As Minnesota Twins produce eight wins in a row, Danny Coulombe builds an impressive streak of his own

For all the well-defined roles on a baseball team, Rocco Baldelli added one when he arrived in Minnesota, whether intentionally or not: the wise, mature lefthander, a resource both on the mound and on the bullpen bench.

“Lefties are different. I can’t explain it — I don’t know if anybody can,” Baldelli reasoned. “But it feels like they usually bring some version of wisdom. They’re thinking about the game probably a little bit differently.”

Taylor Rogers, already well-established when Baldelli arrived, handled the job for the manager’s first three seasons. He gave way to Caleb Thielbar, whose late-career resurgence far exceeded his early years a decade before.

And now? Danny Coulombe is the acknowledged “bullpen dad” among Twins’ relievers, a unanimous choice of his teammates for that title in a twins.tv survey last month.

“Yeah, bullpen dad. I’ll take it, I guess,” the 35-year-old Coulombe said. “That really just comes with time. I was drafted in 2012 — that’s 13 years of baseball. More experience, maybe more wise counsel, as you call it, to give. I just feel like I’ve seen a lot.”

Between injuries that have set back his career a few times, he’s accomplished a lot in a decade-long big-league career, too — but perhaps never as much as he is now, seven weeks into his second stint with the Twins.

Coulombe, sold by the Twins to Baltimore just before the 2023 season, was the top lefthander in the pen for that season’s AL East champions, then allowed just seven runs in 33 appearances last summer. Trouble was, he missed more than three months after needing surgery to remove bone spurs from his pitching elbow.

Still, after allowing a run on May 26 to the White Sox, Coulombe pitched 10 more innings without allowing a run. And after signing with the Twins once more as a free agent just before camp opened in February, he has remained spotless in his reunion season — zero runs allowed so far in his 18 appearances, totaling 16⅓ innings. He’s also entered a game with runners on base six times, and in five of them he retired the side without any of them scoring.

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“When he was in Baltimore, he was super valuable, one of the better lefties in the whole game,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Having that lefty who can get both righties and lefties out at a really good clip, he’s going to be a staple of our bullpen all year.”

Jeffers is right about Coulombe’s ability to avoid the platoon disadvantage — righthanded hitters are batting just .133 this year, while lefthanders are hitting just .148. He hasn’t allowed a home run and has walked only one batter all year, in his season debut in March. Since then: 19 strikeouts, zero walks.

“He’s been awesome, and he’s brought a ton of character, personality and leadership to the clubhouse,” Baldelli said. As the lone lefthander in the bullpen, “I thought he was going to face a bunch of lefties. But you can send him out there against anyone. He has the stuff and the ability to locate to get righties out.”

Most teams carry mostly righthanders, and Baldelli believes that makes lefthanders more independent, and thus better advisors to their teammates.

“They don’t necessarily have that many people to look to to figure it out, so sometimes they have to figure it out themselves,” Baldelli said. “There’s a lot of righties that can look to another righty, or six, and come up with some new ideas and new tricks. But the lefties, they have to do it their own way.”

Which is what Coulombe says he tries to do. But without coming across as a know-it-all.

“I like to ask questions, and talk stuff out. Nobody likes unsolicited advice. But a conversation, if I ask questions — What were you thinking here? Why this pitch? Why this location? — it starts conversations,” Coulombe said. “And this group here, we’re very baseball-smart. I’ve been impressed with how smart these guys are [about] delivery, mechanics, sequencing.”

Still, everyone can use a pointer or two from bullpen dad.

“You can bounce ideas off him. It’s a good thing to have,” said Cole Sands, nearly eight years younger than Coulombe. “The year he’s having, it’s really something to watch. And he gives good advice. He thinks outside the box, which I like.”