The loss of Pablo Lopez unquestionably hurts the Twins, but in baseball as in life, time moves on whether we want it to or not. I wrote out my projected roster earlier this week where I had Taj Bradley winning the final rotation slot out of Spring Training. Now, he should essentially be locked into the 4 spot while Zebby Matthews, David Festa, and Mick Abel fight for the fifth and final rotation spot. Behind them are a plethora of untested rookies, including top pitching prospect Connor Prielipp.
Even after losing Pablo, this Minnesota goes eight deep on “probably MLB ready” arms between the four locked starters and the young combo of Matthews, Festa, Abel, and Prielipp. They have four more pitchers likely ready to contribute to the Big League squad after a bit more AAA seasoning (Andrew Morris, Kendry Rojas, Marco Raya, John Klein) even more solid, if unspectacular older depth behind them (Cory Lewis, Christian MacLeod, CJ Culpepper, among others).
Obviously not every player will work out, but the point is that the Twins have multiple lines of defense to tap into in the inevitable event of additional pitcher injuries.
If they turn to the free agent market, there’s three pitchers remaining who would be an upgrade over Simeon Woods Richardson, who is probably the line for if a player is worth signing or not. They are Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, and Max Scherzer.
I think we can cross Scherzer off the list. At 43 years old, the future Hall of Famer will likely only be interested in joining a true blue contender, which the Twins are decidedly not at the moment.
Twins fans are familiar with Giolito’s work. The former All-Star and longtime member of the White Sox had a solid bounce back in 2025 after returning from Tommy John Surgery that eliminated his 2024. His strikeouts were down significantly, but that’s not out of the norm for a player in their first season back from UCL reconstruction. All in all, he tallied 145 innings of ball with a 3.41 ERA/4.17 FIP with 121 strikeouts and 56 walks. He would likely cost the Twins somewhere in the $20M range for one season.
The other pitcher would be another familiar face: former Twin Zack Littell. Littell was in Minnesota for the first three seasons of his career, pitching 63.2 innings of relief between 2018 and 2020. He peddled along as a middling reliever for various teams over the next three seasons before the Rays moved him into their rotation midway through the 2023 season after a rash of injuries left their rotation completely depleted. Since then, Littell has emerged as a solid back end starter who excels at limiting walks and damage. He doesn’t strike out enough batters and gives up too many homers, but you don’t need to look further than Bailey Ober or Simeon Woods Richardson to see how the Twins have successfully worked with pitchers with limited stuff. Littell would be cheaper than Giolito, likely commanding closer to $10M for the 2026 season.
So, what do you think? Is it worth bringing in Giolito or Littell, or would the Twins be better off throwing the young arms at the wall and seeing who can stick?
