Twins Plan To Keep Griffin Jax In Bullpen

In November, Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler left the door open for a rotation move for Griffin Jax. With Spring Training approaching, the team no longer seems to be considering that move.

“Our plan is to keep Griff in the bullpen for 2025,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said on the team’s Inside Twins show. “Obviously he was tremendously valuable in 2024. We feel like he’s one of the best relievers in the game and feel really good about that role and plan for the upcoming year and know Griff is excited about that as well.” Zoll left open the possibility of Jax getting a rotation opportunity in future seasons, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table for this year.

Jax has been an excellent reliever for the past three seasons. He posted an ERA in the low 3.00s with plus strikeout and walk rates between 2022-23. The righty took a major step forward last year, working to a 2.03 earned run average over 71 innings. Jax’s 34.4% strikeout percentage ranked 10th among relievers with 50+ innings. His 18.4% swinging strike rate was even more impressive. Among that same group, only Josh Hader, Dylan Lee and Mason Miller missed more bats on a per-pitch basis.

Players like Michael King, Seth Lugo, Reynaldo López and Garrett Crochet have made successful bullpen to rotation moves in recent years. There’s significant upside in such a move if a pitcher can maintain similar rate dominance over a heavier workload. At the same time, taking a player out of a role in which he has been dominant comes with some element of risk. There’s the potential for injury or simply waning effectiveness as a pitcher navigates an opposing lineup two or three times in a game.

Jax, who is entering his age-30 season, is in his first of three arbitration years. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that he and the team settled on a $2.365MM deal to avoid a hearing. Pitching in a setup role in front of Jhoan Duran comes with less earning power via arbitration than he’d have if he were a starter or had a crack at the ninth inning.

Duran and Jax form a potentially elite back-end duo for skipper Rocco Baldelli. Brock Stewart, Justin Topa, Jorge Alcalá and Cole Sands could also pitch their way into leverage innings. Minnesota is light on left-handers and could look for a low-cost southpaw this offseason. Kody Funderburk and depth starter Brent Headrick are the only left-handed pitchers on the 40-man roster.

Minnesota has a decent stockpile of rotation depth. Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober project as the top three starters. Chris Paddack is lined up as the #4 arm, while Louie Varland, Simeon Woods Richardson and prospects David Festa and Zebby Matthews could compete for the final rotation spot. López and Paddack have each come up in trade rumors because the Minnesota front office is seemingly working without any kind of payroll flexibility. They’d require a massive haul to move López, their staff ace. Trading Paddack to offload his $7.5MM salary and create space for an offensive acquisition may be more likely.

On the position player side, Zoll confirmed that the Twins will give Royce Lewis reps at both second and third base in Spring Training. The former first overall pick has only started one major league game at the keystone. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported early in the offseason that the Twins were contemplating a full-time move to second base for the upcoming season. Zoll didn’t firmly commit to an infield alignment and spoke generally about the value of the defensive flexibility that Lewis, Willi Castro and Brooks Lee bring to the table.