Rodney will be fine and the Twins should still be pretty good
By Tyler Haag
The Twins have rebuilt their pitching staff on the fly, after losing on a walk off home run on opening day, fans should not panic about Fernando Rodney.
Fernando Rodney gave up a home run to end the game in the Twins’ season opener against Baltimore on Thursday but there should be no real concern from Twins fans. Rodney has never given up over ten homers in a season in his 16 year career and his career numbers are pretty impressive for such a long time in the majors.
Rodney started his career in Detroit all the way back in 2002, but has been productive over his entire career (300 saves) and had a three year stretch in the 2012,13 and 14 seasons where he saved 133 games and struck out 234 batters.
Most recently, Rodney was pitching in the National League for Arizona, and had 65 strikeouts to go along with 39 saves last season. Over his career, Rodney averages 68 strikeouts and 67 innings pitched per 162 games, according to baseball-reference.com.
The Twins front office did well in improving their major league pitching staff this offseason and Odorizzi pitched well enough to win in the season opener. There should not be any major concern for the Twins and their pitching staff at this point in the season and certainly not for Fernando Rodney giving up home runs consistently.
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This team should be able to win 88-90 games this season, if everyone stays healthy. Lets hope that the Twins can get some in-house improvement from their young players to help them stay relevant in the standings so they are in a position to make a move to possibly acquire another high-end starter at the deadline and turn into a real contender.