Rocco Baldelli vows to get more from rotation, says he wants Twins pitching 'to carry us'

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Sure, Rocco Baldelli expects more out of his pitching staff this year — longer starts, sure, but markedly more than that, too.

"I told our guys, I want our pitching staff to carry us this year," Baldelli said Tuesday after watching the Twins' second full-squad workout of the spring. "I told them every great team that I've ever been with has had great pitching. When you look around our clubhouse, you have to prove it first, so none of these words ultimately are going to get us where we need to be. But I think we have a chance to have a great staff, I really do."

It will start with the starters, of course, a group that figures to have only two full-time holdovers from last season. Dylan Bundy, Chris Archer and Devin Smeltzer, each among the five most frequent starting pitchers on the 2022 Twins, have been replaced by Tyler Mahle, Pablo Lopez and Kenta Maeda, with Bailey Ober ready to step in. They'll try to reverse a sharp decline in that unit's workload.

Twins starting pitchers faced a batter three times in a game in only 448 instances all season, for instance, by far the fewest in franchise history over a full season, and an average of fewer than three times per game. They also pitched five or fewer innings 110 times, also the most in franchise history as well as most in MLB last year.

That will change in 2023, Baldelli vowed.

"I expect more out of our starters this year," the manager said. "We have some guys, they're equipped to do it. It's what they do and what they do well. … We have several guys that, what they probably take most pride in, is giving you a good, deep effort into a ballgame. Guys that are not satisfied giving you five good innings. They want more than that out of themselves."

The Twins can't stop stocking up on former Reds. After adding pitchers Sonny Gray and Mahle in 2022, and infielder Kyle Farmer in November, the Twins, according to a major league source, on Tuesday reached an agreement with free agent infielder Donovan Solano, who appeared in 80 games for Cincinnati last season.

The deal is pending a physical.

Solano, 35, has appeared in 686 games over nine seasons with the Marlins, Yankees, Giants and Reds, and owns a .278 career average, albeit with just a .701 OPS. He has played extensively at all four infield positions, though he is primarily a second baseman. His best season with the pandemic year of 2020, when he won a Silver Slugger award by hitting .326 in 54 games for San Francisco.

• Josh Winder's winter program was slowed when he experienced minor soreness in his right shoulder in December, Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said, and consequently the rookie needs another week or so before he is cleared to throw off a mound. No new injury has been found and the soreness is gone, but because Winder has spent time on the injured list in each of the past two seasons because of shoulder soreness, the Twins are carefully managing his throwing program.