Pablo Lopez started for the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day. He became the first pitcher to do that for the franchise in three consecutive seasons since Brad Radke in 2005. To say that Rocco Baldelli has an unquestioned ace would be fair.
The rest of the Twins rotation could be pretty good as well. While some may be sleeping on the quality of the group as a whole, Minnesota’s depth should be a strength. If there’s a question mark it’s the pitchers after Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober.
Ober and Ryan are logical breakout picks. Chris Paddack is probably someone to worry about. Simeon Woods Richardson could represent the greatest uncertainty of possible outcomes.
Simeon Woods Richardson may be Minnesota Twins pitching star
After pitching just a single game at the big league level each of the previous two seasons, Simeon Woods Richardson arrived in 2024. The Minnesota Twins rotation needed him, and he put together a rookie campaign with 28 starts, 133 2/3 innings, and a 4.17 ERA.
His numbers didn’t jump off the page, but it was more than a solid starting point. The guy that was once considered the secondary part of a Jose Berrios trade now could be so much more. The Athletic’s Keith Law saw Woods Richardson this spring, and he sees an immense level of upside.
“Minnesota Twins right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson made a huge adjustment to his arm slot in the 2023-24 offseason with the help of the Twins’ player development staff, taking him from an also-ran on the outside of the Twins’ rotation plans to a 2-WAR season as their fourth starter.
Although I didn’t see a changeup from him (I was moving back and forth between two fields), and that pitch might be the key to whether he can break out to a greater degree this year. His changeup was his only “bad” pitch by results last year, worth a whopping minus-16 runs by Statcast, wiping out 80 percent of the value of his other three pitches combined…If he gets that changeup closer to the zone often enough to get hitters to go after it, he could be the ...
