2020 was a nightmare season for Lewis Thorpe. The Australian lefty just never got his footing and looked ineffective in what was essentially a lost season. While there wasn’t a single Twins fan who was arguing to keep Thorpe on the Major League roster by mid season, it may also be a mistake to completely give up on him.
Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson - USA TODAY Sports
Even before this season turned into the patented nightmare 2020 we’ve all grown accustomed to, Thorpe was already struggling. He showed up in the spring as the favorite for many to snatch the 5th starting spot. Instead he was sent to the minor league side of camp after taking an absence from the Twins training facility.While it’s easy to say that a 2-3 week absence from Spring Training should likely remove you from the rotation battle, it’s hard not to feel for the guy when he’s so far from home.
Then came the mess that was the 2020 baseball season. Spring Training was halted only to be picked back up months later. Thorpe competed in summer camp and received opportunities, but he just never looked right. His fastball had dropped from 91.2 to 89.7, rarely touching 90 on the radar gun. In some outings the fastball was as low as 86-87. The rest of his offspeed pitches dropped a few ticks as well as he just never had an effective pitch to turn to with the life missing from his fastball. There were no indications of injury.
Most troubling of all, his walk rate ballooned to 13% (matching his strikeout rate). Unlike his 6+ ERA in 2019, his 6.06 ERA in 2020 was backed up by a 6.99 FIP. He had a career high walk rate as well as a K rate about half of what he put up in any other professional season. Everything matched up to the eye test that was telling us that it just wasn’t working out. Is it a coincidence that this happened in the weirdest season in MLB history though?
In addition to a mess of pitching injuries, tons of pitchers began the season with steep declines in fastball velocity including big names like James Paxton, Charlie Morton and Blake Snell. The slow ramp up of Spring Training gave way to a rush to the start of the season in July’s summer camp. Many of them ironed out their velocity issues as they continued making starts. Unfortunately for Thorpe, he was in bullpen duty and didn’t have much of a routine. He was eventually sent down and wasn’t seen throughout September.
While Thorpe certainly dropped a few spots in the depth chart as a result of his 2020, it’s fair to mention that he’s only a year removed from being a pitcher the Twins were excited about. There’s no guarantee that Thorpe is going to be back with a vengeance in 2021. His 2020 was nothing short of brutal and we have no minor league numbers to see if he made any improvements after his demotion.
That being said, he’s a talented left handed pitcher who fell flat in a season that we’ll likely see many players rebound from in years to come. He’s definitely still a commodity that other teams would give a shot to, and certainly has shown the talent to make the most of it. I don’t think the Twins are going to give up on Lewis Thorpe, and I don’t think that we as fans should want them to.
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