Minnesota Twins: Will Pitcher Jeff Manship Make an Impact Next Season?

With the MLB regular season waning and the Minnesota Twins likely to be finished in September, Bleacher Report looks at certain players on the current roster and evaluates whether or not they will have an impact on the team next season.

The skinny

With a 7.89 ERA in 12 games, Jeff Manship is likely to begin the season in Triple-A next year. He’s an innings eater, however, and is capable of long relief should something happen to Anthony Swarzak.

In-depth

Long relief is a different animal. The pitcher must be ready to enter a difficult situation and pitch multiple innings under unfavorable conditions.

“Say a starter goes down,” he says, using a hypothetical situation, “like he falls down the stairs, something ridiculous like that…I have to be ready to go so I have to be checked in—30 minutes before the game even.”

Born and raised in San Antonio, Manship is one of the few baseball players to come out of the University of Notre Dame, where he was both a starter and closer.

“I never really considered Notre Dame,” he admitted, but said that a summer league teammate, Greg Lopez, talked him into going to the university.

“The only thing was weather was an adjustment,” he said, laughing, “but all-in-all it was an awesome place.”

Despite being a starter in college, Manship, 27, says he enjoys long relief.

“It’s a different role, compared to the other bullpen guys, but I kinda like it,” he says.

“It’s nice to go out there and throw a lot of innings.”

The verdict

Manship may be best known for a couple incidents where his last name was misspelled, but he’s probably the team’s best option for long relief should Swarzak either move into the rotation or become injured.

After all, you always need someone ready in case a pitcher does a Chevy Chase the morning of a start.

All quotes were obtained first-hand.

Tom Schreier writes a weekly column for TheFanManifesto.com.

Follow @tschreier3