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Twins Designate Jonah Bride For Assignment

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Following the Twins’ 3-0 loss to the Tigers tonight, Minnesota announced that infielder Jonah Bride has been designated for assignment.  No corresponding move has been made yet, but several members of the Twins beat speculated that Royce Lewis will be activated from the 10-day injured list prior to the team’s next game on Tuesday in Miami.

By coincidence, Bride came to the Twins from Miami in a trade back in April.  This is the third time Bride has been designated in his career, and the previous two DFAs resulted in trades — from the A’s to the Marlins in February 2024, and then the swap that brought Bride to the Twin Cities.

Multiple injuries around the Twins’ infield created the need for Bride’s versatility, and he ended up appearing in 33 games with Minnesota mostly at third base, but with a few cameos as a first baseman, second baseman, and even four outings as a mop-up pitcher in blowouts.  While Bride hit better with Minnesota than he did in Miami, he still has only a .170/.248/.188 slash line over 125 total plate appearances with both clubs in 2025.

A veteran of four big league seasons, Bride seemed to have a bit of a breakout with the Marlins in 2024, hitting .276/.357/.461 over 272 PA.  It could be that rebuilding Miami never saw the 29-year-old Bride as more than a stopgap, however, and Bride’s lack of minor league options also reduced his flexibility in terms of roster shuffles.

That out-of-options status is why the Marlins and now the Twins have had to designate Bride and expose him to waivers before attempting to send him to the minors and outright him off their 40-man rosters.  Bride doesn’t have a past outright on his record or the necessary MLB service time to reject an outright assignment, should he clear waivers this time and the Twins move him to Triple-A.

Falvey: Twins Not Focused On Selling

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The Twins have hit a rough patch lately but are still hoping to avoid going into the deadline as sellers. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey explained his thinking to members of the press this week, including Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune and Matthew Leach of MLB.com.

“[Selling is] not my focus right now by any means,” Falvey said. “I think when you think you have the team that you believe you have, and you hope you get healthier and get guys back here soon, that you feel like this group … is capable of putting together good baseball, it’s hard for you to think like that.” Falvey did leave the door open to a later pivot, however. “If we have to cross that bridge, we’ll cross that bridge later, but that is not at all our focus right now. It’s to figure out how to get this team right back to where it needs to be.”

The Twins have proven to be one of the least consistent teams in the majors this year. They were 13-18 at the end of April but bounced back with a 13-game win streak in May, eventually posting an 18-8 record that month. However, they’ve now slid back down with a deadful 6-16 showing in June so far.

They gives them a record of 37-42 overall. They’re not totally buried, currently sitting 4.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. However, they would need to leapfrog six clubs to get into postseason position. FanGraphs gives them a 20.4% of getting into the playoffs with Baseball Prospectus at 26.8%.

That puts them in a notable position with the deadline just over a month away. If their current slump continues, their outlook will obviously worsen. Whereas another 13-game win streak or anything close to that would push them in the opposite direction.

If the Twins are in a position to add, starting pitching would be a natural target as they recently lost both Pablo López and Zebby Matthews to shoulder strains. Rather than wait until the deadline, it seems the Twins were close to adding to their rotation recently, but the commonality of pitching injuries also hurt them indirectly.

“Pitching depth is not a phrase that’s real to me,” Falvey said. “Every time you think you have some, it gets thinned. Even when we had a couple injuries, there was a team that felt like they had some pitching depth and we had a brief trade conversation, ‘Hey, could we pick off some?’ And they were open to it. Within 72 hours, there were two different pitching injuries on that team that ultimately peeled them back from the market.”

This seems highly likely to be a reference to Paul Blackburn of the Mets. Shortly after López and Matthews hit the injured list, it was reported that the Mets were fielding trade interest in Blackburn, on account of their relative rotation surplus. But as that report came out, Kodai Senga got injured and then Tylor Megill followed him to the IL a few days later.

The Twins currently have a rotation mix consisting of Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa. Ideally, that group would have stepped up when López and Matthews landed on the shelf but that hasn’t been the case. Ober has been effective at times but has an unsightly 8.51 ERA in June. It’s a similar story for Paddack, who had a 6.11 ERA this month. Woods Richardson is at 5.06 for the year and Festa at 6.39.

Over the next month, the club’s record will obviously be an important factor to watch, but so will the starting group. It’s possible that Matthews is back with the club prior to the deadline while López could be making some progress towards a return. The guys currently on the roster could, of course, improve their results over the coming weeks.

If the club struggles in the next few weeks, then pivoting into sell mode will have to be a consideration. Players like Paddack, Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe and Ty France are impending free agents and would garner interest. They would also surely get calls on players with a bit more control such as Ryan Jeffers, Jhoan Durán, Trevor Larnach and others.

If the club is able to go into the deadline as buyers, a classic baseball trade is a possibility. “It feels like in light of 12 out of 15 American League teams [being in contention], you sometimes have to evaluate need-for-need stuff at the Major League level,” Falvey said. “They’re harder to pull off, admittedly. No one likes to trade from depth at their big league level. But if we find the right opportunity overlap, we have to be open-minded to that. I don’t think it’s a likely path because you don’t see it that often. But I think we have to at least have those conversations and be open-minded to it.”

The Twins have a number of intriguing players who are currently putting up good numbers in Triple-A, including Edouard Julien, Austin Martin and Emmanuel Rodriguez. It’s also possible that Royce Lewis could be back from the IL before the deadline, with Luke Keaschall potentially making progress as well. Perhaps the Twins could consider trading players like Castro, Bader, France or others even if they are still in the race, if they felt they could add some pitching while still having a good amount of position player talent.

Money is another noteworthy factor for a team without huge spending capacity like the Twins. Falvey addressed that situation but noted that it’s still very much up in the air, like everything else with the club. “If we get close to the deadline and have decisions to make, I’m always bringing those to the Pohlad family, to Joe [Pohlad, primary owner] and saying ’I think this is the right baseball decision for us or not.’ We’ve had plenty of opportunity to have those conversations and had opportunities to add when it’s the right fit. I feel confident I’ll be able to have those conversations again; where they land, and what they are, I can’t predict that yet.”

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Twins, Jose Urena Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Twins are in agreement with José Ureña on a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The veteran swingman has been assigned to Triple-A St. Paul.

Ureña is now on his fourth team of the season. He logged brief stints with the Mets, Blue Jays and Dodgers but was eventually outrighted off all three rosters. He elected free agency in each case — the most recent of those coming after the Dodgers waived him two weeks ago. He has allowed 11 runs across 18 1/3 combined innings. He recorded 10 strikeouts against five walks.

The 33-year-old Ureña held a spot on the Texas pitching staff throughout the ’24 season. He posted a 3.80 ERA while getting ground-balls at a 50% clip in 109 innings for the Rangers. He has never had a good strikeout and walk profile, but he averages around 96 MPH on his sinker and got grounders on half the batted balls he allowed last year. He’ll presumably work as a starter in St. Paul but could serve as rotation or long relief depth for the MLB club.

Minnesota’s pitching staff has collapsed this month. Their 6.81 team ERA in June is nearly a run and a half higher than the next-worst team. That doesn’t include tonight’s game in which Chris Paddack has given up four earned runs through his first three innings. Minnesota’s entire rotation has struggled since they lost Pablo López and Zebby Matthews to injury. The bullpen hasn’t been any better. Out-of-options long reliever Joey Wentz, a recent waiver claim from Pittsburgh, has given up 10 runs in 5 1/3 frames since landing with Minnesota.

Twins Have Exercised Rocco Baldelli’s 2026 Option

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Rocco Baldelli is in his seventh season as Minnesota’s manager. It was unclear whether his deal ran beyond this season, but the 43-year-old skipper is apparently signed for another year. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that the Twins have exercised their 2026 club option on Baldelli, though it’s unclear when they did so.

Minnesota did not make any kind of formal announcement at the time. Many teams do not publicly reveal the length of the contracts for their non-playing personnel, so that’s not a huge surprise. Baldelli being under contract for next season doesn’t mean the Twins couldn’t make a change before then. Still, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has been steadfast in his support for his longtime manager throughout their tenures in the Twin Cities.

Falvey again expressed confidence in Baldelli’s leadership today, ruling out the possibility of making a change at the moment. “It’s just making sure no one runs away from the work that is right in front of him, and Rocco is not running away from any of the work. … We’re all side by side with him, as is the staff and as our core players,” Falvey told Hayes. “We’re trying to figure it out together.”

The Twins have made the postseason in three of Baldelli’s six full seasons. They won the AL Central in each of 2019, ’20 and ’23 but only won one playoff series in that time. They’re 3-8 in the postseason since Baldelli was hired. They looked on track for another playoff berth late last season, peaking at 17 games above .500 in the middle of August. They collapsed to a 12-27 finish over the final six weeks, ultimately landing at 82-80 and on the outside looking in.

That dreadful run carried into this April, as the Twins won only seven of their first 22 games. They picked things up in the second half of the month and ripped off a 13-game win streak — which remains easily the longest by any team this year — in the middle of May. They climbed as high as seven games over .500 earlier this month, but June has been a disaster.

Injuries to Pablo López and Zebby Matthews have dealt a huge hit to the rotation, and none of their starters have pitched well in recent weeks. The bullpen has been even worse, allowing more than seven earned runs per nine innings this month. They entered play tonight with an MLB-worst 6.59 ERA overall in June. That’ll climb even more after Bailey Ober and Joey Wentz were torched for 11 runs by the Mariners tonight. They just wrapped up a defeat that drops them to 37-41 on the season. They have lost 14 of their last 18 games.

Twins Claim Connor Gillispie

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The Twins have claimed right-hander Connor Gillispie off waivers from the Marlins, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He’s been optioned to Triple-A St. Paul. Miami had designated Gillispie for assignment last week.

Gillispie, 27, was an offseason waiver claim by the Marlins (from the Braves, who’d signed him to a big league deal) back in January. He parlayed a strong spring showing into a spot in Miami’s rotation to open the season. He made six starts, the first three of which went fairly well (3.86 ERA in 14 innings), before being pummeled for 19 runs over his next dozen innings. The Marlins optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville at that point, and he hasn’t pitched in the majors since, leaving Gillispie with a bleak 8.65 ERA in 26 MLB frames this season.

Things have gone better in the minors. Gillispie has pitched 33 2/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA. His 15.7% strikeout rate is a well shy of league average average, however, and his 11.4% walk rate is quite high. The right-hander’s average 90.9 mph average fastball this year is down from the 91.5 mph he posted last year with the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate.

That 2024 season in Cleveland’s system was solid. Gillispie pitched 113 1/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, a 25% strikeout rate and a 10.1% walk rate. That led to a brief big league debut with the Guardians, wherein Gillispie tossed eight innings of relief and held opponents to two runs with an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio.

Gillispie is in the second of three minor league option years. He’ll give the Twins some depth either at the back end of the rotation or as a long reliever for a reeling pitching staff. The Twins were among the league leaders in most pitching categories for the better part of six weeks before injuries to Pablo Lopez and Zebby Matthews thinned their rotation.

The Twins have since endured a series of short starts, even from some of their more established arms, that has led to a heavily worked bullpen and prompted them to lean heavily on waiver claim Joey Wentz and utilityman Jonah Bride for mop-up work in several blowout games. Minnesota has dropped nine of its past ten games, falling below .500 and sliding considerably down the playoff standings in the American League.

Richard Lovelady Opts Out Of Twins Deal

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Left-hander Richard Lovelady has opted out of his minor league deal with the Twins, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The southpaw is now a free agent and available to sign with any club in the league.

Lovelady, 29, started the season with the Blue Jays but was designated for assignment after just two appearances. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers for Triple-A Saint Paul. He has thrown 20 2/3 innings for the Saints with a 1.31 earned run average. His 8.4% walk rate is right around average while his 26.5% strikeout rate and 60.4% ground ball rate are both strong numbers.

Despite that performance, the Twins have decided not to call him up. They have Danny Coulombe and Joey Wentz as their lefty relievers at the moment. Neither of those two can be optioned to the minors and Lovelady himself is out of options, so perhaps they didn’t want to have three lefties with no roster flexibility.

Unsurprisingly, Lovelady has decided to canvass the league for other opportunities. With several clubs around baseball battling numerous injuries and the trade deadline still over a month away, he should find some interest.

In addition to that strong Triple-A work of late, he has some major league success on his track record. He missed 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery but posted solid numbers around that. He logged a combined 44 innings in the 2021 and 2023 seasons with a 4.09 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 51.8% ground ball rate.

His 2024 was mixed. He had a 7.94 ERA through 5 2/3 innings with the Cubs when he was traded to the Rays. With Tampa, he had a 3.77 ERA in 28 2/3 innings but with a diminished 16.8% strikeout rate. The Rays non-tendered him at the end of the year. He landed a minor league deal with the Jays coming into this year and made the Opening Day roster but held onto that spot for just a few days.

Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images

Twins Place Royce Lewis On 10-Day Injured List

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TODAY: The Twins have officially announced Lewis’ IL placement, with a retroactive June 14 date.  Outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

JUNE 14, 5:14pm: The Twins are planning to place Lewis on the IL, as relayed by Miller. He goes on to note that the Twins are labeling Lewis’s strain as “mild.” That’s an encouraging framing for the injury, although it must be emphasized that due to Lewis’s long history of lower half issues even a mild strain could leave him out of commission for some time.

2:52pm: Twins third baseman Royce Lewis suffered a left hamstring strain in Friday’s 10-3 loss to the Astros that forced Lewis out of the game.  The injury occurred in the ninth inning, as Lewis hit a line drive into the left field corner that resulted in only a single, as Lewis came up limping heading into first base.  According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Phil Miller and other beat writers, Lewis will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the damage.

An earlier strain to that same left hamstring sidelined Lewis during Spring Training and delayed his season debut until May 5.  The missed time clearly seemed to be having an impact on Lewis’ bat, as he has hit only .202/.282/.303 over 110 plate appearances.  With a 1.056 OPS over his last 33 PA, however, Lewis seemed like he was getting into form just before his balky hamstring may again force him to the injured list.

Injuries have hampered Lewis’ entire pro career, limiting the former first overall pick to 546 games (182 in the majors, 364 in the minors) since he was selected in the 2017 draft.  Two right ACL tears were the most devastating of Lewis’ multiple health issues, and he has also missed time on the Twins’ injured list due to a quad strain, an adductor strain, and a less-serious left hamstring strain late in the 2023 season that Lewis was able to overcome in time to return for a dominant playoff performance.

If the MRI doesn’t reveal anything too serious, Minnesota could opt to give Lewis a few days of rest in lieu of an IL stint, since the Twins don’t play on Monday anyway.  A backdated IL placement would still “begin” today anyway if the Twins ended up sending Lewis to the 10-day injured list on Tuesday, though such a decision may also hinge if the club is willing to play a man short over a big weekend series against the Astros.

Brooks Lee is the likeliest candidate to get the bulk of third base time if Lewis does wind up on the IL, with such versatile options as Willi Castro, Kody Clemens, or Jonah Bride also available to rotate into the hot corner.  Several other infielders are on the 40-man roster and could be summoned from Triple-A, yet naturally there’s not much substitute for the upside that a healthy and productive Lewis can bring to the Twins’ lineup.

Michael Tonkin Accepts Outright Assignment With Twins

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Right-hander Michael Tonkin has cleared outright waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul. He was on the 60-day injured list and pitching on a rehab assignment but it seems the Twins decided not to reinstate him to the roster. He had the right to reject the assignment and elect free agency but has decided to forgo that right. Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to relay the information.

Tonkin, 35, has been posting good numbers over the past few years but is out of options. That’s led to plenty of bouncing around the league. He signed with the Mets going into 2024 but ended up going to the Twins, back to the Mets, the Yankees and Twins again throughout the season via waiver claims or small trades. He and the Twins avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1MM salary for the 2025 campaign.

Unfortunately, he’s been on the shelf for all of this year so far. He was diagnosed with a right rotator cuff strain in March and started the season on the 15-day IL. He was on a rehab assignment from mid-April to mid-May but was pulled off that rehab due to biceps tendinitis. He was transferred to the 60-day IL shortly thereafter. He restarted the rehab assignment about a week ago.

As mentioned, Tonkin is out of options, meaning the Twins would have had to plug him onto the active roster in order to reinstate him from the IL. They went the waiver route instead. Players with more than three years of major league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, players with less than five years of service have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.

Tonkin came into this year with his service clock at four years and 74 days, putting him 98 days shy of the five-year mark. By my count, 78 days have elapsed in the 2025 season so far, putting Tonkin 20 days shy of that line. That means he would have to walk away from what remains to be paid out of his salary in order to head to free agency, making it fairly unsurprising that he has accepted.

That means the Twins get to hang onto an experienced pitcher without him taking up a roster spot. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Tonkin tossed 159 1/3 innings for various clubs with a 3.95 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. He’ll keep pitching for the Saints and try to stay ready for his next major league call. If he’s not added back to the roster by season’s end, he would be able to elect free agency, like all players with three-plus years of service who have been outrighted during the season.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Red Sox Acquire Jorge Alcala

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June 12: The trade is now official, with both teams formally announcing the move late last night.

June 11: The Red Sox are acquiring right-hander Jorge Alcala from the Twins, as first reported by Phil Miller of the Star Tribune. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that infield/outfield prospect Andy Lugo is headed to Minnesota in return for Alcala’s services. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reports that no cash is being sent from the Twins to Boston in the deal. Both teams subsequently announced the deal officially, and Boston designated right-hander Brian Van Belle for assignment to create room for Alcala on the 40-man roster.

According to The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman, the Twins were planning to designate Alcala for assignment in the coming days, and after the club claimed southpaw Joey Wentz off waivers earlier today it’s fairly easy to surmise that the decision to part with Alcala was motivated by a desire to make room for Wentz on the active roster. By trading for Alcala preemptively, the Red Sox were able to bypass the waiver process in order and add the right-hander to their bullpen more directly. Even if the Twins were planning to part ways with Alcala prior to this trade, it’s clear that the Red Sox were very interested in the 29-year-old righty given that they gave up a low-level prospect to acquire him and took on the remainder of Alcala’s $1.5MM salary for this year despite the fact that most trades of DFA candidates wind up being cash deals.

Looking just at Alcala’s surface-level numbers, it may be hard to see why the Red Sox would be enamored with him. Across 22 appearances with Minnesota this year, he’s pitched to an 8.88 ERA with a 5.42 FIP and an elevated 13.2% walk rate. Those numbers are certainly concerning, but Alcala’s 24.6% strikeout rate has remained quite good even in this down season and he entered the year with a career 3.64 ERA and 4.33 FIP. His 2024 campaign was even better, as he posted a 3.24 ERA and 4.14 FIP in 58 1/3 innings of work during a season where his walk rate sat at a much more manageable 8.5%. Alcala’s .369 BABIP allowed and 52.6% strand rate are both certain to improve over a larger sample size, and if the Red Sox can help restore his command it’s not at all difficult to see them making him into a viable option for the middle innings of even a setup role.

That would be a fantastic development for Boston if it were to come to fruition, as they’re without Justin Slaten and Liam Hendriks while both are on the injured list. That’s left them a bit weak from the right side, with Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert forced to step into high leverage roles. Zack Kelly is currently in the club’s bullpen despite a 6.61 ERA, and the club has zero full-time relievers who throw from the right-hand side on the 40-man roster in the minors at the moment. The depth Alcala could provide to the bullpen if he manages to get right is considerable, and it was enough of an upgrade that the Red Sox opted to DFA Van Belle just one day after adding him to the roster. The Red Sox will have one week to either trade Van Belle, who has still not yet made his big league debut despite his brief call-up, or put him through waivers.

Heading to Minnesota in return for Alcala’s services is Lugo. The 21-year-old has been in the Red Sox organization since 2022 and is currently hitting .265/.327/.430 across 44 games at the High-A level. He’s split time between first base, third base, and left field throughout his pro career to this point, but is unranked on MLB.com’s Top 30 Red Sox Prospects list. That’s not necessarily a shock given his age and the fact that he’s not yet reached to the Double-A level, but it’s not impossible to imagine him getting called up to Double-A by the end of the year now that he’s in the Twins organization, so long as he can continue hitting fairly well in his new organization.

Twins Claim Joey Wentz

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The Twins announced that they have claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from the Pirates. The latter club designated him for assignment a few days ago. Wentz is out of options, so the Twins will need to make a corresponding active roster move when he reports to the team. To open a 40-man spot for Wentz, the Twins have transferred righty Pablo López to the 60-day injured list. It was reported last week that López is expected to miss eight to twelve weeks due to a teres major strain.

Wentz, 27, is in his fourth major league season. He was primarily a starting pitcher in 2022 and 2023 but didn’t quite establish himself as a bonafide big league rotation member. At the end of the 2023 season, he had a 5.99 earned run average and had exhausted his final option season.

That pushed him to the bullpen, a role in which he has shown some potential. He tossed 55 1/3 innings out of Detroit’s bullpen last year. The 5.37 ERA wasn’t great, nor was his 10.6% walk rate, but his 23.6% strikeout rate and 42% ground ball rate were pretty close to average. That got him bumped off the roster at the end of August last year.

The Pirates put in a claim and got some encouraging results from Wentz to end the season. He posted a 1.50 ERA in 12 frames after that claim. His walk rate ticked up to 12% but he also struck out 26% of batters faced.

He stuck on Pittsburgh’s roster through the winter and into 2025 with some mixed results so far. His 9.6% walk rate is still a bit high but an improvement for him. He’s also tamped down his home runs, with only 6.5% of fly balls leaving the yard compared to 11.3% last year. His 41.8% ground ball rate is still close to league par but his strikeout rate has dipped to 19.1%.

That got him bumped off Pittsburgh’s roster but the Twins will take a shot on him. Minnesota currently has Danny Coulombe as its only lefty reliever on the active roster, with Kody Funderburk on optional assignment. Wentz will give manager Rocco Baldelli a second southpaw in the relief corps alongside Coulombe, at least for the time being. Given his out-of-options status, Wentz will likely have a tenuous hold on a roster spot unless he takes a step forward.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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