Twins Tyler, Taylor Rogers already stirring up trouble in SF Giants bullpen
Taylor and Tyler Rogers share the honor of being one of 10 sets of twins to ever play major-league baseball, one of five to ever appear in the same game, and now, one of four to wear the same uniform.
Like everything in life, it comes with its pros and cons.
It took until they graduated from Chatfield High School in Colorado to be known as anything but “the Rogers twins.” Taylor’s live left arm got him noticed and a scholarship to the University of Kentucky. Tyler went on to community college, where he developed his unique right-handed submarine motion. They both stood 6-foot-3, had identical features and similar personalities, but distance allowed them to grow as individuals.
Never in a million years — especially not back then, now 13 years ago — could they imagine pitching in the same major-league bullpen.
“It always felt like it was a too good to be true type of thing,” Taylor said Friday over Zoom, a couple days since his three-year $33 million contract was finalized and it became official: it wasn’t too good to be true. It was reality.
Over Christmas, the brothers tossed a football around their parents’ living room and allowed their imaginations to wander with visions of them warming up together in the Giants bullpen. It was just last season that they played catch on a major-league field for the first time. Taylor’s Padres were in town, but Tyler had to scurry off for the birth of his child before his twin brother got into the game. The Giants commemorated the moment by framing a ball from Taylor’s save, which he said, “just stuck with me how classy of a move that was.”
This offseason, the Giants had a hole in the back of their bullpen, and Rogers needed a home. It so happened the team that drafted and developed his twin brother came calling. They realized the possibility at the start of free agency, but Taylor said his brother didn’t push him toward San Francisco.
“That’s what’s so cool about this whole thing,” Taylor said. “It all just matches up. … This happened because the Giants needed a left-handed pitcher. It’s just gravy on top that Ty’s here too.
“I feel like if we double barrel down there in the seventh inning or something, that’s a pretty cool deal for (manager Gabe) Kapler to think, I can pick either one of these guys.”
While Tyler, with a fastball that tops out in the upper 80s, relies on deception, Taylor hits the mid-90s on the radar gun and has saved 81 games over seven seasons and figures to give Kapler a trustworthy late-inning option to relieve the load on closer Camilo Doval.
He was traded the week of Opening Day to San Diego and dealt again at the trade deadline to Milwaukee and finished the season with a career-worst 4.76 ERA. After never posting a mark higher than 4.05 in his previous six seasons, Rogers said he was sullen as the season came to an end.
Tyler, however, reminded him that his 31 saves were a career-high.
You had 31 saves last season, he told him.You’ve got to remember that.
“That’s the coolest part of this, too,” Taylor said. “I’ve got my pitching coach playing catch with me every day. … We can kind of understand what’s going through each other’s head. That’s what’s cool about this relationship. It’s not a judgey thing. It’s more of a support system.”
Signing with San Francisco comes with another benefit for Taylor: he can even the score on their bar tab.
When the Giants were in Minnesota, where Taylor spent the first six years of his career, Tyler said he saddled up to the bar and was mistaken for his twin brother. So, like any thinking twin, he went with it and charged it to Taylor’s tab.
Despite stories like these, Taylor was adamant that the twins had no antics in the works, saying, “we’re not tricksters. That was never our move growing up.” His credibility was blown moments later, when a familiar-sounding man under the alias “Brennan Huff” appeared on the Zoom call.
“Is it safe to the the Giants have the best looking bullpen in the National League West?” the man asked Taylor.
“Just got a whole lot better as of Wednesday,” Taylor responded.
The man turned on his camera, revealing a smiling Tyler Rogers (who confirmed that he has since put even more items on Taylor’s tab).
“Stay on your toes,” Taylor said with a smirk. “I’m gonna act like you in San Francisco.”