Emilio Pagan’s 2022 season was bad, but not bad enough to have the Twins trade him or let him become a free agent. On Friday, the deadline to non-tender players, the Twins offered a contract to the 31-year-old right-hander, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic.
That means Pagan will be back with the Twins in 2023, serving as an important arm in a bullpen that was often slaughtered when Caleb Thielbar and Jhoan Duran weren’t pitching late in games.
Twins relievers served up 78 home runs in 2022, the fourth most in the American League and the eighth most in all of baseball. Pagan was dinged for 12 homers and a stunning 1.7 long balls per nine innings.
Since 2020, the only reliever in the big leagues to allow more homers than Pagan (32) is Miami’s Caleb Smith (37). Griffin Jax of the Twins is third on the list (30).
But what Pagan has that many relievers don’t is electric stuff. When he’s good, he’s really good. Evidence of that can be seen in Pagan’s 12 strikeouts per nine innings.
If he can figure it out and stop getting rocked, he could help Minnesota form a formidable bullpen.
Heard Emilio Pagán drew far more interest from other teams than Gio Urshela did ahead of tonight's non-tender deadline. Pagán's stuff and 12 Ks per nine had a lot of teams asking.#MNTwins
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) November 18, 2022
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