Chris Paddack throwing 99 mph fastballs and Brock Stewart unleashing 98 mph heat in their returns to the diamond Tuesday night are good signs for a Minnesota Twins bullpen that will play a critical role in the beleaguered franchise's goal of not only winning a playoff game for the first time in nearly two decades, but making a run in the American League playoffs beginning next week.
Paddack hadn't pitched in 15 months because of Tommy John surgery. Stewart made his return from the 60-day injured list. They're locks to be included on the 26-man playoff roster, but what will the rest of the bullpen look like?
The bullpen locks seem to be Paddack, Stewart, Jhoan Duran, Emilio Pagan, Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar, Louie Varland and probably rookie left-hander Kody Funderburk. That's eight pitchers. Add in starters Pablo Lopez, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan and Kenta Maeda and that makes 12.
If the Twins go with a 13-man pitching staff in the postseason, that leaves one spot up for grabs with the Twins needing to give it to Dallas Keuchel, Bailey Ober or perhaps Jorge Alcala.
Here's a table showing each pitcher's ERA against Minnesota's four possible Wild Card opponents.
SKOR North's Declan Goff made some waves Tuesday when he argued that Jax should not be included on the playoff roster because the veteran right-hander is tied for the team lead with 10 losses this season.
Jax was charged with two losses in April, four in May, two in August and two so far in September. Jax certainly has a reputation as a reliever who can either dominate or get blown up, and it's those blow-up innings that are cause for concern.
In 10 games where he's been charged with a loss, Jax has allowed 21 runs in exactly eight innings for an atrocious 23.63 ERA. In 59 other appearances, he allowed a run in just six of them and posted a 1.13 ERA in 56 innings.
Overall, Jax has given up a run in 16 of 69 appearances, meaning he's been clean 76.8% of the time. Three out of four ain't bad, but it certainly doesn't ease fears of a blowup inning, which has been the case in 10 of 69 appearances, or 14.4% of his appearances.
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