This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
This isn’t your grandfather’s Twins pitching staff anymore.
When baseball’s velocity revolution first took hold around the Majors, Minnesota was largely left behind, without the endless stream of power arms in the bullpen, in particular, that have become ubiquitous around the league.
Until now.
Entering this season, there had been three Twins pitchers who had thrown a tracked pitch that clocked in at 100.0 mph or harder: Juan Morillo, Brusdar Graterol and Jorge Alcala. In 2022 alone, that total has doubled, with Jhoan Duran, Jorge López and now even Trevor Megill in the fold.
This is a rather recent development for Megill, the 28-year-old just now finding his foothold in the big leagues, whose fastball averaged 96.4 mph last season with the Cubs and has ticked up to an average of 97.7 mph this season while he has pitched out of Minnesota's bullpen. He finally broke into the 100 mph club on July 30, and he has now hit triple digits six times in all, including twice in a game for the first time on Sunday at Angel Stadium.
“The Twins have done a great job of really just making me understand myself and my body and everything,” Megill said. “So there's a big factor that they put into the equation. There's days where you have epiphanies -- 'I'm not getting through the ball this way' -- and I had one of those as well. You put the things together, and it turns into something beautiful.”
It’s a story that’s becoming more familiar at this point, with tweaks and optimizations to pitchers’ mechanics allowing the Twins to squeeze a few extra ticks of velocity out of their arms. You’re seeing the same thing with Griffin Jax, who threw in the low 90s as a starter last year and is now pushing 98 mph out of the bullpen.
For Megill, he’s creating better separation in the rotation between his hips and shoulders -- opening his hips towards the plate while keeping his front shoulder closed -- and that has made all the difference. He says he realized two or three years ago that would be key to unlocking an extra gear, and steady work -- including kickboxing -- has contributed to a steady increase in that time, getting him to this point.
This bodes particularly well for the Twins of 2023, who could have four pitchers capable of throwing in the triple figures ready in the bullpen – Duran, López, Alcala and Megill.
“I think there's a nice little confidence, whatever you want to label it as, that we're a hard-throwing bullpen now,” Megill said. “That's kind of what, from my gauge on things, is what the fans have wanted. Now they're starting to see it a little bit. It's cool to be a part of.”