The Twins had the worst left-handed relief in the majors in 2024. Late in free agency, they picked up Danny Coulombe, formerly of the Orioles, for $3 million. He has been effective against batters from both sides of the plate.

While he was on the mound with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024, left-hander Danny Coulombe enjoyed perhaps his best individual season: a 2.12 ERA with a 32-to-5 K-BB ratio and just 15 hits allowed in 29 2/3 innings.

Surgery to repair bone chips in his left elbow interrupted his season from mid June until late September, and he did return for the playoffs.

Coulombe’s results highlighted a career reboot in which he posted a 2.27 ERA with 132 strikeouts and 33 walks in 127 2/3 innings combined over the past four seasons.

That doesn’t include three scoreless appearances in the postseason over the past two years.

This leads to a natural supposition: If he can stay healthy in 2025, Coulombe can be better simply by pitching more. Coulombe has breached the 50-inning mark twice, most recently in 2023, and also managed 47 2/3 innings nine years ago.

Now 35 years old, it’s hard to envision Coulombe getting healthier and more durable, but the Twins would be better equipped to win if he could be available for 60 games. Minnesota had the worst left-handed relief pitching in the majors by ERA and fWAR in ’24.

Never a hard thrower, Coulombe mixes in three kinds of fastballs (a cutter most of all), a sweeper (his best pitch) and a knuckle curve to get near-elite K% and BB% results.

He allows hard contact sometimes, but a lot of it comes on the ground. Coulombe did luck out in ’24 with a .179 batting average against on balls in play. That’s 115 points below his career mark through 2023. Don’t expect him to sustain it.

No matter, Coulombe gets results because his stuff is good enough and he knows what he’s doing. In his past 93 innings, opponents are hitting .197/.257/.291 against Coulombe.

He is especially tough on left-handed batters, but isn’t particularly vulernable against righties.

The Twins also had Coulombe from 2020-22.

This is where he began the best stretch of his career. If he can sharpen his cutter and restore it to past effectiveness, there’s a good chance Coulombe will overcome the inevitable BABIP regression that’s coming, and he’ll be another tough out late in games for the Twins.