Jake Odorizzi was not the same pitcher in 2019 as he had been before. It was a career year for him, and its timing was fairly bizarre, considering he had recently departed the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that is notorious for its aptitude to maximize pitchers’ abilities.
The Minnesota Twins traded for Odorizzi less than a month before the outset of the 2018 season, and while his 2018 campaign was decent, nothing especially interesting transpired that year. What is of particular interest is what happened during the subsequent offseason, and by extension, the 2019 season.