Twins Add Minter, but the Rotation Problem Is Bigger Than Any Bullpen Move

Minnesota dealt for left-hander A.J. Minter from the last-place Mets on Thursday, a sensible piece of deadline business for a team that is half a game out of the final wild card with 55 games left. The same day, the club announced Cole Sands is done for the year after elbow surgery. So the bullpen giveth and the bullpen taketh away, roughly in balance.

The deeper issue is the rotation. Pablo Lopez is on the 60-day IL. David Festa is on the 60-day IL. Simeon Woods Richardson has been the fifth starter most of the summer and has an ERA north of seven. Taj Bradley and Joe Ryan are carrying real innings — Bradley at 10-4 with a 3.52 ERA, Ryan the team's lone All-Star — but they can only go every fifth day. The arms behind them have been a grind to watch.

Minter helps the late innings, and that matters when games are close. The offense has cooled to 3.9 runs per game over the last 10, which means close games are the norm right now. A reliable left-handed option out of the pen is not nothing. But Minter does not fix what happens in the fourth and fifth innings when the back of the rotation is on the mound.

Buxton is back on the IL with the hip, as I noted Wednesday — his second stint with the same impingement. The Twins are functional right now, 6-4 over their last 10. They are also held together with tape in a few important places, and the next 10 days will say a lot about whether Minter was a piece or just a patch.