We’re counting down the days until Minnesota Twins baseball returns for the 2026 season. We can’t wait to see more Minnesota Twins baseball! We’re just 30 days away from the Minnesota Twins reporting for Spring Training!
Minnesota Twins Uniform Number History
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30, 39, 73 & 81 Days til the Twins report to Spring Training on February 11th, the 1st game of the Spring on February 20th, Opening Day on March 26th & the Minnesota Twins Home Opener on April 3rd!
30 Days til the Minnesota Twins Report to Spring Training on February 11th
30 or reliever RHP Erasmo Ramirez Days til ⚾️ begins again for our Minnesota Twins! Starting RHP Scott Baker wore 30 the longest (‘05-‘11) & he was a solid middle of the rotation starter for them.
39 Days til the 1st game of the spring vs the Minnesota Gophers on February 20th.
39 or reliever RHP Michael Tonkin Days til game 1 of the Spring vs @mngopherbaseball!
73 Days til the Minnesota Twins Open the 2026 Season on Opening Day on March 26th in Baltimore
73 or RHP Caleb Boushley ( @calebboushley ) Days til #BaseballIsBACK on March 26th! Caleb (or K-leb?) is the only player to wear 73 for the Twins.
81 Days til the Minnesota Twins Home Opener on April 3rd against Tampa Bay
81 or RHP Jordan Balazovic ( @jordanbalazovic ) Days til ⚾️ Returns to #TargetField again. Jordan is the only player to wear 81 for the Twins.
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There are a lot of options of a topic to take from all of these players to wear the 4 jersey numbers from today: relief pitchers, catchers, 1st basemen, outfielders, role players but the most recent player from every number was a reliever so… bullpen it is.
How Will the 2026 Minnesota Twins Spell Relief?
(C-O-M-M-I-T-T-E-E But with a K?)
Rumor has it the Twins “briefly inquired” about free agent reliever RHP Seranthony Dominguez this offseason; the best remaining free agent reliever by FanGraphs projected WAR for next season. That’s somewhat hard to believe since he made $8M last season when Baltimore exercised an option for a 3rd year on his 2023 contract and since his Value isn’t usually worth that much and, ofc, considering where they Twins are currently with being able to spend money. It’s likely just the Twins checking in to see what his price is since it’s near the middle of January & he still hasn’t signed.
Right now Fangraphs Roster Resource has the Twins bullpen as:
Closer options
(Ordered by Age):
RHP Justin Topa
LHP Kody Funderburk
&
RHP Cole Sands
Middle relief options:
recently acquired RHP Eric Orze
RHP Pierson Ohl
RHP Travis Adams
&
rookie LHP Connor Prielipp
Long reliever
rookie RHP John Klein
The Minnesota Twins did sign a few right-handed relievers to MiLB contracts: RHPs Dan Altavilla, Grant Harwig, Andrew Bash, Luis Quinnones & Raul Brito They also have a few prospects in AAA that might make some noise in RHPs Kyle Bischoff & Jarrett Whorff & LHP Jaylen Nowlin. You’d have to include those 2 minor-leaguers from above, LHP Connor Prielipp & RHP John Klein, too.
There are also a bunch of starting pitchers that could end up in the bullpen. If there are no changes to the starting staff, they’re set with RHP Pablo López, RHP Joe Ryan, RHP Bailey Ober and RHP Simeon Woods Richardson. The 5th spot will likely go to one of RHPs Taj Bradley, RHP David Festa, RHP Mick Abel or RHP Zebby Matthews so the 3 who lose out will be starting in AAA or maybe they’ll be moved to the bullpen but that can also mean time in the minors working on that transition.
There might also some starting pitchers in the minors that might work in the bullpen a la RHP Travis Adams last season. In his 5 seasons in the minors, he’s pitched in 98 games with 75 of those being starts and 70 of those were in his 1st 4 minor-league seasons. Last season he only started 5 of the 23 games he pitched in with the AAA- St. Paul Saints & in those games, he only went between 2.2 & 4 innings pitched and threw more than 50 pitches once.
We’re talking about RHP Andrew Morris, LHP Kendry Rojas and RHP Marco Raya but when do you decide to do that with a starting pitcher prospect? So… should we focus more on the older prospects in AAA like RHP Trent Baker, LHP Christan MacLeod and RHP Cory Lewis?
And… what about RHP Matt Canterino? Will he be able to pitch this season after missing the last 3 seasons because of injuries to his arm?
We’ll dive deeper into the bullpen later.
See ya tomorrow, TwinsTakers!!!
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