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New York Mets trade LHP AJ Minter to the Minnesota Twins for IF Bruin Agbayani and 1B/3B Billy Amick.
AJ Minter is 32 years old. AJ Minter is 72 years old. Not only does it feel like he’s older—he arrived a decade ago a fully-formed seventh-inning reliever, never once getting a start, rarely getting a save—but his career feels the continuation of the rise of the reliever, since the shame wore off the position in the 80s. He’s a lefty, but not a lefty specialist; he throws a mediocre four-seamer, a nice little cutter, and a change-up that primarily doesn’t move like a fastball. Because he’s a reliever, sometimes his ERA winds up in the high threes, and sometimes, like this year, it settles into the low twos. But he’s always the same guy. He’s AJ Minter. He’s a welcome addition to any bullpen. Which makes him an extremely welcome addition to this particular bullpen.
One of the reasons that bullpens are so difficult to project is a phenomenon, characterized by Jeff Sullivan two decades ago as The Pile. You have a bunch of dudes, none of whom seem very good. A couple of them are, but it takes time to weed through the small samples and the batted-ball luck to figure out which ones, and then you have to hope they don’t break or wear out once you do. Minnesota, more than perhaps any other team in recent memory, has done a hell of a lot of weeding. Famously, their 30 saves this season are split between a dozen different pitchers, which ties them for fifth all-time. But it hasn’t been just a search for a closer. The Twins have struggled to find reliable answers in the seventh and eighth innings, as well.
