By Betsy Helfand

St. Paul Pioneer Press

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Flame-throwing rookie Brusdar Graterol has given the Twins plenty to think about this offseason.

In September, Graterol threw 9â…” big-league innings in relief, showing off the triple-digit heat that has helped make him the Twins’ top pitching prospect. Now the Twins have an important decision facing them:

Do they leave Graterol in the bullpen, where he could potentially develop into a high-leverage reliever, or send him back to being a starter?

Graterol has been a starter his entire minor league career, but a shoulder impingement held him out of action for more than two months during the middle of the season in 2019. When he returned to Double-A Pensacola in August, the Twins put him in the bullpen.

“We haven’t determined the final course on Brusdar yet in terms of what his next steps are,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey said last week. “We’ll have a conversation with our pitching guys, our medical guys, really trying to understand where he is. He did have that shoulder soreness during the middle of the year. We saw at the end of the year he was healthy and pitching for us.”

A healthy Graterol threw nearly 10 innings for the Twins in September, striking out 10. In mid-September, he became the first Twins pitcher to eclipse 100-mph mark since 2009, and he set a new team record with a 101.9 mph pitch later in that game.

He also threw a scoreless inning in the playoffs, striking out two Yankees during a perfect eighth inning in Twins’ Game 1 loss at New York.

“I feel really proud and happy that I was able to contribute and was given this opportunity,” Graterol said. “I learned a lot this month and I was happy that I was here.”

While it’s hard not to envision Graterol and his high heat being valuable out of the bullpen, the Twins also need rotation help, and Graterol could be a key piece.

The 21-year-old right-hander has a 2.48 earned-run average in parts of four minor league seasons and is baseball’s No. 30 prospect overall, per Baseball America. MLB Pipeline predicts “a future as a frontline starter (is) a distinct possibility.”

But should the Twins revert him back to starting, he’d most likely do so at Triple-A Rochester, at least to begin the year. Graterol, who has never thrown more than 102 innings in a professional season, appeared with Rochester for just four games before his September promotion.

“He has ability that very few people have,” manager Rocco Baldelli said in September. “The pure velocity in and of itself is pretty unique. When it comes out of his hand, everybody in the ballpark notices that it looks and appears different than everybody else.

“He’s a young guy and is going to have a lot of time to figure things out, but he’s been good for us and it’s really nice to see him go out there and have the success early on. It’s real. The stuff is real and he seems like a great young man, too.”

And so the Twins have a decision to make on the talented young righty. Falvey said they have a plan for his offseason but haven’t yet determined his ultimate role.

“I’m just going to go into the offseason with the mindset of keep working, playing baseball in general, getting ready next season for spring,” Graterol said. “And if I make the team out of spring, then whatever they want me to do: If it’s out of the bullpen, out of the bullpen; if I start, I start.”

AAA staff cut

The Twins have parted ways with Triple-A manager Joel Skinner, pitching coach Stu Cliburn and hitting coach Javier Valentin. Skinner, who joined the organization in 2018, guided the Red Wings to a 134-146 record in the past two seasons. Cliburn had been with the organization 27 years, serving two different stints as the Red Wings’ pitching coach. Valentin was a coach in the system for five seasons.