Twins Sign a mind blowing deal with a top and best Veteran Reliever

In a last-minute move to reinforce their injury-depleted bullpen, the Twins have signed one of the more beloved clubhouse guys in MLB. He’s only a few months younger than Joe Mauer, but he might still have something left in the tank.

It’s not a good sign when you get cut by the 2024 Chicago White Sox, but Jesse Chavez is holding onto the dream of a 17th MLB season. He’s appeared in 607 career games, and for the first half-decade of his peripatetic big-league career, he was a starter. Lately, he’s been more of a low- to medium-leverage matchup arm, and his velocity has gotten almost untenably low, but Chavez has continued to find ways to get outs throughout his 30s, and now joins the Twins organization to try to make it to his 41st birthday while still wearing a big-league uniform.

The Twins signed Chavez to a big-league deal Sunday, sources told Twins Daily’s John Bonnes, and expect to have him on their Opening Day roster, which will be missing bullpen luminaries Jhoan Durán and Caleb Thielbar. Chavez, 40, has become mostly a split-neutral middle reliever, with a cutter in the upper 80s as his primary offering. He utilizes a changeup as his secondary offering against lefty batters, inducing fairly weak contact, and a sinker as the secondary pitch against righties. He can rack up strikeouts against the righties, but will walk a good number of batters based on the way he pitches and the need to stay out of the middle of the plate with his underwhelming sheer stuff.

Expect Chavez to pitch in middle relief, with occasional late-inning appearances based on need and matchup. He’s no replacement for Durán, nor a threat to Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart as the pen’s top righties, but he’s more adept at getting out left-handed batters than Josh Staumont or Jay Jackson, With him in the fold, the Twins’ bullpen appears to be essentially complete.

What do you think of this final addition to the team’s relief mix? How do you expect Chavez to be used in the early going? Comment below to start the conversation.