FORT MYERS, FLA. – The Twins opened the 2016 season with lefthanders Glen Perkins and Fernando Abad, and righthanders Kevin Jepsen, Trevor May, Ryan Pressly, Casey Fien and Michael Tonkin in a seven-pitcher bullpen.
Manager Paul Molitor expressed the same hope as had his predecessor, Ron Gardenhire, for lo those many years, hoping to limit the bullpen to seven pitchers and thus maintain a four-player bench for the next five months.
Molitor made it three weeks into the season before adding a reliever, which was better than Gardenhire's average, what with his legendary paranoia about overworking a bullpen.
"Gardy sent me to [Class AAA] Rochester to start the 2007 season, because he wanted three catchers,'' Glen Perkins said. "I made one start there and Gardy decided he wanted another reliever.''
There were only two members of Molitor's opening group of 2016 to make it to the finish line:
The attrition started with Perkins, who made two appearances before being sidelined because of a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery. Jepsen and Fien were released, Abad was traded to Boston, and May had a bad back that restricted him to one appearance after Aug. 6.
Pressly made 72 appearances and was the Twins' best reliever, and Tonkin made 65 appearances, with 13 home runs allowed that helped to boost his ERA to 5.02.
The Twins wound up using 22 pitchers out of the bullpen, including 16 who were strictly relievers. As a whole, the Twins bullpen was superior to one group in 2016: Twins starters.