In 2010, with an average velocity of 94.7 miles per hour,
the Chicago White Sox’s bullpen was the hardest throwing unit in all of
baseball. This heat led to the highest strikeout rate among relievers in the
American League (9.05 K/9) and one of the better overall bellpens. On Monday,
they introduced their newest right-handed
rifleman, Jesse Crain.
Not all too surprising, during his introduction to the
South Side, Chicago reporters immediately turned their attention to the team
that had finished atop the division for two consecutive years. After all, the
White Sox have failed to catch their rival and Crain had been an instrumental component
in inflicting that damage. While donning a Twins uniform, the righty held
the White Sox to a lowly .185 average against.
The 29-year-old former Twin-turned-Sock has some enlightening
words to say regarding his old employer’s future:
"As for the Twins, I’m not exactly sure what direction they’re going. They like to build from within, but with that said, I don’t know what they will do. There are a couple of prospects coming up, but they don’t have a lot of experience. It will definitely be interesting to see how it will play out. Losing me and [reliever Matt Guerrier to the Los Angeles Dodgers] will hurt them."
While some might interpret this statement from Crain brimming
with brash overconfidence with a dash of cockiness, there is some obvious truth
to his words. Considering that he and Guerrier combined to digest 30.4% (139
innings) of the Twins’ total relief innings last year, a vast majority of those
in high leverage situations as well, Minnesota has a lot of innings to
redistribute. And a lot of those arms anticipated to fill the void are chock
full of uncertainty.
Internally, the team is banking on rapid resurgences from Joe
Nathan (who
likely will not be running at full-speed out of the gates) and Pat Neshek to
replace those important innings. Without question, a healthy Nathan/Neshek can
be an extremely formidable combination. Include Matt Capps in the mix and the
later portion of the game appears accounted for – if all goes according to
plan.
The concern is if either arm is unable to maintain the workload
required of them, as Crain noted, the Twins have to turn to pitchers that lack
experience. These arms included Alex Burnett and Anthony Slama, who have both
sampled some MLB innings in 2010, Rob Delaney or Carlos Gutierrez. On paper and
in theory, all of them have stuff capable of thriving in the bullpen it is just
the matter of executing at the big league level.
Meanwhile, Crain continued to inform his new audience about the
Twins financial mindset when it came to building the bullpen:
“The Twins weren’t looking to sign a guy for more than $3.5 million a year. They were out from the beginning, and we didn’t even negotiate with them. They have been smart with the way they do things, but we’ll see.”
Despite a deep reliever market, after the Tigers signed Joaquin
Benoit prices suddenly inflated like negotiations were operating within the
Argentinean economy. With every free agent anticipating a similar deal, the
Twins were smart to remain idle allowing the more desperate teams can overpay
in money and years. Crain was no different from his fellow relievers and the
Twins realized this.
In general, outside of Joe Nathan, the Twins rarely make
long-term, big money commitments to bullpen members. They certainly eschew
bringing in free agent relievers for multiple years at an inflated cost. When
building his bullpen the past several years, general manager Bill Smith has
made small contract commitments (i.e., Luis Ayala, R.A. Dickey), shrewd trades
(Jon Rauch) and promoted from within (Jose Mijares, Alex Burnett) while making seemingly
insignificant but occasionally useful minor league signings (Bobby Keppel).
If you review this offseason to date, the Twins have followed a
strikingly similar blueprint this winter. The Twins nabbed several minor league
free agents this winter that could be relief contributors in the right-handed Eric
Hacker and the left-handed Chuck James. Likewise, the J.J. Hardy trade brought
in James Hoey, who, if able to get under control, could be an extremely
effective strikeout artist for league minimum wage. Plus, the aforementioned
Burnett or Slama could be names summoned from the ‘pen regularly as well. Obviously
at this juncture the majority of brand name relievers are now off the market
and the Twins may peel off an intriguing arm that didn’t merit multi-year deals
before the winter is over.
For years, the bullpen has been one of the Twins’ biggest assets.
Since ’06, they have had the American League’s lowest ERA (3.61), baseball’s
lowest walk rate (3.14 BB/9), fewest losses (93) and allowed the fewest runs
(1,061) -- thanks in part to the recently departed Crain and Guerrier. While
they may not have the sexy strikeout rates or velocity like their Chicago
opponents, the Twins have consistently built and re-built without needing to
invest as many dollars or years.
