Hopefully, he gets a second look. Although more seasoning may be needed, I think Alcala proved enough last year to be given a long look as a 7th inning set up RP. Other holes to fill, but adding Hendricks would be a great start.
I still don’t get the Wisler non tender. He found what he needed last year with the Twins staff. Still would have been cheap too.
Cruz, two or three bounceback/quality relievers, and if Pohlad gives the thumbs up, another quality starter. Any other glaring holes?
Seems like Rogers has lost some effectiveness – I hope I’m wrong. We need to spend money on Pitching, pitching, pitching. Anything offered to Cruz for more than one year is wasted. With Kiriloff, Larnach, and Rooker coming up – I wouldn’t mind Cruz not coming back. Spend the money on a good starter and reliever. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Buxton traded traded for pitching (Hader plus another arm)
Trade Buxton while other teams still perceive value there. He is not needed, but a starting pitcher and a couple of bullpen arms will help.
Good news for all those in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood !!