Twins relief pitcher Cole Sands refuses to bask and chooses to fret

FORT MYERS, FLA. - In many ways, 2024 was a dream season for Cole Sands, the achievement of so many goals. He made the Twins roster out of spring training, stayed in the majors all year, and pitched so well, his role evolved from long-relief innings-eater to sixth- and seventh-inning specialist, tasked with holding leads for Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran.

Dream season indeed. … Well, wait a minute — he didn’t actually dream it, right?

“Sometimes I’m not so sure,” Sands said with a laugh. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t surprise myself a little bit, some of the things I was doing, the consistency of it.”

Yes, a summer in which the Florida State righthander made it all look so easy has had the oddly contradictory effect of making Sands realize just how difficult pitching so well actually is.

Which is why he came to camp this spring on the defensive, wary of anything resembling complacency. Guaranteed a roster spot? Get out of here. A back-end weapon? Does not compute. An elite fastball that racks up strikeouts at the same rate as Duran’s? Whatever. He’s more concerned that his curveball is too hittable.

“I don’t think I’ll ever really be comfortable, even after having a pretty good year last year,” Sands admitted with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure if I pitch 10 years, I still won’t think I’ve already earned a job. But that’s the fun of it, too, right?”

It certainly looked like fun when Sands was at his best last year. He celebrated his 27th birthday over the All-Star break last July, having not allowed an earned run for a month, a streak that he extended to 18 consecutive innings when the season resumed. From mid-June to the second week of August, the only way to score off Sands was to start with a free runner on second base.

And he avoided blowups all year, only three times giving up three runs. His home-run rate, just six allowed (good for only eight runs), was better than every Twins pitcher with at least 70 innings except Jax. No Twins threw more innings in relief, and Sands’ strikeout-to-walk rate of 7.08 was the best on the staff.

“He did a fantastic job for us last year. He put himself in a good position this spring to help us in late-inning spots,” Twins manger Rocco Baldelli said. “Overall, he was one of our best pitchers, period, last year. We have high hopes for him. He’s a strike-thrower.”

The numbers, however, seem to emphasize to Sands how good his teammates are, not him.

“I look at Griff and, man, this guy, he doesn’t have to think about trying different things and finding something that works. He’s got everything he needs,” Sands said of Jax. “I felt like I had maybe the best year of my career, and there are still things I know I need to work on.”

Chief among them, Sands said, is an out pitch that lefthanded hitters will swing at and miss. It’s true that his pitch mix has been far more effective against righthanders than lefties — the latter compiled a sickly .227 on-base percentage against him, while lefties were at .319 — but he believes that’s fixable.

“I’m trying to find an extra breaking ball that will play to lefties. I had a sweeper last year that was good, but mostly to righties,” Sands said. “I don’t want to just be a matchup pitcher. The great ones, Duran and Jax and other great relievers, they can get lefties out, too. That’s where I want to be. I’m getting there.”

He’s not unhappy or intimidated, Sands said, just a little amazed at how far he’s come. When he was drafted in the fifth round in 2018, he thought he would be a starting pitcher, “but it didn’t go exactly as planned,” he said. “I can’t say I imagined I’d be here, in this situation. I can’t say how sure I was that I’d get to the big leagues at all.”

Yet here he is, not in some dream but on a big-league mound.

“Amazing, right?” Sands said. “It would be nice to have it all figured out, but that’s not how the game works. You just have to be happy with what you’ve got and enjoy it while you can.”