Blue Jays: Cimber’s Great, But What’s Next For The Bullpen?

Taylor Rogers LHP MIN

The Minnesota Twins have been one of the more disappointing teams so far this season.  After making the playoffs in three of the last four years, most people around the sport expected the Twins to push the loaded Chicago White Sox for the Central Division title this season.

Unfortunately, due to injuries and poor on-field performances, the Twins have failed to live up to these lofty expectations and currently sit third in the American League Central, 12 games out of a playoff spot.  Calling the first half of this season dreadful is an understatement for GM Thad Levine and his ball club.  With how slowly they’ve started, Minnesota is headed in the direction of becoming sellers, barring a major turnaround in the next couple of weeks.

If the Twins decide to sell, there are going to be a number of intriguing names on their roster who draw interest from teams, with the likes of Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda, and Andrelton Simmons all being players that could help contending clubs.  If the Blue Jays are committed to repairing their bullpen, one name on the Twins roster they should definitely keep an eye on is Taylor Rogers, who’s quietly become one of the best left-handed relievers in all of baseball.

Rogers has been a beast for the Twins ever since debuting back in 2016.  The southpaw has posted a 3.06 ERA, a 10.1 K/9 ratio, and has saved 48 ball games during his first six seasons at the big league level.  The Colorado product is a pure fastball-slider pitcher, with a heater that resides in the mid 90’s and one of the best sliders in baseball that Rogers has great feel for and is able to generate a lot of swings and misses with.

The Colorado native has utilized his deadly combination to put together a career year.  Rogers has posted a career-low 2.53 ERA, along with being in the 100th chase rate percentile and the 91st percentile in walks allowed, according to Baseball Savant.

Bringing Rogers aboard would give Montoyo another dominant arm in the back end of the bullpen that has experience closing games.  It would also give the club a true number one lefty, bumping Ryan Borucki into the second left-hander role and mitigating Tim Mayza to a depth piece, which would strengthen the left side of the pen as a whole.

Rogers does have one more year of arbitration after this season which will inflate his price point if the Twins decide to shop him.  As long as top prospects like Austin Martin, Gabriel Moreno, and Simeon Woods Richardson aren’t involved in the deal, I would be fine overpaying a little, to get two years of a dominant reliever.