Twins’ collaborative pitching rotation off to strong start

When pitcher Chris Archer arrived in the big leagues at age 23 in 2012, his rotation-mate in Tampa Bay, David Price, was in the midst of the best season of his career. Price would win 20 games that year, strike out more than 200 batters and add a Cy Young Award to his mantle. When he wasn’t on the mound, he would nurture a young teammate, taking him under his wing for years to come.

Without him, Archer would say 10 years later, he wouldn’t have accomplished nearly what he has in the game of baseball. Archer now is the veteran, one of three pitchers in a Twins’ rotation that features an equal mix of experience and youth.

That rotation, one which features a collaborative spirit filled with those looking to teach and those eager to learn, has been one of the best in baseball to date. The Twins entered Monday with the fifth-best starting pitcher earned-run average in the majors at 2.68, second only to the Yankees in the American League.

Already, Twins pitcher Chris Paddack said, the group has formed a close bond, jelling quickly. And, importantly, he said, everybody within the rotation is approachable.

“There’s no such thing as a bad question or a wrong question, and it helps obviously when we’re watching each other out there, midweek bullpens,” Paddack said. “Everybody’s out there going over grips, going over ‘What’s your mindset?’ or ‘Hey, how you’re feeling?’ or ‘Flush that, we know it was a bad one but, hey, you’ve got two days to get ready to pitch and you’re going to go dominate.’ All those are a big factor of what’s going to make our rotation special, and that chemistry of not only is it one guy out there, it’s six.”

Twins starters — Joe Ryan, 26, Sonny Gray, 32 (currently injured), Bailey Ober, 26, Dylan Bundy, 29, Archer, 33, and Paddack, 26 — have posted a combined 1.01 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched), which is second in the majors, and batters are hitting collectively just .208 against them.

While the pitching rotation was patched together in large part after the lockout — within a span of less than a month, the Twins traded for Gray and Paddack, and signed Archer — the group has turned what was somewhat of a question mark into a team strength.

“It’s a real interesting, talented grouping of guys that can do a lot of different types of things. But for that to come together and work out the way it has to this point and hopefully for the foreseeable future, you need to bring in the right people,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You need to have the right people working with them. You have to have the right plan for each pitcher because each one of these guys has a very different way of going out there and executing a plan.”

And so far, the Twins (8-8) have had all of the above.

The results have been there early on — all four pitchers who have made three starts boast ERAs under 3.20, with Bundy leading the way at 0.59 — born in part because of the work the starters have done off the mound.

When Gray joined camp, starters began watching each other’s bullpen sessions. He had an intent audience watching his first session in Fort Myers, Fla., which included Ryan, Ober and some of the team’s top pitching prospects. It’s a practice that he did back in Cincinnati, too.

“Big O and Joe and Bundy, we can all help each other, but we can’t help each other unless we watch each other,” Gray said earlier this month. “It just gets baseball conversations going.”

And it’s something that Ryan, Ober and Paddack have all alluded to as having been a great resource, even early on in the season.

“I think it just helps with watching each other’s bullpens and kind of going off that, and just seeing different things that might help for guys struggling in certain areas,” Ryan said. “I just like the extra set of eyes and especially for me, some of these guys have so much time (in baseball) and have done it for so long that it’s kind of like a book, right? They put all that information and I just get to read it.”

Archer is the longest-tenured major leaguer, having debuted and pitched in six games in 2012. Bundy, very briefly, reached the majors that year, too. Gray has been around since 2013.

Of all the young starters, Ryan had the greatest familiarity with Archer coming in, with the pair being teammates last season in the Rays organization. Ryan already has credited Archer with giving him some slider cues to help him keep his breaking ball more consistent.

“Different things work for different people,” Archer said. “I’ve learned so much. Any little thing I can do to help, I’m willing to do. It might be finger pressure on a pitch or a certain mentality on a pitch, so it’s just those types of things.”

While Archer said he’s not one to go up to someone and tell them what they should do, if they ask or if it comes up in conversation, he’s more than willing to share.

And so are the rest of the Twins starters, helping share their expertise and winding up with great early results.

“These guys have pitched, I mean, exceptionally to this point. And you anticipate that,” Baldelli said. “The more you see it, the more you anticipate guys going out there and shutting down the opposition, and it gets, I think probably, even a little competitive amongst themselves, too. They want to win. I mean, they’re not out there for themselves to get theirs. They’re out there to win games, all these guys.”

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