Twins reliever Griffin Jax at his best when throwing his best pitch less often

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Griffin Jax ranks as one of the best relievers in the major leagues, which is no surprise to people who have watched him all season.

He entered Friday with a 1.89 ERA in 62 innings. He’s permitted five earned runs since June 16. He’s posted a 1.98 FIP (fielding independent pitching), which is the second lowest among pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings this year, behind only Cleveland’s Cade Smith.

An intriguing part of Jax’s success is that he’s throwing his best pitch, his sweepy slider, less than ever. He’s thrown his sweeper 37% of the time this year, a drop from throwing it for 52.8% of his pitches in 2023 and 48.4% in 2022.

“There were times in the past where my back is against the wall, and a majority of the time, you know what’s going to come: It’s going to be my slider,” Jax said. “I think we’re doing a good job of protecting that pitch and sometimes not even throwing it.”

Jax is throwing his fastball and changeup more often, and he brought back a curveball he didn’t use last year.

“Hitters are getting more info every single day,” he said. “When teams get a whole year of reports on me saying whatever my percentage was, let’s say 70 percent slider [in a certain count], they are going to go up there and sit it. We saw that in ‘23 where there were some small hits here and there. It would kind of snowball, and it would affect the game.”

The Twins figure to lean on Jax more often in their playoff race. He recorded four outs Thursday, only the second time he’s pitched more than an inning in a game this year.

“I’ve been trying to do a lot better job this year of not getting too emotional in bigger spots for reasons like that,” Jax said. “It’s hard to go up, be super emotional and pumped up about it, go sit in the dugout for 10-15 minutes, and then have to go back out there again and recreate it.”

Louie Varland will reprise a role that he handled well last September, pitching out of the bullpen as a potential high-leverage reliever.

“We’re going to get him in some shorter stints in the bullpen and see if that can help us in a few different ways,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think he could be a really nice force in our bullpen. I think him being in the bullpen will support some of our other late-inning guys in some really good ways.”

Varland posted a 1.50 ERA in seven relief appearances last year with 17 strikeouts in 12 innings.

Even as a starting pitcher this year, opposing hitters had a .590 OPS in their first plate appearance against Varland with two doubles and zero homers. They recorded a .970 OPS when they faced him for a second time.

Baldelli huddled with all nine players who were on the field after the Twins’ 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday. The Twins had a delayed celebration because there was concern about first baseman Carlos Santana, who jammed his wrist when he tagged Jose Siri for the final out.

“We won the game and everyone was gloomy looking and pale looking because everyone is thinking Santana is injured,” Baldelli said Friday. “Everyone is just standing there, not celebrating, not looking pleased. I think I said to Santana, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ And everyone is just standing there. I said, ‘Huddle it up then.’”

After Baldelli said a few words, the group looked at Kyle Farmer, who shook his head. Then everyone started clapping while Baldelli tapped Farmer on the head.

“I said, ‘That’s how you play,’ ” Baldelli said. “Then I relied on Farmer to say something funny. He had nothing to bring to the table. He said, ‘No, no, I don’t have anything. Let’s just take it in.’ I said, ‘Fine, let’s take it in and get out of here.’ I had bigger plans for it than what ultimately came of it, the truth is. I just didn’t want everyone walking on into the clubhouse thinking, one, that our player’s wrist is not in a good place, and I wanted to tell them they did a good job.”