The Minnesota Twins have plenty of openings in their bullpen this spring, and it’s a prime opportunity for young pitchers in the upper levels of the minors to make their cases for one of the open spots.
Brooklyn Park native John Klein is one of the leading candidates as the offseason begins. Klein wasn’t on the radar making such a case a year ago, but now he’s positioned himself to be the next Minnesota native fans can latch onto in the bullpen.
The Twins signed Klein as an undrafted free agent on Aug. 8, 2022. He’d finished his time at Iowa Central Community College and was pitching in the Northwoods League for the Willmar Stingers during the time he was signed. Even after signing in August, he had enough time to appear in two Florida Complex League games before the 2022 season. In the past two years, he’s steadily progressed through Minnesota’s system.
This year was different, though. Klein was one of the many Twins pitching prospects who they sent out to the mound to go four innings every four days. The routine worked well for him in Double-A Wichita from April through July. He pitched to a 3.12 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 27.4% strikeout rate, and 6.9% walk rate in 80 ⅔ innings over 24 games.
However, Klein faced adversity when he reached Triple-A. He had jitters the first time on the mound at CHS Field, allowing six runs to score on five hits and two walks in only two-thirds of an inning. However, things improved from there. Klein pitched to a 4.68 ERA, walked 11, and struck out 33 in 25 innings in his last six outings of the year.
The results on paper don’t stand out as an immediate choice to make Minnesota’s bullpen next spring, but his work in the previous off-season shows the improvements that could come next spring. He added a few ticks on his fastball, going from 93-94 MPH in 2025 to topping out at 97-98 MPH this season. It averaged out at 94.5 MPH this year, a strong indicator that a couple more ticks of velo are well on the way next year.
In addition to his fastball, Klein has a cutter, splitter, curveball, and slider in his arsenal, all of which have worked as effective strikeout pitches against opponents. Klein saw an uptick in his walk rate when he arrived in St. Paul, reaching 11.1%, but his strikeout rate also rose to 28.2%.
Klein will have plenty to work on this offseason. As long as the improvements show in spring training, he will live up to the case of being the dark horse candidate for the bullpen. Klein is Rule 5 draft eligible this offseason and is a borderline candidate to make the 40-man roster. If they add him before the deadline on Nov. 21, his chances of making the Twins bullpen out of spring training will only increase.
There are still many unknowns for Minnesota’s roster next year. Still, there are plenty of internal candidates who make the roster decisions all the more intriguing, especially with so many vacant spots in the bullpen. Twins fans will want to root for one of their own to make it in and keep the hometown ties going strong with this franchise.