FORT MYERS, FLA. – There is something Terry Ryan misses from his starting rotation.
"We haven't had any length in our rotation for a while now," said the Twins general manager, aware that Phil Hughes is his team's only starter to throw 200 innings in a season since 2011.
This season could be different, as the Twins return a starting rotation that lacks a true No. 1 ace but improved last season and has a few pitchers capable of pitching into the seventh inning or later.
The trend in baseball is toward buttressing bullpens. The World Series champion Kansas City Royals have thrived with a power arm parade out of their bullpen, making it hopeless for opponents to rally when trailing after six innings. Royals starters, in fact, threw 912⅔ innings in 2015, 24th in the majors.
But Ryan remains in favor of having starters who can pitch deep into games to protect against bullpen burnout. Twins starters threw 928 innings last season, 20th in baseball. Twins starters were last in baseball in 2014 with a 5.06 ERA, but their 4.14 ERA last season under first-year pitching coach Neil Allen was good for 16th. There's optimism that the 200-inning barrier will be broken by at least one Twins pitcher this season.
"The 200-inning mark is kind of a mystical number for a starting pitcher," said righthander Kyle Gibson, who was 11-11 with a 3.84 ERA in 194⅔ innings. "I think what it really shows is that if you're getting to 200 innings, everything else is going to fall into place.
"You're not going to have to look at your ERA and wonder if you had a good year. If you're throwing 200 innings, you are averaging over six innings a start and you're doing something right."
Gibson, 28, led the staff in innings pitched in 2015, nearly cracking the 200-inning barrier for the first time. Hughes, 29, threw 209⅔ innings in 2014 and famously turned down an offer to pitch in relief at the end of the season to get past 210 innings and earn a bonus. Ervin Santana, 33, has thrown 200-plus innings five times and 196 in another, but he missed 80 games last year in his first season with the Twins to serve a suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.