Fastball

Minnesota Twins Could Move Reliever Griffin Jax into Starting Rotation

As the Twins look to come to terms with their collapse of 2024, they could have a big move up their sleeves for 2025.

Brady Farkas

Minnesota Twins pitcher Griffin Jax (22) throws to the plate during the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on Aug 16.
Minnesota Twins pitcher Griffin Jax (22) throws to the plate during the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on Aug 16. / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
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According to Minnesota Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler, the organization could end up moving reliever Griffin Jax to the starting rotation.

Mike Ferrin of the MLB Network had the news on social media, saying that Tingler made note of this on the network. It's far from a definite but it's noteworthy no matter what. With the Twins in financial disarray over television revenue and possible ownership changes, they likely can't go out in free agency and acquire big-name starting pitchers, so if they truly desire to improve the rotation, moving Jax into it might be one of their only ways to get real impact.

Of course, if the Twins were to move Jax into the rotation, they'd be weakening the bullpen. Armed with an upper-90s fastball, Jax went 5-5 this past season with a 2.03 ERA. He struck out 95 batters in 71.0 innings.

A four-year veteran, Jax has spent his entire career in Minnesota. He came up as a starter, starting 14 games in his rookie year (2021). Lifetime, he's 22-24 with a 3.99 ERA. That rookie season saw him have an ERA of 6.37 but he's been exponentially better since moving to the bullpen full-time in 2022. He has paired with Jhoan Duran to make a back-end tandem.

If the Twins were to entertain moving Jax into the rotation, perhaps they could count on Justin Topa to pick up the slack in the bullpen. They acquired the righty in a trade with the Seattle Mariners last offseason, but he missed nearly the entire season.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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