Grading the 2019 Twins: Taylor Rogers

Hello, and welcome to another book club meeting. Our topic this month includes grading the individual performances of the key members of the 2019 Minnesota Twins. The players will receive a grade on the scale of A through F, based on their hitting, fielding, and whatever else the author wants to consider. If you haven’t finished reading the other previous books (I’m looking at you, Matt), finish them in the related section below. Today, I’ll be reviewing Taylor Rogers’ season.

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The Twins have built an elite left handed reliever in Taylor Rogers. His 2019 season further proved he is one of the games elite relievers as he had a 2.61 ERA, 2.85 FIP, 1.00 WHIP, 11.74 K/9, 1.43 BB/9, and 2.1 fWAR.

He was also excellent at limiting hard contact with his hard hit% at 29.7% (top 7% of the league) and his xwOBA at .258 (top 5% of league). This along with his elite K-BB ratio were two keys to his elite status.

Here is the Statcast graphic showing an excellent amount of red:

He relied on three main pitches. The sinker (48.6%), slider (34.6%), and curveball (16.7%). The slider was definitely his best pitch, as hitters .217 (.171 xBA) with a SLG of .337 (.284 xSLG) and a wOBA of .254 (.215 xwOBA). This came with a K% of 40.6% on the pitch and a whiff% of 35.6%.

He was also used as the main pitcher when the team was in any sort of jam and needed some key outs. 50 of the 60 games he pitched in contained some high leverage pitches and he allowed just a .626 OPS in those situations.

The statistics only proved what the fans, front office, and coaching staff all knew. Taylor Rogers is an elite weapon out of the bullpen. When Tyler Duffey was able to get going and turn himself into a great reliever, Minnesota had one of the best (yet criminally unnoticed) bullpen duos in baseball. The bullpen was often tasked with carrying a struggling rotation and Taylor Rogers led the way throughout the season. MLB introduced an All-MLB team that fans are allowed to vote for, and Taylor Rogers was one of the relievers chosen to be voted upon.

Now that 2019 has come to an end, the Twins know they have a left handed reliever they can trust in any situation necessary. The Twins are able to focus on starting pitching this off season because they built a great bullpen with Rogers leading the way.

I struggle at giving people the A+ grade because that means everything went 100% correct and everything was perfect. That never happens.

Overall Grade: A