The San Francisco Giants have placed left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers on waivers. The former Minnesota Twins closer would be a welcome addition to a bullpen that has struggled recently.
Image courtesy of © D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
The lack of trade deadline transfers has been covered extensively here. The recent struggles of the Twins bullpen as a group have resulted in some key losses over the past two weeks, such as their only trade deadline addition, Trevor Richards, being designated for transfer. Taylor Rogers is no longer the pitcher he once was with the Minnesota Twins, but he would be more than serviceable as a mid-power left-hander out of his former team’s bullpen. Let’s take a look at how he’s played for the Giants this year and how he’s fit into the Twins’ bullpen hierarchy.
Rogers has been used as a low- to medium-leverage option with the Giants this year, with about 90% of his 51 ⅓ innings coming in one of those two situations. He’s posted a 2.45 ERA and an excellent 20.6 K%-BB%, but has become more of a flyball pitcher since his time in the Twins uniform. His peripherals suggest he’s still a solid reliever with a 3.44 FIP and 3.09 SIERA with an outstanding hard-hit percentage. His sweeper and sinker have both been plus pitches over the past two seasons, with run values of 2 and 5, respectively.
The problem with the Twins, of course, will be the fact that he’s due just over $2 million for the rest of 2024 and $12 million for all of 2025. For comparison, despite the solid season, FanGraphs values his performance so far at just $2.1 million… a far cry from the nearly $10 million the Giants paid him. While that likely excludes the Twins from a claim, it really shouldn’t, given the state of their bullpen and their position in the race through October. If the Twins were to hypothetically go crazy and pay for a mediocre reliever, he would help fill the gap in the middle of the Twins’ bullpen.
In a strange, perhaps meaningless turn of events, Rogers has reverse splits in 2024. While he’s always dominated left-handed hitters throughout his career, this year he’s allowed a .772 OPS to lefties and a .668 OPS to righties. While that’s not necessarily what the Twins are looking for, their recent implosions in the bullpen suggest they should be willing to take anyone who can improve the relief corps. And while Twins manager Rocco Baldelli uses his pitchers (well, almost all of his players) situationally, Rogers would be the perfect bridge between the low- and high-leverage relief pitchers. For me, he’d rank just below guys like Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Cole Sands, competing with Jorge Alcalá and Caleb Thielbar for mid-leverage opportunities.
As it has done countless times before, the front office has discarded pitchers with question marks for 2024. While this is largely due to the owners’ self-imposed salary cap, from a productivity and morale standpoint, reuniting with Rogers would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, ownership has shown time and time again that it cares more about the bottom line than team morale.
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