The left-hander capped a resilient rookie campaign by doubling his career workload and cementing his future role.
Connor Prielipp's final start of the season spoke volumes for his future, even if it wasn't the kind of outing that will dominate the conversation around the Minnesota Twins' rotation this offseason.
Prielipp finished his rookie year Wednesday with 5.1 innings against the Giants, allowing two runs on four hits while walking two and striking out three. Both runs came on a softly hit ball that found its way down the right-field line, but otherwise the left-hander gave Minnesota exactly what it wanted from him at the end of a season that tested him in ways he hadn't experienced before.
Derek Shelton told reporters postgame that the development was particularly meaningful because of how little pitching experience Prielipp had coming into the year.
"Just the lack of innings coming into this, but to be able to finish with five and a third strong," he said, via Twins TV. "Overall, was really pleased with not only today's outing but the growth of Connor Prielipp throughout the year."
That lack of experience is easy to overlook when looking at Prielipp's final numbers.
He made 24 appearances and 22 starts, finishing with 125.2 innings, a 4.87 ERA and 128 strikeouts against 44 walks. His 128 strikeouts rank fifth among rookie pitchers in Twins history, behind Joe Ryan, Francisco Liriano, Bert Blyleven and Jim Hughes.
The more unusual part of the season is what happened before those numbers were accumulated.
Prielipp had thrown just 134 innings since high school entering this year. His 144.1 innings across all levels in 2026 nearly doubled the 82.2 innings he threw last season, making the ability to build that workload and stay healthy a significant part of his season.
Shelton believes the value goes beyond simply getting more innings into Prielipp's arm.
The major leagues forced him to learn how hitters respond to his pitches, something he could only partially understand from his time in the minors. Shelton said Prielipp had to figure out how to navigate different hitters and situations, including how his pitch selection should change depending on who was standing in the batter's box.
"You don't know until you do it," Shelton told reporters. "He's learned throughout how you navigate through whether it's first right, first left, what his pitch selection should be, how you go about that."
That experience now becomes part of Prielipp's foundation moving forward.
It also showed up late in the season. After briefly returning from the injured list, Prielipp allowed only five runs over his final three starts, covering 17.2 innings. Wednesday's outing kept that stretch going, even though he ultimately didn't factor into the decision.
For a pitcher who just wrapped up his first look at the workload of a big-league pitcher, finishing this way gives the Twins something more useful than a clean final line. And Shelton doesn't take the value in that for granted.
"This is only going to make him better for the future because he now has this in his Rolodex," Shelton said.
The Twins will have decisions to make with their rotation heading into next spring. Whatever happens there, Prielipp enters the offseason with an experience he simply couldn't have gained anywhere else.
