Jeremy Zoll Shares Twins' 2027 Plan for Young Lefty

The Minnesota Twins were very careful with left-handed pitcher Connor Prielipp in his first big league season, giving him extra rest whenever they could and keeping a lot of his outings short.

Based on what general manager Jeremy Zoll told reporters at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas on Tuesday, that approach is set to change in 2027.

Prielipp made his MLB debut on April 22 against the Mets and went 6-7 with a 4.87 ERA in 24 games, 22 of them starts.

He struck out 128 batters and walked 44 over 125 2/3 innings, with a little more than two weeks on the injured list in July because of a blister on his left middle finger.

He got stronger as the year went on.

In September he allowed seven earned runs over 26 2/3 innings, and his best outing came on Sept. 18 in Anaheim against the Angels, when he threw seven scoreless innings and gave up only two hits.

Between the Twins and Triple-A St. Paul, he threw 144 1/3 innings, far past his previous high of 82 2/3 in 2025.

Because of his injury history and how little he had pitched as a pro, Minnesota did not set one innings limit for him.

Instead, the team watched his medical information, training and other reports to decide how far to push him, according to Twins Daily.

Zoll said nobody plans to turn Prielipp into a 200-inning workhorse, but the 25-year-old will be handled with less caution, according to MLB.com.

"I feel like we're a lot closer to treating him as a traditional starter."

Zoll added that building in extra days of rest will still be valuable, since the Twins spent this year trying to balance that rest with building a base for 2027.

Per Twins Daily, he also called Prielipp one of the better stories of the Twins' season after the lefty added a curveball in January and pitched a full year as a starter.

I like this plan a lot.

The Twins took the slow road with Prielipp, and it paid off with a full season, a strong September and a much bigger workload than he had ever handled, so pushing him a little more now is the natural next step.

After the way he finished, keeping him on a short leash would be a waste.

The plan shapes the rotation too, since Prielipp is part of a crowded group that also includes pitchers Joe Ryan, Pablo López, Taj Bradley, Bailey Ober, Dean Kremer, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel.

With younger arms pushing for spots, people are already asking where Ober fits and whether Matthews can win a job.

New pitching coach Brian Reith, who the Twins hired away from the Rays' organization, will have a big say in how Prielipp is managed.

If the lefty can handle a more normal starter's schedule, Minnesota could have a homegrown arm in the rotation for years, and a team in this spot badly needs that.