Twins' Disastrous Bullpen Falters For Second Straight Day Against Mariners

The Twins' bullpen continues to be a complete and utter mess that makes winning close games extremely difficult. Who could've possibly seen this coming?

In Wednesday afternoon's rubber game against the Mariners at Target Field, Victor Caratini's two-out single in the eighth inning gave Minnesota a 3-2 lead. Eric Orze entered to try to secure the save, which would've given the Twins a series victory and their first one-run win all season. He instead allowed four of the five batters he faced to reach and surrendered the lead in what became a 5-3 Mariners victory.

Orze walked the leadoff man on four pitches, which is never a good idea. After a strikeout, he gave up a single and stolen base, followed by a two-run Cole Young single through a drawn-in infield that put Seattle in front. Orze then walked another batter and was charged with a third earned run when Taylor Rogers entered and gave up a single and sacrifice fly.

The Mariners, who did not trade their All-Star closer and every other reliever with a pulse at last year's deadline, made quick work of the Twins in the bottom of the ninth via Andres Muñoz.

Orze's implosion squandered a strong seven-inning start from Taj Bradley. That came one day after a quality six-inning start from Joe Ryan was followed by an awful bullpen showing. Kody Funderburk, Cole Sands, and Luis Garcia combined to allowed five runs in the final three innings of a 7-1 Twins loss on Tuesday night.

The Twins completely dismantled their bullpen at last year's deadline, then did almost nothing to rebuild it in the offseason. The entirely predictable and unsurprising result of that has been having zero trustworthy, closer-caliber relievers on the roster. Pair that with a mediocre offense, and the once-hot Twins have gone 2-11 in their last 13 to fall to 13-18 on the season. The last Twins pitcher to record a save was Orze on April 9.

Minnesota's starting rotation, which has mostly been great, deserves far better.

Bradley bounces back

Bradley had his first tough day of the season in his most recent outing, a 6-2 Twins loss on Friday night in Tampa. He gave up six earned runs and his first four homers of the season in that one, bumping his ERA from 1.63 to 2.91.

On Wednesday, he was back in outstanding form. Bradley did give up a solo homer to JP Crawford in the fourth inning and a pair of two-out doubles that tied the game in the seventh, but he was otherwise quite sharp. He struck out seven batters and allowed just the two earned runs in seven innings.

Bradley threw 114 pitches in this game. That's the most in baseball so far this season and the most by a Twins pitcher since Kenta Maeda in 2020. Bradley maintained strong fastball velocity deep into his outing and continues to look like a very good pickup for the Twins. Unfortunately, the Twins might've needed 150 pitches and nine innings from him to win this one.

Trading Griffin Jax for Bradley and Jhoan Duran for Mick Abel and Eduardo Tait both look like good moves for the Twins. The bigger issues are the Louis Varland trade, which still doesn't make much sense, and the fact that nothing of note was done to replenish the bullpen this winter.

Unless the bullpen magically turns things around soon or the offense really finds a groove, it could be a long season for the Twins.

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