FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Sure, anything is possible, Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli acknowledged.
But the idea of the team breaking camp with six starters? Well, it’s not probable at this point. The door is slightly ajar, but it doesn’t seem as if it’s something the Twins are strongly considering, despite Bailey Ober’s effective start to the spring.
When the Twins opened camp nearly a month ago, the idea of a six-man rotation wasn’t in the Twins’ plans. It isn’t now, either, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said on Saturday, but it’s an idea he’s at least a little bit more amenable to.
“There’s at least a conversation we’ve been having internally about how that could work and what it would mean for the bullpen, how we would navigate that,” Falvey said. “Some of it will be health dependent, but we’re open to the conversation maybe more now than I was a month ago.”
The Twins plan on running out a rotation of Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle and Kenta Maeda. The latter three all ended the season on the injured list, leaving some question marks. All have progressed well this spring, but Falvey did say there could be some benefit to stealing innings on the front end to keep the starters more effective near the end of the season.
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Running a six-man rotation would limit the Twins’ bullpen options — teams can only have 13 pitchers on the 26-man roster — which is one reason the Twins would be less inclined to do it. If they do proceed with a five-man rotation and everyone remains healthy, the expectation is that Ober will begin his season at Triple-A and be the first call when the Twins need another starter.
“What we’ve told Bailey and even some of the other younger starters is, ‘The best thing that you can do is prepare for the season to be ready to go because things happen. Other guys get hurt, other issues happen. There’s things you can control and things you can’t control; focus on the things you can control, which is being as ready as possible,’ ” Falvey said. “And I think Bailey’s taken that to heart and done a really nice job.”
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