The Twins have their new closer, and there's no doubt about that job title.
"They told me I was going to be the closer," Fernando Rodney said Friday, shortly after passing the Twins' physical and signing a one-year contract with a team option for 2019.
The 40-year-old righthander, who owns 300 career saves with eight different teams, will earn $4.5 million next season, with incentives making the deal worth as much as $6 million, and he'll do it in a job that has had plenty of turnover since All-Star reliever Glen Perkins began experiencing shoulder problems three years ago.
Kevin Jepsen, Brandon Kintzler and Matt Belisle have each taken a turn closing games for the Twins, but the team entered the offseason with no experienced closer on the roster.
Twins General Manager Thad Levine told Rodney, who saved 39 games last season for the Diamondbacks, that he was the pitcher they targeted for the role in 2018.
"When I met Mr. Levine in Orlando, he told me I'm the first guy they invited to talk," Rodney said in a conference call with reporters. "They think I can help in the bullpen."
The Dominican righthander joins a bullpen with Trevor Hildenberger and Taylor Rogers handling setup roles, pending further trades or free-agent signings, and a handful of projected future closing candidates, such as Jake Reed and J.T. Chargois, in the minor leagues. The Twins eventually hope to turn over the ninth inning to internal candidates, but for now Rodney had appeal for his experience and steadiness.
His walk percentage — 4.4 walks per nine innings for his career — sometimes turns save situations into tense moments, but "when I have walked somebody, two guys in a row, I try to calm down and feel like my blood freezing to control the game," he said. "That's the way I use to get out of the inning."
