Reviews, Previews, and Ranks: Minnesota Twins
Introduction & Glossary Post Here
The Twins 3.98 ERA was middle of the pack, and their team .718 OPS was also middling, both were just slightly above league average.
The Twins have been aggressive in acquiring Major League talent in recent years, so it will be interesting to see what they will do ahead of the 2023 season. There are some very good players on this team, and not a ton of glaring weaknesses - so they could definitely make some noise in the AL Central next season. Let’s get into it.
Pitchers
Joe Ryan
Ryan led the Twins in innings pitched at just 147. He went for a 3.55 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, a 25% K%, and a 7.8% BB%. He started the year incredibly well before dealing with an injury, and he wasn’t very good for awhile in the middle of the year while dealing with some of that - but he finished pretty strong.
Apr-May: 8 GS, 2.28 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 24.3% K%, 8.1% BB%
June-July: 8 GS, 5.31 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 21.2% K%, 6.1% BB%
Aug-Oct: 5 GS, 2.20 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 27.0% K%, 10.8% BB%
Going back to 2021, he had a marvelous year
AAA: 13 GS, 3.41 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 36.9% K%, 4.8% BB%
MLB: 5 GS, 4.05 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 30.0% K%, 5.0% BB%
I was really encouraged on Ryan due to that 25% K%-BB% even in the short MLB sample. It was an overall discouraging 2022 for Ryan, but I think he’s going to be a great guy to buy in on for 2023.
He still uses the four-seamer heavily:
60% four-seamer usage is something you don’t see a lot, and I don’t think it’s a great way to go, but Ryan is still young (26) and he has three other pitches to work in. The slider is a good one, so maybe he can up that usage a bit more next year if hitters start seeing the four-seamer better (they clearly don’t see it very well right now with that super high 13.8% SwStr%). He is a fly-ball pitcher and will likely continue to be so, and the 10.7% Brl% and 25% GB% on the four-seamer aren’t great news for his start-to-start consistency.
I think this explains the big gap between his ERAs (which have been just “fine/good”) and his WHIPs (which have been elite). He throws a lot of strikes, limits walks, but when hitters do make contact they hit homers at a high rate. I’d much rather see a guy struggling a bit with the long ball than the walk, and I think elevated slider/changeup usage or the addition of a sinker or something could help that problem.
The velocity and movement are underwhelming, but I think we’ve seen enough of Ryan to just accept that he is one of these guys that is deceptive enough to still get strikeouts despite the lack of “stuff”. His SwStr% was still strong at 13% and the CSW% was fine at 28.9%.
I expect Ryan to be pretty cheap next year, and I love the K-BB% stuff with him - so he’s for sure going on the shortlist!
Comps/RankArounds: Nick Lodolo, Jon Gray
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