In the long and storied history of Major League Baseball, 10 sets of twins have seen both brothers play in the big leagues.
Four of those 10 were teammates at some point in their careers.
But there has only been one pair of twins that pitched for the same team. Taylor and Tyler Rogers happen to be the only active set of twins, and they both currently pitch in the San Francisco Giants bullpen.
Best of all, they’re maybe the most bizarre duo in baseball history.
The brothers are mirror twins, which, to be scientific, occurs when a fertilized egg splits later in the embryonic stage than usual and can result in characteristics with reversed asymmetry, such as the twin’s having opposite dominant handedness.
Taylor is a left-handed pitcher, while Tyler is a righty—pretty cool! It makes them easy to tell apart on a baseball field, for one. But the differences in their pitching style go far beyond opposite handedness and demonstrate a much deeper difference at the core of the brothers’ pitching philosophy.
For all intents and purposes, Taylor is a relatively normal relief pitcher. He throws at a three-quarter release arm slot and he has two pitches: a sinking fastball and a sweeper (a new variation of the slider). His fastball hovers around 93-95 mph while his sweeper varies from the high 70s to low 80s. He relies on the same things many dominant relievers have for as long as baseball has been around: a simple but effective arsenal with a lot of movement.
His brother Tyler, on the other hand, is a total weirdo pitching-wise. He’s the only true active submarine pitcher in the MLB, which means he throws effectively underhand. So while Tyler also throws a fastball and slider, his pitches move entirely differently than his brother’s. While basically every other pitcher in baseball throws fastballs that stay up and breaking balls that dive downward, Tyler Rogers throws a slider that rises and a fastball that starts low and sinks lower.
Tyler is also drastically different from basically every other pitcher in baseball in terms of his velocity. His fastball only reaches 82-85 mph and his slider sits in the mid 70s. When opponents face Tyler, they’re not only facing a significantly different arm slot than the pitcher who appeared before him, but a literal change of pace as well.
They ironically make a great compliment to one another, given their similar pitching philosophy but mirror-opposite deliveries and results.
That’s likely why, ultimately, they ended up in the same bullpen. Taylor signed with the Giants ahead of the 2023 season, joining Tyler, who’d been with the orange and black since his debut in 2019.
A 2021 All-Star who had been a closer for the Padres and Brewers in 2022, there was some thought at the time of Taylor’s signing that the Giants may utilize an all-Rogers back of the bullpen, with Tyler getting the eighth and Taylor the ninth. Ultimately, Camilo Doval has been San Francisco’s primary closer for the past two seasons with Ryan Walker also seeing some action, but the Rogers bros have still been core pieces for the Giants‘ pen in the two years they’ve been teammates.
They even put up nearly identical numbers for most of the season in 2023. Their stats went viral in August of that year, when through 115 games, Taylor had a 2.52 ERA, 46 strikeouts and a 1.09 WHIP and Tyler had a 2.54 ERA, 45 strikeouts and a 1.09 WHIP.
Their stats diverged from there but they’ve still remained near-equals in effectiveness over their two seasons as teammates. Both sported a sub-three ERA in over 60 appearances each this season, giving up fewer hits than innings they pitched.
If identical twin brothers who are both pitchers with the same arsenal, but different arm slots and opposite pitches, both overcame a late MLB Draft choice to find similar success and end up on the same team despite the odds doesn’t show that the art of pitching favors those who dare to be unique…then I don’t know what does.
With the Giants’ recent hiring of franchise legend Buster Posey as their new President of Baseball Operations and the organization’s apparent emphasis on competing for championships in the near future, watch for the Rogers—both under contract with the orange and black next season—to be key pieces for a Giants team that could make a run at the Dodgers for National League West supremacy next season.