Poll: Who Will Win The AL Central?
With Opening Day just around the corner, the offseason is more or less complete for MLB’s 30 clubs and teams are now focused on the incoming season and being the team to raise the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, however, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. In the run-up to the start of the season, we will be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. The AL Champion Blue Jays came out on top in the AL East yesterday with 39% of the vote. Today, we’ll be moving on to the AL Central. All teams are listed in order of their 2025 regular season record:
Cleveland Guardians (88-75)
The Guardians managed to sneak their way into an AL Central title in the eleventh hour last year, overtaking the Tigers at the very end of the year thanks to a 20-7 September. They immediately got bounced from the playoffs by Detroit, however, and their response to that quick exit this postseason has left something to be desired. That seemed like a setup for a big offseason, but no such eventful winter occurred. Deserved as Jose Ramirez‘s latest extension may have been, it does nothing to improve the team for 2026. The only potential impact player the team has added anywhere on the roster is veteran first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who is in camp on a minor league deal but is all but certain to make the team. More or less running back a roster that won 88 games last year isn’t the worst idea in the world, but it’s easy to feel as though last year’s division champs may have been overtaken by their rivals who made bigger splashes over the offseason.
Detroit Tigers (87-76)
The Tigers took the Mariners to Game 5 of the ALDS before falling just short, and now they’ll be looking to make the most out of what is likely to be Tarik Skubal‘s final season with the organization. A reunion with Gleyber Torres was the only big move on offense (although the impending debut of top prospect Kevin McGonigle could still transform the team’s lineup this year), but the Tigers were very active in overhauling their pitching staff. Framber Valdez joins Skubal at the front of the rotation and helps cushion the blow of losing Reese Olson to shoulder surgery, while Justin Verlander provides some mid-rotation stability in his homecoming at 43 years old. In the bullpen, the addition of a second future Hall of Fame veteran in Kenley Jansen and a reunion with Kyle Finnegan should create a solid back of the bullpen for a Tigers team that had the second-worst bullpen in the AL by FIP last year. Those additions seem likely to be enough to make the Tigers the favorite to finally claim the AL Central crown for the first time since 2014, though that also seemed likely to be the case last year.
Kansas City Royals (82-80)
The Royals had a middling season last year where they remained on the periphery of playoff relevance but never quite cracked the top tier of contenders. They wound up finishing just barely above .500, but will enter 2026 with hopes of a return to the postseason. Better health from Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic should go a long way for the club, as could the ascension of top prospect Carter Jensen as the heir apparent to franchise catcher Salvador Perez. In terms of external additions, the outfield will now feature Isaac Collins, Starling Marte, and Lane Thomas in addition to incumbents Jac Caglianone and Kyle Isbel, while Matt Strahm was brought in to fortify a high-leverage relief mix that already included Carlos Estevez and Lucas Erceg. With a handful of solid (if unspectacular) additions and an exciting young talent coming up from the minors, it’s not hard to imagine the Royals having a better year in 2026. Will that be enough to win the division?
Minnesota Twins (70-92)
2025 was a tough year for the Twins, as the organization was unable to lock down the sale both ownership and fans were hoping for off the field, while the team on the diamond struggled badly and wound up getting blown up at last summer’s trade deadline. Minnesota was saved from the basement of the AL Central by the lowly White Sox, but this offseason a change in control person, the hiring of a new manager, and the sudden departure of team president Derek Falvey led to instability at the top of the organization without much movement on the roster to show for it. Josh Bell and Victor Caratini are both solid complementary additions to the lineup, but neither makes up for the loss of Carlos Correa. A rotation that looked like the team’s strength lost Pablo Lopez before the season even began, while Taylor Rogers and others will be asked to save the bullpen after the losses of Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, and Louis Varland. There’s plenty of interesting young talent (Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Luke Keaschall, Taj Bradley) on the roster, but a whole lot would have to go right for the Twins to fight their way back to the top of the AL Central this year.
Chicago White Sox (60-102)
The White Sox are still in the midst of what figures to be a lengthy rebuilding process, but more optimism can be found in the organization than has been the case for quite a while now. Young, impactful players like Shane Smith, Colson Montgomery, and Kyle Teel are beginning to establish themselves at the big league level, and the White Sox put in some effort to supplement that budding young core with external additions. Munetaka Murakami is the big addition who could easily add 40 home runs to the White Sox lineup if he pans out, but Anthony Kay, Sean Newcomb, and Seranthony Dominguez could all prove to be savvy additions to the roster as well on he pitching side. It would be a shock if these moves were enough to pull Chicago all the way to the top of the AL Central, but it seems possible that their days of losing 100 games a year are coming to a close.
Who do MLBTR readers think will win the division when all is said and done? Will the Guardians manage to come out on top for the third straight season despite virtually no additions? Will the Tigers finally break through in Skubal’s final season before free agency? Will the Royals’ busy offseason be enough to help them take a leap forward? Or will the Twins or White Sox shock the baseball world? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will win the AL Central in 2026?
Twins Release Gio Urshela, Andrew Chafin
The Twins announced they’ve granted releases to infielder Gio Urshela and reliever Andrew Chafin. Both players were in camp on minor league deals and had been informed they wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster. Minnesota also granted Liam Hendriks his release from a minor league contract this morning.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted this week, Chafin and Hendriks were among more than two dozen veteran players whose deals contained an automatic opt-out opportunity under the collective bargaining agreement. Infielder Orlando Arcia also fits that bill. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that Arcia decided not to trigger the out. Urshela didn’t have an automatic opt-out under the CBA, but Hayes suggests his camp negotiated one into his deal.
Urshela was an above-average everyday player for the Twins back in 2022. He hasn’t had the same level of success since Minnesota traded him to the Angels at the end of that season. Urshela suffered a pelvic fracture in ’23 and has been a light-hitting utility player over the past two years. He returned to the Twins on an offseason minor league contract but hit only .208 with one extra-base knock (a double) in 24 at-bats.
Chafin, a 35-year-old southpaw, pitched six innings of two-run ball. He struck out five while walking three. Statcast had Chafin’s average fastball in the 86 mph range, four ticks below last year’s regular season mark. It’s common for pitchers to work with diminished velocity early in camp as they build arm strength, but it’s hardly a surprise the Twins opted not to carry him in the Opening Day bullpen. Lefties Taylor Rogers, Kody Funderburk and Anthony Banda are all likely to begin the year in Derek Shelton’s relief corps.
Twins Option Zebby Matthews, Finalize Rotation Plans
The Twins announced Friday that they’ve optioned right-hander Zebby Matthews to Triple-A St. Paul. They didn’t formally say it, but that effectively sets Minnesota’s rotation heading into the season, barring a late injury or trade.
Minnesota did, however, formally name Joe Ryan the Opening Day starter today. That was a foregone conclusion after Pablo López was lost for the season due to UCL surgery early in camp. Right-handers Bailey Ober and Simeon Woods Richardson were more or less locks entering spring training. Ober had a rough stretch last summer while trying to pitch through a hip injury but has been a steady third/fourth starter in Minnesota for several seasons otherwise. Woods Richardson has been up and down between Minneapolis and St. Paul over the past two seasons but had a strong finish in ’25 and is out of minor league options.
The rest of the rotation looked less certain following López’s injury. Matthews and fellow righties David Festa, Taj Bradley and Mick Abel were vying for the final two spots. All four were ranked as top-100 prospects prior to their major league debuts, but none has fully solidified himself in the majors yet. Festa went down early with a shoulder injury that isn’t expected to necessitate a long-term absence but will send him to the injured list to begin the season. Matthews, Bradley and Abel were in a three-man competition for the final two rotation spots. With Matthews now optioned, it’ll be Bradley and Abel rounding out the staff.
Bradley came over from the Rays in exchange for Griffin Jax just minutes before the trade deadline last summer. He’s had some success at times in the majors but lacked consistency. However, he’s celebrating his 25th birthday today, so he’s plenty young and still has four seasons of club control remaining. Bradley has had a good spring showing. His 4.50 ERA in 14 frames is unremarkable, but he’s punched out a huge 32.2% of opponents against a solid 8.5% walk rate. His fastball velocity is up nearly a mile per hour this spring, sitting at an average of 96.9 mph, and he’s sporting an above-average 12.5% swinging-strike rate.
Abel, 24, is another deadline pickup for Minnesota. He came to the Twins from the Phillies in last July’s Jhoan Duran swap. Abel is a former first-round pick who for years ranked as a top-100 prospect. He was leapfrogged in the Phillies’ system by Andrew Painter, and a shaky 2024 season in the minors caused Abel to fall off of national prospect rankings. He bounced back in a big way in Triple-A last year, posting a pristine 2.20 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate in 98 1/3 innings. The 6’5″ righty matched that production through his first four MLB starts with the Phillies but struggled thereafter, allowing nine runs in his next 4 2/3 innings before being shipped to Minnesota.
Abel has looked dominant this spring. In 18 innings, he’s held opponents to a flat 2.00 ERA with a 34.8% strikeout rate against just a 4.5% walk rate and kept 53.8% of batted balls against him on the ground. In this spring’s small sample, Abel has upped the usage of his slider and changeup while scaling back how frequently he uses his two-seamer. The results, clearly, have been quite strong.
Matthews, 25, has pitched in parts of two seasons with the Twins already. He’s logged very good strikeout and walk rates (24.7%, 6.6% respectively) but been far too susceptible to home runs. He’s a pronounced fly-ball pitcher who has seen nearly 15% of his fly-balls leave the yard; that’s led to an average of 1.77 homers per nine innings pitched.
Matthews sat better than 96 mph with his heater last season, pairing it with a plus slider and plus command. He’s yet to find an average third offering, as his changeup has been hit hard. If he can dial in a third pitch to help keep lefties off balance, he could yet emerge as a mid-rotation starter. Righties are flummoxed by that slider, but lefty hitters have turned in a huge .316/.372/.572 slash against him in the majors. Obviously, that won’t cut it.
The Twins will send Matthews to Triple-A to continue working on rounding out his arsenal. It’s possible that he and/or Festa could eventually emerge as bullpen options, particularly if Bradley and Abel can carry their spring performances into the regular season. The Twins have a number of interesting upper-level arms on the cusp of MLB readiness beyond that pair, including Kendry Rojas, Andrew Morris, Dasan Hill, Marco Raya (who’s moving to the bullpen full-time this season) and top prospect Connor Prielipp.
Twins’ Liam Hendriks Granted His Release
Veteran right-hander Liam Hendriks has been granted his release by the Twins, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He can now sign with any club.
As an Article XX(b) free agent (i.e. six-plus years of service, finished last season on a major league roster/injured list) who signed a minor league deal in free agency, Hendriks had uniform opt-out dates written into his contract: one a week before Opening Day, a second on May 1 and a third on June 1. When a player triggers an out clause of that nature, the team has 48 hours to either add him to the 40-man roster or release him back into free agency. The Twins opted for the latter route.
Hendriks, 37, was originally signed by the Twins out of Australia back in 2007. He made his MLB debut as a Twin in 2011 but was never able to settle into a rotation role. He eventually found himself designated for assignment and passed around the league via a series of waiver claims and small trades. From 2013-15, Hendriks bounced from the Twins, to the Cubs, to the Orioles, to the Blue Jays, to the Royals and finally to the A’s, with whom he’d eventually break out.
Even in Oakland, Hendriks took years to pan out. At one point, the A’s passed him through waivers unclaimed and outrighted him off the 40-man roster. But in 2019, a 30-year-old Hendriks emerged not just as then-skipper Bob Melvin’s closer but as one of the best relievers in baseball. From 2019-22, Hendriks pitched 239 innings with a 2.26 ERA, a mammoth 38.8% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.1% walk rate. He signed a three-year, $54MM deal with the White Sox ahead of the 2021 campaign and was excellent there for two years before health troubles arose.
Hendriks missed time after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He thankfully went through chemotherapy and came away cancer-free, but he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow not long after and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. He inked a two-year deal with the Red Sox, planning to rehab the first year and join their bullpen the second. It didn’t go as well as hoped. Hendriks pitched 13 2/3 innings with a 6.59 ERA last season.
The return to the Twins this winter had the makings of a potential full-circle homecoming, but it seems Hendriks will ultimately land elsewhere. He’s had a decent spring, allowing three runs in seven innings, but Hendriks allowed nine hits, walked five batters, plunked another and only totaled five strikeouts. He averaged 93.9 mph on his four-seamer, which would be his lowest mark since he moved from the rotation to the bullpen back in 2015. He averaged 94.9 mph in Boston last year.
Hendriks can now sign anywhere. Time will tell whether his showing with Minnesota this spring will earn him a big league deal with another club. As for the Twins, they’ll likely be on the lookout for bullpen help themselves on the late spring waiver/opt-out market. Minnesota has Taylor Rogers, Cole Sands, Anthony Banda and Kody Funderburk more or less locked into spots. Trade acquisition Eric Orze and veteran Justin Topa have had poor showings this spring but entered camp as favorites to hold bullpen spots. Veteran Andrew Chafin has pitched decently as a non-roster invitee and has a chance to make the club, though he had the same opt-out clause Hendriks took yesterday. It’s not clear whether he’s exercised it, but if he did, the Twins will have until tomorrow morning to make a decision.
Twins Shopping Alex Jackson
The Twins are trying to move third catcher Alex Jackson, a National League evaluator tells Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. If they don’t line up a trade before Opening Day, there’s a decent chance the 30-year-old will land on waivers.
Jackson is out of minor league options. The Twins can’t send him down without getting him through waivers. They acquired him from the Orioles in November, sending minor league utility player Payton Eeles in return. Eeles is a 26-year-old coming off a .253/.379/.321 season in Triple-A. He’s certainly not a top prospect, but the Twins wouldn’t have parted with an upper minors depth infielder if they didn’t feel Jackson had a chance to break camp at the time.
That’s more difficult to envision a few months later. The Twins not only rebuffed trade interest in starting catcher Ryan Jeffers, they added Victor Caratini on a two-year free agent deal in the middle of January. There’s no scenario in which Jackson jumps either player on the depth chart. He’d only remain on the roster if the Twins break camp with three catchers or one of Jeffers/Caratini suffers an injury during the final six games of Spring Training.
It’s not out of the question that Jackson simply clears waivers and sticks in the organization on a non-roster capacity. He and the team agreed to a $1.35MM salary to cover his first year of arbitration. Any team that traded for him or claimed him off waivers would assume that above minimum salary and face the same roster restrictions the Twins do. Jackson’s three years of service time give him the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers, yet he’d walk away from the guaranteed money to do so. He’d almost certainly accept an assignment to Triple-A St. Paul.
Jackson played in 37 games for the Orioles last year. He connected on five home runs and eight doubles over 100 plate appearances. It was easily his best power production at the MLB level, but it came with 37 strikeouts and only five walks. Jackson has fanned at a 40.7% clip to hit .153/.239/.288 over parts of six seasons in the majors. If the Twins trade him or lose him on waivers, they’d be very light on experienced upper minors catching depth. David Bañuelos, who has appeared in exactly one big league game in each of the last two seasons, is their only non-roster catcher with any MLB service time.
Poll: Who Will Be The Odd Man Out In The Twins’ Rotation?
The Twins traded 11 players at least year’s deadline, shipping out several rental veterans and a series of controllable relievers that left them with one of the game’s worst pitching staffs in the second half. That hit to the team’s more immediate competitiveness came with the upside of adding to an already impressive cache of starting pitching talent, however. Spring injuries to Pablo López and David Festa have thinned the herd, but the Twins have more viable starters than they can fit into a five-man rotation.
Righties Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober are locked into spots. Ryan has been one of the American League’s most consistent starters in recent seasons. Ober has been a solid third/fourth starter for the bulk of his career but saw his 2025 numbers tanked by a catastrophic June. Simeon Woods Richardson is a heavy favorite to land a rotation spot since he’s out of minor league options and pitched well down the stretch in 2025.
Looking at the team’s optionable starters, there are a few who seem unlikely to make the rotation at this point. Lefties Kendry Rojas and Connor Prielipp and righties John Klein and Andrew Morris have yet to make their MLB debuts. They’ll likely start off in Triple-A, though any of the bunch could fight his way into a rotation spot later in the year. Putting Woods Richardson in the rotation and eliminating the players who have yet to debut in the majors from the conversation leaves three arms — Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, and Zebby Matthews — for two spots.
Bradley, acquired last summer for Griffin Jax, is the most experienced at the big league level of the three. Once a consensus top-25 prospect in the sport, he made it to the majors with Tampa Bay in 2023 and has mostly stuck in their rotation since. He’s not yet enjoyed much in the way of results as a big leaguer, however, as demonstrated by his 4.86 ERA in 75 appearances (73 starts).
Bradley’s ERA+ peaked at 97 in 2024 and sits at just 85 for his career. His peripherals are better than his results, and his career 4.00 SIERA does offer some confidence about his ability to perform at the big league level. He won’t turn 25 until next month. Bradley is still young enough to be capable of breaking out in a big way, but he’s also young enough that spending time at Triple-A is hardly outlandish.
Matthews is about ten months older than Bradley but is less experienced in the majors. The right-hander has a similar resume in a smaller sample. He’s made just 25 big league starts, and while his 5.92 ERA is ugly, a 4.41 FIP and 3.80 SIERA both offer some reason for optimism.
Matthews has a career 24.7% strikeout rate against a 6.6% walk rate. That’s good for a K-BB% on par with high-end arms like Kevin Gausman and Freddy Peralta. Much of his struggles in terms of results surely has to do with an incredibly high .359 BABIP, which figures to come down across a larger sample. He also took a notable step forward in 2025 relative to 2024, as his barrel rate plummeted from 14% down to a more acceptable 9.9%, while his hard-hit rate dropped to 38.8%. Matthews’ struggles at the big league level might be enough to keep him out of the rotation to start the year, but the underlying metrics on the former top-100 prospect could warrant a longer look.
As for Abel, the right-hander is by far the least experienced in the majors. He made his MLB debut just last year and won’t turn 25 until August. He posted a 6.23 ERA in a 39 inning cup of coffee last year between the Phillies and Twins. That would make it easy to write Abel off for the Opening Day roster, but he has considerable pedigree as a recent top-100 prospect and has opened eyes this spring with a dominant performance. Abel has fired off ten scoreless innings in three starts with 13 strikeouts, good for a 39.4% clip. Bradley (seven runs in 14 innings, 19-to-5 K/BB) and Matthews (seven runs in six innings) haven’t been as sharp. Spring numbers only count for so much, of course, but Abel has made a stronger case for himself than his competition.
How do MLBTR readers expect the Twins to decide who gets left out of the Opening Day rotation? Will they leave off Abel due to his lack of experience, overlook Matthews’ strong peripherals, or not be swayed by Bradley’s experience? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will be the odd man out in the Twins' rotation?
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Zebby Matthews 54% (1,435)
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Mick Abel 35% (916)
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Taj Bradley 11% (288)
Total votes: 2,639
AL Central Notes: Twins, Rojas, Buxton, Gaddis, Tigers
The Blue Jays started asking the Twins about Louis Varland three months before the reliever was actually dealt at last summer’s trade deadline, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that the Twins aimed high in negotiations by asking for one of Trey Yesavage or Kendry Rojas in return. Yesavage (the Jays’ top pitching prospect and future postseason breakout star) wasn’t going anywhere, but Toronto eventually budged in moving Rojas and outfielder Alan Roden in exchange for Varland and Ty France.
Fast forward to Spring Training, and Roden is competing for a starting job in Minnesota’s outfield while Rojas’ high-90’s velocity is turning heads in camp. The 23-year-old Rojas got rocked over 32 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2025 and is still trying to harness his control, but he could be a candidate to make his MLB debut at some point this season. The Twins will continue to develop Rojas as a starter but some scouts believe a high-leverage relief role could be in the southpaw’s future. An initial call-up as a reliever could help Rojas ease his way into the big leagues while not closing the door on a potential future as a rotation piece.
More from around the AL Central…
- Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis‘ imaging on his forearm “came back clean,” manager Stephen Vogt told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters earlier this week after Gaddis experienced forearm tightness after his first spring outing on February 27. Gaddis has resumed his throwing progression and it doesn’t seem like the issue will impact his Opening Day status, as Vogt said “everything I’m hearing is that it’s good news and we’re good to go.” Stebbins writes that the Guardians were already giving workhorse relievers Gaddis and Cade Smith gradual builds into the season, as a reflection of how much both right-handers pitched in 2024-25 — Gaddis’ 151 appearances were the second-most in baseball over the last two seasons, and Smith was right behind with 150 appearances. Gaddis augmented that durability with a 6.3% walk rate and 25.2% strikeout rate, and he’ll again be leaned on for key leverage innings in Cleveland’s bullpen in 2026.
- Beau Brieske is slated to throw a bullpen session today as the Tigers gauge his recovery from right ribcage tightness. Brieske has pitched in just two games this spring but manager A.J. Hinch told the Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold and other reporters that Brieske “has plenty of time as a reliever to accomplish what he needs to make a run at this team.” Ankle and elbow injuries limited Brieske to 22 Major League innings last season, and his health setbacks surely contributed to a 6.55 ERA. While the ribcage issue is another setback, Brieske is aiming to return to his past role as a solid swingman on Detroit’s staff.
- Bookending the post with some more Twins news, x-rays were negative on Byron Buxton‘s forearm after the outfielder was removed from a World Baseball Classic game yesterday after being hit by a pitch. United States manager Mark DeRosa told reporters (including MLB.com’s Ryan Kelapire) that the sixth-inning removal was just precautionary, and done in part because the USA already had a big lead in what ended up as a 15-5 win over Brazil. Even minor injury situations like this can’t help but raise extra concerns given Buxton’s checkered health history, though it appears the outfielder should be fine.
Twins Notes: Lewis, Rotation, Bradley
The Twins have been hit hard by the injury bug already this spring but dodged their latest bullet, it seems. The team announced that third baseman Royce Lewis‘ recent MRI came back clean. Via Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune, Lewis will be off today after experiencing some tightness in his right side while running the bases yesterday but is expected to return to normal workouts this weekend.
Lewis, 27 in June, looked to be on the cusp of stardom back in 2023. The former No. 1 overall pick returned from a torn ACL to hit .309/.372/.548 with 15 homers in only 239 plate appearances. The Twins won the AL Central that year, due in no small part to that production from the longtime top prospect, and Lewis erupted with four home runs in only 26 plate appearances that postseason, helping the Twins past the Blue Jays in the Wild Card round before falling to the Astros in four games during the ALDS.
Injuries have continued to set Lewis back, however. In addition to a pair of ACL tears in the same right knee, he’s had major league IL stints for an oblique strain, a quad strain (twice), an adductor strain and a hamstring strain (twice). Since showing that glimpse of his true upside in ’23, he’s taken 728 turns at the plate in two seasons and posted a pedestrian .235/.288/.416 batting line while oscillating between the active roster and the injured list due primarily to that slew of lower body injuries.
Getting Lewis back to 2023 form — or at least something within arm’s reach of it — will be pivotal for the Twins in 2026. Ownership and the front office continue to broadcast a desire to compete this season, but the Twins tore down the bullpen at last summer’s deadline, lost Pablo López to UCL surgery already this spring, and made only marginal additions to the roster over the winter.
Of course, it’s still possible that further additions could be on the horizon. There’s a handful of interesting bullpen arms still on the market (e.g. Danny Coulombe, Michael Kopech, Justin Wilson) in addition to two of the more prominent starters in free agency this winter: Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell. With López lost for the season and young righty David Festa shut down due to shoulder troubles, one would imagine the Twins present a good landing spot for a yet-unsigned starter, whether it be Giolito, Littell, Tyler Anderson or Patrick Corbin — if only to give the club some bulk innings amid the mounting injury concerns.
“Hopefully we’ll stay healthy the rest of the way but we’ll evaluate all the options out there from an external perspective and the rest of our internal options,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said yesterday (link via Matthew Leach of MLB.com). “…We want to figure out how we can do everything we can to supplement that [internal] group that we still like a lot. We see a lot of upside and we’ll use spring to see what’s going on everywhere. Usually you see a lull in action for a bit as teams settle in, want to make sure they’re staying healthy. We’ll keep evaluating.”
The Twins have Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and out-of-options righty Simeon Woods Richardson more or less locked into the first three rotation spots. Righties Taj Bradley, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel are competing for the final two spots on the staff, and the upper tiers of their farm system include prospects such as Connor Prielipp, Kendry Rojas and Andrew Morris. Prielipp is generally regarded among the game’s top 100 prospects but has been hobbled by injuries throughout his professional career thus far.
With a clear opportunity to seize a rotation spot in front of him, Bradley has made the decision to withdraw from the upcoming World Baseball Classic, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The 24-year-old righty informed manager Derek Shelton of the decision this past weekend. He’d been slated to pitch for Team Mexico.
“He stated new manager, new staff to some extent, new catcher in terms of (Victor) Caratini, and he just felt like the best use of his workload during spring training was going to be in our camp,” Shelton explained.
Though he’s younger than Woods Richardson, Matthews and Festa, Bradley has the most major league experience of the bunch. He’s accrued 2.097 years of service time with the Rays and Twins, totaling 385 1/3 innings as a big leaguer. The former fifth-round pick quickly broke out as one of the sport’s most promising pitching prospects, climbing as high as the game’s No. 20 overall prospect at MLB.com (36th at FanGraphs, 44th at Baseball America) heading into the 2023 season.
Bradley has shown potential at times but has yet to put it all together in the majors. He has a career 4.86 ERA due primarily to his susceptibility to home runs (1.49 HR/9). His 25% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 41.1% ground-ball rate all make for a solid profile; metrics like SIERA (4.00) and FIP (4.38) feel he’s already been better than his ERA would indicate, and there’s further breakout potential with the hard-throwing righty. Bradley averages better than 96 mph on his heater and has generated plenty of whiffs with both his splitter and cutter. He’s under club control with Minnesota through the 2029 season.
Twins Claim Zak Kent
The Twins announced Thursday that they’ve claimed righty Zak Kent off waivers from the Cardinals, who’d designated him for assignment a few days ago. Righty Pablo López, who underwent an internal brace procedure yesterday and will miss the entire 2026 season, was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Kent joins his third team since spring training opened and his fourth of the offseason. The 28-year-old (as of Tuesday) finished the 2025 campaign on the Guardians’ roster but has since bounced to the Cardinals, Rangers, back to the Cardinals, and now to the Twins following a series of DFAs. There’s fortunately no cross-country journey for him this time around, as the Twins and Cardinals both play their spring games in Florida’s Grapefruit League.
The 2025 season saw Kent make his big league debut with Cleveland, tossing 17 2/3 innings with a 4.58 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. Most of his season was spent with the Guardians’ top affiliate in Columbus, where Kent notched a 2.84 ERA and set down a gaudy 31.4% of his opponents on strikes — albeit against an ugly 13.2% walk rate. Kent isn’t an especially hard thrower, sitting 93.1 mph with his four-seamer in 2025, but he missed plenty of bats in the upper minors thanks to the quality of his mid-80s slider and low-80s curveball.
Kent is entering his final minor league option year. He’s actually already exhausted the standard three option years allotted to players, but teams can be granted fourth option years based on a player’s minor league injury history and/or the speed with which they burn through those original option years. He’ll give the Twins another option to consider in a wide-open bullpen mix that has only Cole Sands, Anthony Banda, Taylor Rogers and Justin Topa locked into spots. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Kent carries a 3.74 ERA, a 26% strikeout rate and a 12% walk rate.
Twins’ David Festa Likely To Begin Season On Injured List
The hits for the Twins’ rotation keep coming. Right-hander David Festa, who entered camp hopeful of securing a spot on the starting staff, has been diagnosed with a shoulder impingement and will be shut down from throwing for at least two to three weeks, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. He’s received an injection and is likely to open the season on the 15-day injured list.
Since camp opened just two weeks ago, Minnesota has lost Pablo López for the entire season (internal brace surgery) and seen No. 2 starter Joe Ryan slowed by inflammation in his lower back. Ryan has already resumed throwing, but what looked like a quietly crowded Twins’ rotation mix has begun to thin out rather quickly.
Assuming Ryan’s back issue proves minor, the Twins will enter the season with him and right-hander Bailey Ober locked into spots. Righty Simeon Woods Richardson is out of minor league options and pitched well down the stretch in 2025, so he’s likely to grab a third spot. Festa had been competing with homegrown righty Zebby Matthews and 2025 trade acquisitions Taj Bradley (acquired for Griffin Jax) and Mick Abel (acquired for Jhoan Duran) for spots at the back of the group. All four were top-100 prospects in the game prior to their respective debuts.
For now, the competition for those two remaining spots appears to have been whittled down to three (Matthews, Bradley, Abel). There are some longshot options in camp, like southpaw prospects Connor Prielipp and Kendry Rojas, as well as righty Andrew Morris. All three are on the 40-man roster, but no one from that trio has made his big league debut yet. Prielipp and Rojas have barely pitched in Triple-A.
Festa’s injury is the latest health-related setback in the lanky righty’s development. The 2021 13th-rounder has had the look of a late-round steal thanks to terrific strikeout and run-prevention numbers as he climbed through the minors, but he’s now been slowed by two different injuries within the same shoulder over the past year. Festa has started 25 career games in Triple-A, pitching to a 3.46 ERA with a 33.2% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and a swinging-strike rate north of 16%. He’s had some nice starts in the majors but lacked consistency, working to an overall 5.12 ERA in 117 2/3 frames dating back to his 2024 debut.
With injuries mounting for the Twins’ staff, it’ll be telling to see whether they look outside the organization. New executive chair Tom Pohlad, who took that post from younger brother Joe when the Twins introduced a trio of new minority owners in December, has said since assuming that new position that the Twins “want to be aggressive” and believe they can compete despite last summer’s July sell-off. Pohlad publicly confirmed that his club made a run at Framber Valdez before he signed in Detroit, hoping to capitalize on the opportunity presented by Valdez lingering on the market.
None of the remaining starters in free agency — Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, Tyler Anderson among them — can match Valdez’s output, but someone like Giolito or Littell would at least give the Twins some credible mid-rotation innings to help offset the loss of López and provide insurance while Ryan and Festa deal with what will hopefully prove to be relatively minor injury issues. The Twins’ payroll currently projects to come in about $30MM shy of last year’s levels and around $50MM shy of its 2023 peak. That, coupled with their purported interest in Valdez, certainly suggests that there’s room in the budget for another established arm.
Turning back to Festa specifically, it’s a frustrating setback for the lanky 6’6″, 185-pound righty, but there’s no immediate indication that it could be a long-term issue. He enters the 2026 season with 1.052 years of big league service and a pair of minor league option years remaining. The Twins control the 25-year-old for at least five more years. If a rotation role doesn’t work out, Festa’s 94.5 mph heater and above-average slider and changeup could all play up in a relief role. Minnesota’s bullpen looks even more uncertain than the rotation and will need several young, unproven contributors to seize key roles in order to avoid being one of the weakest groups in the sport (barring some late veteran signings).