Twins release veteran reliever

The Twins released right-hander Dylan Floro, according to the club’s official transactions page.  Floro was designated for assignment earlier this week, and it isn’t yet known if the Twins just released Floro entirely, or if he rejected an outright assignment off Minnesota’s active roster.

Regardless, the outcome is the same for the veteran reliever, who will now hit free agency and look to turn the page on a disappointing 2023.  Floro posted a 4.76 ERA over 56 2/3 innings with the Marlins and Twins, as a trade deadline move to Minnesota didn’t help the righty turn things around.  Miami dealt Floro for another struggling pitcher in Jorge Lopez, and the Marlins have also since parted ways with their end of the trade, as Lopez was put on waivers and claimed by the Orioles at the start of September.

While Lopez’s overall numbers have been lackluster, Floro’s performance is harder to parse, as the 32-year-old has a case as one of the unluckier players of the 2023 season.  Floro’s inflated ERA could simply be attributed to an enormous .401 BABIP, which is particularly lethal for a pitcher who relies so heavily on grounders — Floro has a 51.7% career groundball rate, including a 54.4% mark this year.

Playing for two lackluster defensive teams like Minnesota and Miami certainly didn’t help in this regard, and Floro’s defense-independent numbers (2.95 FIP, 3.29 xFIP, and a 3.34 SIERA) indicate that he deserved a much better fate.  Floro’s 23.4% strikeout rate was middling, but his walk and hard-hit ball rates were both well above average, and his 2.9% barrel rate was one of the best of any pitcher in baseball.  Floro only allowed three home runs over his 56 2/3 frames, continuing his career-long knack for keeping the ball in the park.

Between these metrics and the 2.96 ERA he posted over 252 2/3 innings from 2018-22, Floro will surely get plenty of looks in free agency, and he is one of the more intriguing bounce-back candidates on the open market.  Since this obviously isn’t the platform season Floro wanted heading into free agency, it seems likely that he’ll aim for a one-year contract in the hopes of re-establishing himself for a bigger payday in the 2024-25 offseason.  Floro’s relative lack of strikeouts might put something of a ceiling on his earning power even in the best of times, yet his solid track record (when he has even a modicum of batted-ball luck) is hard to ignore.