I didn't think much of the reported agreement Saturday between the Twins and veteran reliever Addison Reed. That goes to show the power of first impressions.
Reed got going in the majors seven years ago with the Chicago White Sox, so we Twins fans got to see quite a bit of him. The Sox made him their closer pretty quickly, so he piled up some big saves numbers early, but he really wasn't that effective, and they moved him on to Arizona after his 40-save 2013 (ERA 3.79).
Somewhere along the line he (a) ceased being the prime ninth-inning option for his teams and (b) became a genuinely effective reliever. He split last year between the Mets -- where he did close for part of the year -- and the Red Sox, where he was a bit home-run prone.
And suddenly, wow, the Twins have a pretty darn deep bullpen, and it's not a case where they're getting that depth by planning on the emergence of one of the prospects. They're not asking Fernando Rodney or Reed or Zach Duke to do anything other than what their track records are.
Projected bullpen:
Closer: Rodney
Setup 1: Trevor Hildenberger
Setup 2: Reed
LOOGY 1: Taylor Rogers
LOOGY 2: Duke
MR1: Ryan Pressly
MR2: Tyler Duffey
You can shuffle those roles around however you wish. I prefer Hildenberger to Reed, and Rogers over ro Duke, but your mileage may vary, and Paul Molitor may defer to the veterans, and that's defensible.
All this, of course, hinges on Reed passing the physical, which I assume he will.
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