Raya has yet to allow a run in eight innings this month in Triple-A.
The Minnesota Twins have spent much of the season searching for bullpen help in places that were never meant to be permanent solutions.
Veterans have come and gone. Minor league signings have received opportunities. Roster spots have been shuffled as the organization tried to patch together innings. By Wednesday morning, the revolving door spun again when the Twins designated Austin Voth for assignment and recalled right-hander Marco Raya from Triple-A St. Paul.
Raya will make his major league debut the first time he takes the mound, ending a prospect journey that began when the Twins selected him in the fourth round of the shortened 2020 draft. For years, he was viewed as one of the more intriguing arms in the organization, armed with the type of raw stuff that regularly landed him near the top of prospect rankings.
The challenge was always turning that stuff into consistent results.
Raya's development was slowed by injuries early in his professional career before command issues became the next hurdle. Even as he continued flashing premium velocity and swing-and-miss breaking pitches, the walks often prevented him from taking the next step as a starter.
That reality eventually pushed Minnesota toward a decision many evaluators had long expected.
The Twins moved Raya into a full-time relief role, betting that shorter outings could help simplify the equation. The season-long numbers at Triple-A still look uneven. A 5.54 ERA across 39 innings doesn't immediately jump off the page, but they don't tell the entire story.
Raya entered his April 12 start with a 3.18 ERA. He would go on to give up six runs in 0.1 inning, ballooning that ERA to 12.00. Remove that outing, and the overall picture becomes much easier to understand. More importantly, the command concerns that followed Raya throughout much of his career have begun to quiet down.
Raya has allowed no runs over his last eight innings while giving up only four hits and walking nobody. Dating back to early May, he has issued just one walk across more than 23 innings.
During spring training, manager Derek Shelton summarized the organization's view of Raya rather simply. “The stuff is there,” he said, via Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. “It’s just the ability to put the ball on the plate.”
For much of Raya's professional career, those two things rarely showed up at the same time. Now they are.
The promotion comes at a moment when Minnesota desperately needs fresh bullpen arms, but it also arrives at a point where Raya has given the organization a reason to look beyond the immediate need. The Twins aren't simply rewarding a hot month in Triple-A. They're getting their first opportunity to see whether one of their longest-tenured pitching prospects can become part of the solution to a bullpen that has spent most of the season searching for answers.
