The Twins never intended to play roster roulette until the first pitch of the season, never intended to charge into 2022 with 13 players — almost half of their temporarily expanded roster — who have never, and never have, worn a Twins uniform intended to earn their only closer experienced for an additional starting pitcher.
But then the phone rang.
“It’s been moving really, really quickly in the last 24 hours,” Derek Falvey said after completing his fourth big trade in less than four weeks, which the Twins’ president of baseball operations admitted was caused by the Padres’ sudden punch General Manager AJ Preller’s desire to get an established closer was sparked.
Falvey signed by offering All-Star Reliable Taylor Rogers — and $6.6 million in cash to cover most of his $7.3 million salary — plus potential Brent Rooker, her pick in the first Round in the 2017 draft, brought to San Diego. In exchange, the twins will receive a long-coveted starting pitcher, right-hander Chris Paddack, veteran middle reliever Emilio Pagan and a Padres minor leagueer they will select later this month.
“Ultimately, I feel like this sets us up better now,” said Falvey, “but also for the future.”
That’s partly because Rogers and Rooker probably didn’t have much of a future left in Minnesota. Rooker, already 27 and with just 65 major league games in his game, has been largely bogged down by the Twins’ surplus of young fielders and fielders and his own defensive deficiencies.
And Rogers, one of the most popular players among his teammates and the Twins’ most trusted helper over the past four seasons, is six months away from free agency, at one age (32 next season) and one price (more than $10 million -dollars a year if he has a strong 2021 season on a multi-year contract), which likely gave Falvey doubts about keeping him in Minnesota.
Instead, he added a 26-year-old strike-thrower in Paddack who had a breakthrough rookie season in 2019 and then struggled to follow behind a deep Padres rotation. Paddack’s ERA rose to 5.07 last year from 3.33 as a rookie to 4.73 in the truncated 2020 season, but the twins believe he can restore the form they’ve keen on since 2017, Falvey said. He’s also three years away from free agency.
The Padres, who were traded Monday for Oakland’s Sean Manaya, were finally ready to listen to the twins’ longstanding inquiries about Paddack, particularly when Falvey agreed to speak about his best aide.
“He did some things that were really positive when you look under the surface,” Falvey said, although home runs have been a problem and Paddack’s strikeout rate has also dropped season-over-season. “We’ve heard enough good things about the makeup and the chance to add a man…that we see that has real upside was something we really wanted to pursue a while ago.”
Paddack brings depth to the Twins’ pitching rotation going into the season by relying on veterans Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy to get through their recent difficulties and sophomores Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober, building on strong, albeit partial, 2021 seasons. He is the sixth member of the Gemini’s starting rotation, with those four and veteran Sonny Gray, but only temporarily; Falvey said the twins would go to a six-man rotation during the season’s first homestand and then sort the roles from there.
Pagan is a 30-year-old right-hander who has played for four teams in five seasons and saved 20 games for the Rays’ 96 wins in 2019, but also missed nine save chances. His ERA soared to a career-high 4.83 at San Diego last season, largely due to a big jump in his home run rate to 2.3 per nine innings.
“His 2019 season was probably among the best in baseball outside of the bullpen among guys who pitched as much as he did [70 innings]’ said Falvey. “We have some ideas on the pitch mix and where he’s attacking, some things we think he can continue to improve on. … We’re excited about his fit.”
Both players were recommended by former Padres manager Jayce Tingler, now Rocco Baldelli’s bench manager, Falvey said.
So who will inherit Rogers’ role as twin closers? It’s too early to say, though Falvey has hinted that veterans like Tyler Duffey, Joe Smith and Pagan will take advantage of most late-inning opportunities, while young hard pitchers like Jorge Alcala and Jhoan Duran are slower to learn the craft.
“My feeling is [Baldelli will consider] Matchups towards the end of the game,” Falvey said, “utilization depends on who’s available, who’s fresh and who’s got some of that experience.”
But losing Roger’s experience wasn’t the most difficult factor in this deal, Falvey said; Rogers was to lose.
“These are by far the most challenging aspects of the job — having a conversation with someone you’ve developed a relationship with and saying we need to take this step that we think is best for our team ‘ Falvey said of Rogers, a member of the AL All-Star team last July. “I would say this one was as tough as any I’ve seen or had. He’s a professional through and through. … I will always admire Taylor Rogers and be a huge fan of his.”
Rogers thanked the Twins for his decade in the organization — he was drafted from Kentucky in 2012 — but is excited, Falvey said, to appear in the same division as his identical twin Tyler, a reserve for the Giants.
The trade, which was completed around breakfast time on Thursday, allowed the twins to finalize their list for the opening day. They did so by reassigning outfielder Kyle Garlick and optional assist Griffin Jax to Class AAA St. Paul, putting assist Cody Stashak on the injured list with biceps tendonitis, and recalling outfielder Gilberto Celestino, who was retired less than a week ago, with the Saints.
Confused? The roster overhaul may not be complete yet, Falvey explained.
“I’m just saying our squad is set today,” he said. “You don’t know where things are going in a week. … [Celestino] fits into our squad now and we will need him.”