FORT MYERS, FLA. – The Twins opened the 2016 season with lefthanders Glen Perkins and Fernando Abad, and righthanders Kevin Jepsen, Trevor May, Ryan Pressly, Casey Fien and Michael Tonkin in a seven-pitcher bullpen.

Manager Paul Molitor expressed the same hope as had his predecessor, Ron Gardenhire, for lo those many years, hoping to limit the bullpen to seven pitchers and thus maintain a four-player bench for the next five months.

Molitor made it three weeks into the season before adding a reliever, which was better than Gardenhire's average, what with his legendary paranoia about overworking a bullpen.

"Gardy sent me to [Class AAA] Rochester to start the 2007 season, because he wanted three catchers,'' Glen Perkins said. "I made one start there and Gardy decided he wanted another reliever.''

There were only two members of Molitor's opening group of 2016 to make it to the finish line:

The attrition started with Perkins, who made two appearances before being sidelined because of a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery. Jepsen and Fien were released, Abad was traded to Boston, and May had a bad back that restricted him to one appearance after Aug. 6.

Pressly made 72 appearances and was the Twins' best reliever, and Tonkin made 65 appearances, with 13 home runs allowed that helped to boost his ERA to 5.02.

The Twins wound up using 22 pitchers out of the bullpen, including 16 who were strictly relievers. As a whole, the Twins bullpen was superior to one group in 2016: Twins starters.

Twins relievers were 26th in the major leagues with a 4.63 ERA, and allowed a batting average of .274. Twins starters were 30th (last) with a 5.39 ERA, and allowed a .288 average.

A case can be made that the rotation will be improved:

Ervin Santana (he's fine), Kyle Gibson (he's better than was the case in 2016), Phil Hughes (we'll see) and Hector Santiago (I'm not too sure), followed by either Adalberto Mejia or Jose Berrios.

The lefthanded Mejia is a heavy man who throws a heavy ball, and Berrios probably would have the job if he had pitched more for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

The loss of May to the Tommy John surgery that took place Wednesday hurts, but there still are enough starting options for the Twins to move boldly from 30th in the majors to … ah, say, 24th.

Meantime, I'm not sure the bullpen as currently envisioned can hang on to the No. 26 ranking Twins relievers attained in the 103-loss season of 2016.

There are five relievers locked in: Pressly, Taylor Rogers, Brandon Kintzler and veterans Matt Belisle and Craig Breslow.

Another lock should have been J.T. Chargois, with his live arm and coming off an excellent final month of 2016. Trouble is, Chargois has had a poor spring, putting him in competition with Tonkin and Alex Wimmers for the final two spots in the season-opening bullpen.

There's also the possibility of keeping Tyler Duffey as a long reliever, or the Twins could get creative and let Berrios start the season in the bullpen … waiting for the inevitable opening in the rotation.

Check that. I used the word "creative'' and Twins in the same sentence. Please forgive me.

The Twins officially added Breslow to the big-league roster Wednesday. The infatuation with the 36-year-old lefthander has been odd, but this new regime is all into the clubhouse leadership deal — as demonstrated by Chris Gimenez's solid standing as the backup catcher.

Molitor was referring to Belisle and Breslow this week when he said: "By the time we leave here, we're going to have a bullpen that's going to have some experience.''

As for the bullpen as an entity, the manager said:

"I think the competition we've had to fill out the last few spots is going to make it better. I have some guys out there who have been locks from the beginning, and they are starting to be curious about their roles.

"We're not prototypical in the sense that I'm going to just line them up [in innings] 7, 8 and 9. We have somewhat of a different closer [Kintzler] in that he had to fight his way back to get a major league job.

"My hope is that between the experience and the talent, some still developing, that it is going to be better. Another part of my hope is the bullpen won't be taxed as much, with the potential of more innings from our rotation."

There might be a better chance for part two of Mollie's Hope than part one with this bullpen.

Patrick Reusse can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on AM-1500. preusse@startribune.com