This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MINNEAPOLIS -- As Travis Adams advanced through the Twins’ system, it wasn’t entirely clear what the future held for the former sixth-round Draft pick. Starter, or reliever?
Why not a combination?
In his first full season at Triple-A St. Paul, Minnesota’s No. 21 prospect has become the poster boy for a new model of pitcher development. It’s not exactly a starter’s path, and not exactly a reliever. It’s in between.
Adams has frequently pitched on three days’ rest -- sometimes as the first pitcher of a game, sometimes out of the bullpen -- while throwing roughly four innings and 60 pitches per appearance. He’s been effective in that role this year (3.68 ERA in 63 2/3 innings at Triple-A), and that put him in position to make his Major League debut on Saturday.
That outing against the Rays ended up being a mixed bag, with Adams allowing five runs on nine hits in four innings, entering in the third. The results weren’t ideal, but it was less draining on the relief corps than a regular bullpen game, and it’s likely Adams will get another opportunity next week. But he was ready for the four-inning assignment in part because of how he’s been used this year.
“Definitely,” Adams said after his debut. “There was a possibility of being a starter today, or doing the opener like we did. I think [with] how they’ve used me in Triple-A, it just kind of played into how I’ve been used all year.”
The Twins don’t have any plans to overhaul their pitching development entirely. But there is a belief that some pitchers can benefit from a model like the one Adams is following. About 10 pitchers in the organization are on some form of it this year.
“That’s an organizational [decision],” said manager Rocco Baldelli, “Player development [is] kind of putting everyone’s heads together and just seeing what we can, the benefits of what we can get out of a guy or even a group of guys.
“It’s finding a way to get some real quality length out of a pitcher without him needing to throw every five or six days. How much less taxing is it when a guy is throwing 60 pitches every four days than throwing 99 pitches every five days? It’s been a longstanding discussion that guys can pitch every four days. They just might not be able to go max effort for 100 pitches every four days. But there’s a big difference I think between throwing 55 and throwing 100. I think he’s done a good job with it. I think he was very open-minded to it.”
It’s unclear how Adams will be used while he’s in the big leagues. Most likely it won’t be every four days, since it’s more of a priority to make sure his use suits the team’s needs, rather than the other way around. But it won’t be surprising if he serves more as a bulk pitcher after an opener, like the Twins did Saturday after an inning from both Cole Sands and Danny Coulombe, and even that role for Adams is something with which he’ll be more familiar with than if he’d just started.