By most players’ standards, Jhoan Duran had a good season last year. By his own admission, it wasn’t what he was looking for — he wanted results that more closely resembled his 2023 season.
After posting a 2.45 earned-run average, converting 27 saves and striking out 12.1 batters per nine innings, his numbers took a slight hit last year — still dependable, just not quite as dominant. So, he dedicated himself in the offseason, stuck to a regimented plan that more closely resembled his offseason two years prior and showed up to Fort Myers, Fla., for spring training 12 pounds lighter.
And now?
“I feel great,” Duran said. “I feel younger, I can say I feel really good.”
He has looked good, too.
The Twins’ bullpen has been among the strengths of the team in recent days — on the last homestand, the group gave up just two runs (one earned) in 21 innings across six games — and Duran is right there among the big reasons why.
“His ability to repeat right now, his ability to throw his strikes with all his pitches when he wants it, and the stuff itself is back up,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “There’s just a lot of really good signs with the way he’s throwing the ball.”
The Twins, who had Monday off and will resume play on Tuesday at 5:35 p.m. CT in Baltimore, are in the midst of an eight-game winning streak. Duran is a perfect 5 for 5 in save attempts during that run, picking up a win in another game.
Across 19⅓ innings thrown this year, Duran has a 0.93 earned-run average, allowing just three runs (two earned). He has recorded seven saves in as many chances. Opponents are hitting a collective .147 against him and his 0.983 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) sits at 0.983, lower than each of his previous two seasons.
Though he’s not lighting up the radar gun at 103 and 104 mph like he was a couple years of ago, he’s still throwing plenty hard — his four-seam fastball is averaging 100.5 mph, on par with where it was last season and close to 2022, as well.
And after his four-seamer got hit a little bit last year — opponents hit .296 off it — he tweaked his pitch usage. For the first time, that pitch, one of the hardest in the game, isn’t his most-used offering. That’s been replaced by his splinker, a pitch he throws at, on average, 97.8 mph.
As a rookie, that pitch was thrown 16 percent of the time. Now, it’s all the way up to 37.5 percent, eclipsing the fastball (36%). Last season, he threw his fastball 40.7 percent of the time and the splinker 31.4 percent.
“Last year when I had a bad moment, and I threw that pitch, it got me out of that situation,” he said of the splinker. “I said, OK, I need to throw it more because that pitch is really good. That’s why I throw it more. I throw it for strikes and then whatever happens.”
What happens most of the time is that opponents can’t do all that much with it.
Accompanied by a devastating curveball, which Duran throws 21.9 percent of the time — and a sweeper that he has very occasionally mixed in this year — and you’ve got a recipe for one of the most dominant pitchers in the majors.
The Twins have seen plenty of good versions of Jhoan Duran, but the version has been among the best yet.
“He’s been very good throughout, from Day One, and you had a feeling he was in a good spot in spring training,” Baldelli said. “But the season started and he really turned it up a level and I think he’s looked excellent.”
Briefly
Infielder Mickey Gasper, optioned to Triple-A St. Paul last week, was named the International League’s player of the week after a hitting .478 (11-23) with two doubles, four home runs, and six RBIs as the Saints took five of six from the Buffalo Bisons at CHS Field.
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