Twins' Scott Blewett wants to continue making a positive impact out of bullpen

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Scott Blewett is smart, friendly and engaging, a captivating interview in a Twins clubhouse rife with them.

Well, until a tactless interviewer ineptly brings up the unfortunate juxtaposition of his surname and his job as a major league relief pitcher.

“I’ve heard them all. I’ve heard them my entire life,” Blewett said patiently, his smile suddenly running for cover. “It’s the name I was given. It’s the name I’m proud to wear on my uniform.”

Understood and understandable. Besides, Blewett is even more proud that the uniform he wears now, just as he did for the final month of the 2024 season, is a big-league outfit. A professional for more than a decade now, Blewett has appeared in only 17 MLB games, 12 of them last summer with the Twins.

Twelve mostly excellent outings. It felt, and still feels, like a breakthrough.

“He earned his opportunities. He really took advantage of them,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I could see him helping us a whole bunch out of the pen this year.”

So can Blewett, who twice last year — the first time a day after his Twins debut, and then again after the season ended — was designated for assignment by the Twins when they needed his spot on the 40-man roster. Both times, Blewett considered his options, thought about his experience with Class AAA St. Paul and the Twins, and agreed to remain in the organization.

“The communication with the front office has been great. DFA, it’s a business move, I understand,” said Blewett, who is out of options and so cannot be assigned to the minor leagues without his permission. “They said, ‘We want you back.’ I really liked the process here, the development program to get where I want to be. And being around these guys, I mean, the camaraderie here is unbelievable. Everything about this environment has incentivized me to come back.”

After posting a 3.79 ERA in 54⅔ innings with the Saints, Blewett was something of a revelation with the Twins in September. Utilizing a slider and split-fingered fastball roughly 60% of the time, Blewett gave up only four earned runs, two of them on solo homers, in 20⅓ innings, a 1.77 ERA.

By the end, he was receiving high-leverage assignments from Baldelli, and likely would have made the playoff roster had the Twins not faltered down the stretch.

“It was incredibly exciting. It was great to be a part of it,” Blewett said. “Obviously the season didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but it feels like we took one step back in order to take two steps forward. This is a great team, and that was a huge learning curve for everyone.”

Blewett already had experienced a huge learning curve, 7,000 miles away. After being cut loose by the Royals — they drafted him in the second round in 2014 and gave him a $1.8 million bonus — and two unsatisfying stints in the White Sox and Braves systems, a friend who lived in Taiwan invited him late in 2023 to come pitch for the Uni-President Lions in Tainan, on the south end of the small island just off China’s coast.

Off he went, for the adventure of a lifetime. Blewett started seven games, posted a 3.95 ERA, and was struck by how different pro baseball is in Taiwan.

“Very old-school. The bat-to-ball skill is very impressive, but you don’t have those thumpers in the lineup like you do here. They’re just trying to put the ball in play,” he said. “I had to figure out my arsenal and where the swing-and-miss is. Here it’s mostly below the zone and above the zone. There, it’s more east-west. That took some getting used to.”

And off the field?

“Costco saved my life over there. They had steak and beef, which normal supermarkets over there don’t sell. So I got all my protein there,” he said. “It absolutely improved me. The language barrier was huge, so coaching was tough. As an American, you have to really be your own self-coach, but I figured out different ways to do that. They wanted me back.”

But he wanted another shot at the big leagues. The Twins spotted the 6-foot-6 righthander at a development camp in North Carolina in early 2024 and signed him for St. Paul.

Baldelli doesn’t doubt that the experience made Blewett a better pitcher.

“When guys experience pitching in different places, they learn different things. They mature as people and as players,” the manager said. “If they’re still able to have good enough stuff, harness that stuff, and be good enough of a strike-thrower, it makes them the best pitcher maybe they’ve ever been, and later on in their career. Later than you would think.”

A starter most of his career, Blewett, who turns 29 in April, is now content as a reliever.

“I always knew my mindset was a better fit as a reliever than a starter,” he said. “I’m a heavy thinker. As a starter, you have five days to think about it, especially if it didn’t go well. That could snowball on me. So I’m better off in the bullpen.”

Even if his name suggests … um, never mind.