The One That Got Away from the Twins Bullpen

Liam Hendriks and Ryan Pressly spent one season together on the Twins staff. Pressley was a rookie long reliever in 2013. Hendrik posted a 6.85 ERA in 47 innings and was waived in December. He was claimed by the Cubs, who themselves were waived 10 days later. The Orioles, then the Blue Jays, followed suit in February. They traded him to Kansas City in July, and then to Toronto. Finally, they traded Hendry to Oakland. In 2018, Pressy was traded to Houston. He's now the best reliever on baseball. It's a different story for him than for Hendriks.

Pressly was traded to the Twins. He was ineffective with the previous coaching staff. The new coaching team is analytically-inclined. Pressly's ERA dropped from 3.40 in the first half with Minnesota to 0.77 post-trade. Houston signed Press to a two-year extension. The Twins front office has shown a reluctance to extend relievers. They took a risk in trading Press. It's not unforgivable. But they should not defer to this front-office's stubborn adherence to status quo. This one blew up in their faces. iReport.com: Pressley got away from the Minnesota Twins bullpen.

The Twins have shown an eye for the right relief talent but they haven't been able to develop it properly in Minnesota. The Twins deserve credit for finding and developing Hendriks, Pressly and others. They need to find relief help in the free agent market. The new chapter of the Offseason Handbook is titled "Scouring Free Agency for Relief Help"