twins

Minnesota Twins Sign Rich Hill and Homer Bailey

The reigning American League Central Champions are set on repeating — and they just signed a couple of pitchers to help them do so. Unfortunately for the Minnesota Twins, they were not able to land a high dollar extremely coveted free agent such as Madison Bumgarner or Dallas Keuchel, but they did the next best thing and brought a couple veteran pitchers with plenty of experience and success in their careers. The pitchers signed are former Los Angeles Dodger Rich Hill as well as Homer Bailey, owner of two career no-hitters.

Unfortunately for the Twins, Hill is still recovering from a surgery and won’t be available until mid-season. The same can be said for Michael Pineda, who is still serving a suspension for having a banned substance in his body - one that is often used to mask PEDs. Nevertheless, with a potent offense and two All Star pitchers at the top of their rotation (Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzo), the Twins should be able to hang on long enough until Hill and Pineda are able to return. Minnesota also has a solid bullpen with impressive arms such as Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey.

Both Rich Hill and Homer Bailey have been serviceable pitchers in recent years despite the fact that Hill is 39 years old. Based on recent performance, he not yet over the Hill (Pun intended of course) and if he can continue to pitch at or near the level he has in the past 5 years, he will be a big help to a Twins team trying to repeat a 100+ win season. With multiple hitters capable of 30+ home runs such as Max Kepler and Nelson Cruz, they will score runs… it’s only a question if they can also prevent them.