The Minnesota Twins Now Need This Player to Step Up Massively in 2024

The Minnesota Twins now have multiple holes in their starting rotation that need plugging.

On Sunday night, veteran rotation stabilizer Kenta Maeda reached an agreement with the Detroit Tigers.

On Monday morning, Jon Heyman reported that the Cardinals and Sonny Gray are expected to finalize a deal.

This means that the Twins are already down two starters from a team that won the American League Central in 2023. Given that Gray was a finalist for the American League Cy Young award in 2023, those are big losses.

If the Twins want to step up and move forward in 2024, they'll need to find some rotation answers - and fast.

And the biggest answer needs to come from starting pitcher Chris Paddack, who missed nearly all of 2023 with injury and came back out of the bullpen at the very end of the season. The Twins don't appear primed to go out and add massively on the free agent market, so getting Paddack back full-time next season appears to be their best bet - and the one they are making.

Paddack made his major league debut in 2019 and is 22-21 lifetime with a 4.21 ERA. His best year was his rookie year (2019), when he went 9-7 with a 3.33 ERA for the Padres. He was acquired from San Diego before the 2022 season. He tossed 3.2 scoreless innings in the playoffs this year.

He'll be a free agent after the 2025 season so the Twins are looking at least two full years of his contributions.

At this time, the Twins' rotation would figure to include Paddack, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Pablo Lopez. The fifth spot would be up for grabs.

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