FORT MYERS, FLA. – Time for a little off-day Twins trivia: The team used a franchise-record 28 pitchers in relief at least once last season; almost as remarkably, nearly two-thirds of those relievers are already gone. Only 10 are in training camp with the Twins today, and three of them (Jose Berrios, Phil Hughes and Aaron Slegers) are actually starting pitchers.
So here's the question: Of the remaining seven returning relievers, which one comes armed with the slowest fastball? Who in fact, outside of those pitchers recovering from injuries, might have the least velocity on the entire staff?
If you have ever watched him pitch, the answer — Gabriel Moya — might come as a shock. "The way he carries himself, the way he delivers the ball, it's very hard to read and perceive and react," said Ivan Arteaga, the pitching coach at Class AA Chattanooga. "His fastball looks like 98, and it's actually 90 or maybe 91."
Moya is the Venezuelan lefthander who so impressed Arteaga and the Twins after being acquired from Arizona in July for catcher John Ryan Murphy, he was promoted to the major leagues, and into the heat of a playoff race, only a month later. Now, having just turned 23 and with only six big-league innings behind him, Moya is making a strong case that he is ready to come north.
Certainly Moya has no doubts. If the adage that "You should dress for the job you want, not the one you have" is true, he feels right at home in a Twins jersey. A changeup pitcher's best friend is deception, the art of looking more fearsome that you actually are. And that's not just Moya's best pitch — it's his entire personna.
"If you watch him around [camp], he acts like he belongs," manager Paul Molitor said. "He thinks he belongs."
So do the coaches who work with him.
"I see [guts] and heart. I see a guy who's not scared. At a young age, that's pretty good," said Eddie Guardado, the Twins bullpen coach and another former lefty reliever who relied on swagger and deception more than velocity. "Half the battle is going out there and believing in your stuff. And he believes in it."