Though the 2019 Twins didn't reach for pitchers quite like the 2017 wild-card team did — remember Chris Heston, Tim Melville, Drew Rucinski, Nick Tepesch or Adam Wilk? — this year's AL Central champions ended up with 31 pitchers who were on the active roster at one point or another. That number still is quite a lot; the 1991 World Series champion Twins used only 16 pitchers all season, and even the 2010 AL Central champions had only 21.
As such, there were a lot of faces to come and go through the clubhouse over the course of six months, a lot of arms that cleaned up at the end of a blowout only to get sent back down to Class AAA Rochester and subsequently never seen again. Here are eight pitchers who were active on the Twins roster at some point this season. Can you identify them all? (Current ages, height and weight information from MLB.com; photos from the Associated Press.)
NO. 1: LHP, 26 YEARS OLD, 6-3, 195 POUNDS We'll start with a relatively easy one. Acquired three years ago for the Twins' lone 2016 All-Star, this Dominican made the 2019 team out of spring training as a reliever after making 25 starts for the Twins the previous two seasons. But he struggled, landed on the 10-day injured list on May 2 because of a strained right calf and soon was shifted to the 60-day injured list and sent to Fort Myers, Fla., to work on mechanical adjustments as well as lose weight. He returned to the Twins in July, but after another bad outing he was designated for assignment.
NO. 2: RHP, 28 YEARS OLD, 6-4, 220 POUNDS This Minnesota native and veteran reliever was called up May 2 and used mostly in low-leverage situations, with one notable exception. He was called upon in an extremely high-leverage situation on May 15, when he escaped a bases-loaded jam against the Angels by getting Shohei Ohtani to ground out, preserving an 8-7 victory. For the next six weeks he continued to pitch reasonably well, but after giving up a grand slam at Oakland on July 4, the Twins somewhat surprisingly designated him for assignment on July 16, the second of five relievers to be DFAed in a 16-day span.
NO. 3: RHP, 25 YEARS OLD, 6-3, 205 POUNDS When major league rosters expanded to 40 on Sept. 1, the Twins soon recalled nearly every pitcher that had played for them earlier in the season and remained in their farm system ... but not this one. Sidelined by a right elbow contusion, this Harvard-educated righthander instead was placed on the 60-day injured list to make room for Brusdar Graterol. His final major league appearance of 2019 was notable because, pitching with a seven-run lead in the ninth inning at Miami, he gave up a grand slam, forcing Taylor Rogers to come in and record the final two outs.
NO. 4: RHP, 27 YEARS OLD, 6-2, 210 POUNDS A second-round pick in the 2013 draft, this righthander's college teammates included players such as Alex Bregman, Kevin Gausman, JaCoby Jones, Alex Nola and frequent Twins victim Nick Goody. This pitcher made his major league debut at age 27 on June 8, a scoreless two-inning outing historic in this sense: He was the first player in major league history to wear uniform No. 80 in the regular season. Sent back to Rochester after his second Twins appearance, he was claimed off waivers in August by the pitching-desperate Orioles.
NO. 5: RHP, 33 YEARS OLD, 5-11, 205 POUNDS An Alabama native who made his major league debut in 2014 with Cleveland, this reliever was called up in May and pitched in the end of two blowouts on the Twins' best West Coast road trip since 1996. He could have made a case for being the winning pitcher in his Twins debut: He struck out four and gave up one single to finish out an 18-4 victory at Seattle, when Jose Berrios couldn't make it through five innings despite pitching the fifth inning with a 15-run lead. This pitcher's second Twins appearance didn't go quite as well, as he gave up two home runs in the ninth inning against the Angels, including a grand slam.
NO. 6: RHP, 25 YEARS OLD, 6-4, 205 POUNDS One of many players acquired by the Twins in their July 2018 trade deadline purge, this former second-round pick went 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA in four starts last September, leading some to think he might have a shot in 2019. The Twins didn't seem to think so, though, as they designated him for assignment in January to clear a roster spot for free agent Martin Perez. Still, they invited him to spring training after he cleared waivers, then called him up barely a week into the season to bolster the bullpen. His lone major league appearance of 2019 was a four-run ninth inning to end a 14-8 rout of the Mets on April 9.
