Twins' Jake Faria aiming for major league comeback

FORT MYERS, Fla. — You've probably heard this week that the Twins signed a free-agent starting pitcher, a righthander who got to the majors by the time he was 23 and had a strong season for the Rays in 2017 but hasn't been the same since, a four-pitch veteran who cites ex-Twin Jake Odorizzi as a close friend and confidante.

Yep. Now they have two of them.

Chris Archer got the headlines this week and will immediately be escorted into the Twins' rotation. But Jake Faria traveled a similar path, albeit without the All-Star heyday in Tampa Bay, before signing a minor league contract with the Twins the day before the lockout began in December.

"In retrospect, that was a good thing, because it allowed me to come to camp and start throwing" before the lockout ended earlier this month, the 28-year-old Faria said. "I got to meet the coaches and get to work."

He hopes to work all summer at Target Field, or at least occasionally, as a live arm the Twins can utilize in long relief or as a spot starter. And if the Twins are right about him, that reviving his changeup might revitalize his career, he's ready for more.

The results have been encouraging: Faria, a Southern California native and 10th-round pick of the Rays in 2011, has a 1.80 ERA in five innings so far this spring.

"Going back to his time in Tampa, we always felt he had some really interesting pitches. We weren't surprised that he got on a very good track at the front end of his career," said Derek Falvey, the Twins' president of baseball operations. "He got off the track for a period of time, but we have some ideas about how he utilizes his pitch mix that maybe could help him."

Specifically, Faria said, "I was so successful throwing my changeup a lot my rookie year, and I've strayed away from that, for whatever reason," using his 92-mph fastball more than ever. But Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and pitching strategist Josh Kalk worked with Faria that season at Tampa Bay — when he posted a 3.43 ERA in 86 2/3 innings and 14 starts as a rookie starting pitcher — and "I really believe these guys know how to get me back there. If there's anybody that I trust with the information they're going to give me, it's them."

That 2017 season had Archer atop the rotation and Faria taking turns after Odorizzi, Alex Cobb and Blake Snell. "Honestly, it was the most fun you could imagine," Faria said. "Me, Alex and Jake were very similar pitchers, and I learned a lot from those guys."

Faria's fortunes changed after that breakthrough season, and his ERA ballooned to 5.40 in 2018 as he found it increasingly difficult to keep the ball in the strike zone. He was up and down between the majors and minors in 2019, then was traded to Milwaukee at the deadline. It didn't go well — he couldn't find a major league job during the pandemic and sat out 2020, and wound up doing mop-up duty in Arizona last summer.

The Twins had inquired before, and when the Diamondbacks cut him loose last fall, the Twins did a little research before calling again.

"He's still got a good young arm, and he had some success at different times in Arizona," Falvey said. "If a guy has the right pitch mix that allows you to rework it and maximize it, it gives you an opportunity to develop him into someone who can help. [Pitching coach] Wes Johnson is excited about what he's seen already, and with our need for added depth after a short camp, he makes a lot of sense. I could see him getting a real chance with us."