Twins finalizing deal to sign free agent reliever Taylor Rogers

Derek Falvey, speaking to a crowd at the Midland Hill Country Club as part of the Twins caravan on Wednesday, Jan. 21, apologized for looking at his phone while former Gophers baseball coach John Anderson spoke.

“I’m getting a text from an agent on something that we’re trying to pull off to add to our bullpen,” said Falvey, who didn’t specify which free agent reliever the Twins were targeting. “I think we’re pretty close. We’re getting close. I can’t give you anything specific today. Maybe in a couple of days.”

The Twins, as it turns out, are finalizing a one-year deal with lefty Taylor Rogers, who spent the first six seasons of his big-league career with the organization, two sources told the Minnesota Star Tribune. Rogers, 35, had a 3.38 ERA with 53 strikeouts and 23 walks in 50⅔ innings last year for the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs, and he pitched one scoreless inning for the Cubs in the playoffs.

Rogers collected 30 saves as the closer on the 2019 Bomba Squad, and he was selected to the All-Star team in 2021. The Twins traded Rogers in April 2022, along with Brent Rooker, to the San Diego Padres for Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagán.

After the Twins signed first baseman Josh Bell and catcher Victor Caratini — the latter’s deal is still pending a physical examination — the team focused on bolstering a bullpen the front office tore apart at last year’s trade deadline.

In most years, free agent relievers are typically the last position group to see much movement during the offseason because so many of them sign one-year contracts. This winter was different. Teams prioritized the top bullpen arms, especially ones with experience as a closer.

Falvey acknowledged the Twins had a late start to their winter because “we were still trying to work through where we were organizationally, transition with ownership and lots of things going on.”

“We’ve been saying all along that we feel we have real opportunity for a lot of players,” Falvey said. “There are some guys that maybe they are in bounce back situations, or they are coming back from health issues before. We’re having a lot of those conversations right now with some of the guys who are out there.”

Even with the expected addition of Rogers, assuming the deal is completed, and the possibility of adding a second reliever through free agency, the Twins will still be counting heavily on inexperienced internal options. Falvey said a couple of their young starters could find themselves in bullpen roles this year.

“We’re close to being able to add some guys that we think will fill out some experience in that group, but we’re going to need some young guys to step up,” Falvey said. “There is no way around that. That’s going to have to happen for us. I think a couple of years ago, we didn’t know that was going to be Griffin Jax and ultimately it was. There have to be other guys in our group that are going to need to step into those roles.”

Falvey, the Twins president, took several questions from the crowd at the annual St. Paul Baseball Old Timers Hot Stove League banquet. The first fan question centered on why the front office opted to trade away relievers who had multiple years of team control.

The trade deadline, Falvey said, was the best time to trade from the bullpen because every contending team wants to add relievers. In Baseball America’s current farm system rankings, the Twins landed two of their top 10 prospects at the deadline (catcher Eduardo Tait, from the Jhoan Duran deal, is ranked No. 5, and left-handed pitcher Kendry Rojas, who was in the Louie Varland trade, is No. 8).