Griffin Jax’s first stint as a major league starter didn’t quite yield the results that he was hoping for. During the end part of a lost 2021 season, Jax pitched in 18 games (14 starts) to a 6.37 earned-run average.
After that season, the Twins decided to shift him to bullpen where he’s become, over the past three seasons, one of the best relievers in Major League Baseball.
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That, at the very least, entitled him to another conversation about starting.
“It was all driven by me,” Jax said. “The Twins were actually very open-minded to it. We had some good conversation.”
Jax said the conversation started around the beginning of the offseason. A couple of months later, in early December, he hashed it out with manager Rocco Baldelli and they decided it would be best if he remained in the bullpen, where he has emerged as a lock-down reliever for the Twins.
Part of what intrigued him, Jax said, was the amount of money starters make relative to relievers. The Twins challenged him to remove that from the equation to the extent that he could.
“When I tried to take it in that perspective and remove money as much as possible, I found myself always gravitating back towards the bullpen,” Jax said. “I’m sure part of it is because I failed as a starter at the big-league level and found some pretty good success in the bullpen but at the same time, I just feel like my personality just thrives in that back end, late-inning role now. I almost just look at it as, ‘If it’s not broken, why bother trying to fix it?’”
While the Twins have Jax now solidified as a reliever, they haven’t yet made a final determination on how they will use Louie Varland, who has been a starter bouncing between Triple-A and the majors but has looked even better in stints in the bullpen in each of the past two seasons.
That’s something that they’ll be able to better assess once they get to Florida next month. If everyone’s healthy, for example, it might be easier to shift Varland to the bullpen, which, at this point, looks like the most likely landing spot for him.
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“I have a pretty good idea of where Louie is going to end up. I think Louie has a pretty good idea of where Louie is going to end up pitching for us,” Baldelli said. “With all that said, I want to get there, see how the entire group shows up, make sure we’re on track as a pitching staff because one or two things could pop up. … Let’s get down there and see how it unfolds.”
Twins pleased with health updates
A myriad of injuries plagued the Twins down the stretch, forcing some of their best players off the field. But as the team came together for TwinsFest this weekend, the Twins have been pleased with the reports they’ve gotten on the health of the roster.
Carlos Correa said his plantar fasciitis has gone away. Byron Buxton is experiencing his first healthy offseason in years. And Joe Ryan, who had a teres major strain that kept him out for months, has been throwing to hitters. Baldelli said his arm “feels just the way he would want.”
“This is probably the best offseason of health that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Baldelli said. “The reports on both the pitching side and the position player side, it’s almost up and down, which you would hope to be seeing.”
Briefly
The Twins are expecting to announce their promotional and special events lineup for the upcoming season on Tuesday. … Team president and CEO Dave St. Peter said it was his belief that they could eclipse two million fans through the gates at Target Field in 2025. The Twins were at 1.95 million last year and have not reached two million since 2019.
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