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Growing up a Dodger fan, I saw a lot of Nomo as a kid, and in '95 when he came over, he would regularly light up the gun at 94, 95, probably averaging 92 with his fastball. Checking fangraphs, yep, his fastball was averaging 87 in '02, and the dropped to 85 over the next 2 seasons. I don't know exactly when he started losing velocity, my guess (memory fades) is probably in '99 when he developed a major home run problem that wouldn't go dissipate until he returned to the NL. Not to say that he wasn't still quite good except for the gopheritis (his K/9 never dropped below 8.2 until 2002), but the arm did certainly crumble, culminating when, after stumbling through his last 5 starts, he was left off the Dodgers playoff roster in 2003. Jim Tracy relatively famously said 'He just doesn't have any bullets left in his gun'.
That isn't to say that the twist isn't great, it may have added years to Nomo's career, and the same can be said of Bedard, who's fastball was 92 5 years ago with Baltimore is down to 89 with Pittsburgh where he is still performing at premium levels (it's hard to connect his 4.6 ERA with his 8.6/9 K Rate and reasonable BB and HR/9 Rates). I think it's less likely to protect the arm so much as add a level of deception that allows for a weaker primary pitch.