Twins Recall Gabriel Gonzalez For MLB Debut
The Twins announced they’ve recalled outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez from Triple-A St. Paul. Infielder Tristan Gray has been placed on the paternity list in a corresponding move. Marcos Grunfeld of El Emergente first reported the Gonzalez promotion. He’s already on the 40-man roster after Minnesota selected his contract last November to protect him from being taken in the Rule 5 Draft.
Gonzalez’s first big league call will probably be brief. A player’s stint on the paternity list can last up to three days. They’ll occasionally take an extra day or two on the restricted list, but Gray should be back during Minnesota’s series against the White Sox at the beginning of next week.
Minnesota didn’t want to make a 40-man roster move for such a short-term absence. They only have four healthy position players on optional assignment to St. Paul. They just sent Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis down this week to get them on track. That left Gonzalez and fellow outfielder Hendry Mendez as the two logical options; the latter was only just promoted to Triple-A two weeks ago.
A high-profile amateur signee by the Mariners out of Venezuela, Gonzalez headlined Minnesota’s return for Jorge Polanco in 2024. His prospect stock has dipped a little since that trade. He had a middling season in High-A while battling a back injury in his first year with the organization.
The 22-year-old rebounded to hit his way to Triple-A last year, but his numbers have dipped this season. Gonzalez has a .216/.294/.392 line over 197 plate appearances. That’s weighed down largely by a .231 average on balls in play. Gonzalez has connected on eight home runs and has kept his strikeout rate to a manageable 20% clip.
Baseball America ranks the righty batter the #10 prospect in the Minnesota system. They credit him with an above-average hit tool and solid raw power, but his in-game power output has been held back by an aggressive approach and a high ground-ball rate. Gonzalez is a below-average runner who can’t play center field, putting a lot of pressure on the bat. He clobbered lefties last season (.368/.430/.592) and has hit them well this season (.263/.328/.544) even amid an overall downturn in production, so there’s a good chance he’ll be in the lineup tonight against Boston southpaw Payton Tolle.
Twins Grant Releases To Matt Bowman, John Brebbia
The Twins granted right-handers Matt Bowman and John Brebbia their releases Wednesday, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic and Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Both veteran relievers were pitching with the team’s Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, and both triggered opt-out clauses in their contracts on Sunday. The Twins had until this afternoon to add one or both to the 40-man roster or allow them to become free agents. They’ve gone with the latter option in both cases.
Bowman, 34, has pitched in parts of seven big league seasons. That includes a 2024 run with Minnesota, during which he tossed 7 2/3 decent innings. He carries a 4.38 ERA in 240 2/3 major league innings split among seven clubs. Bowman has a below-average 18.7% strikeout rate but a solid 8% walk rate and a very strong 52.3% ground-ball rate. He’s been excellent in Triple-A thus far, totaling 21 1/3 innings with a 1.69 ERA, a 28.1% strikeout rate and a 6.7% walk rate.
Bowman doesn’t throw particularly hard, by today’s standards. He’s sitting 91.8 mph on his sinker this year, which is below average but a slight bit north of his career 91.3 mph mark. Bowman complements the pitch with a 90 mph cutter and a splitter and slider that both reside in the low 80s. He doesn’t overwhelm opponents but also has neutral platoon splits in his career; lefties have hit .249/.322/.402 against him, while righties are at .245/.307/.383.
The 35-year-old Brebbia has the lengthier MLB track record but hasn’t pitched as well in 2026 (or in general, over the past few seasons). He has eight years of major league service to Bowman’s five, and Brebbia has worked to a 4.04 ERA in 378 1/3 big league frames. Broadly speaking, he’s missed bats and limited walks at better-than-average levels (25.6% and 7.5%, respectively), but the past few years haven’t been kind to the well-traveled righty. He’s pitched 78 2/3 innings between three teams — White Sox, Braves, Tigers — and been rocked for a 6.41 earned run average. Home runs have been his Achilles heel during that time. He’s averaged 1.83 dingers per nine innings pitched.
Brebbia has tossed 20 1/3 innings with the Saints this year but stumbled to a 6.20 ERA that closely mirrors his major league work from 2024-25. He’s punched out more than 28% of his opponents but has also issued walks at a 10.9% clip and served up four homers (1.77 HR/9). He started the season brilliantly, allowing just one run with a 17-to-3 K/BB ratio in his first 10 2/3 frames, but Brebbia has since been tagged for 13 runs in 9 2/3 innings. All four of his homers allowed have come in that span, and he’s walked nearly as many batters (seven) as he’s set down on strikes (nine).
It’s still possible both players will return to the Twins. That’s relatively common for journeyman veterans who trigger midseason opt-out clauses. Heyman suggests that Bowman could have a major league offer waiting somewhere else, however, which wouldn’t be all that surprising with how well he’s pitched. If anything, it’s at least a mild surprise that the Twins themselves wouldn’t find a way to take a look at Bowman in the majors. Minnesota relievers have the third-worst ERA in baseball.
Ryan Jeffers, Emmanuel Rodriguez To Undergo Surgeries
Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll provided some updates on injured players to reporters, including Aaron Gleeman as well as Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Catcher Ryan Jeffers will undergo hamate surgery and has an expected return timeline of six to eight weeks. Outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez will also undergo surgery, in his case to address the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb.
Neither procedure is surprising but both are disappointing. It was reported earlier today that Jeffers had suffered a fracture of his hamate. That situation usually leads to surgery and that will indeed be the case in this instance.
Jeffers has been Minnesota’s primary catcher for a while now and has been one of the better offensive backstops in the league. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has a .258/.346/.445 line and 122 wRC+. Only four qualified catchers have a better wRC+ mark for that span and one of them, Willson Contreras, isn’t even a catcher anymore. That leaves Cal Raleigh, William Contreras and Will Smith as the active backstops ahead of Jeffers.
The production from Jeffers includes a huge .295/.408/.541 showing this season. That has helped the Twins hang in the playoff race, as they are currently only half a game out of a Wild Card spot in the American League. For now, Minnesota will have Victor Caratini and Alex Jackson handling the catching duties, which will surely be a downgrade. Caratini has a strong track record but is hitting only .192/.299/.231 this year. Jackson has a career batting line of .153/.239/.288.
The injury also interrupts a platform year for Jeffers, as he is an impending free agent. He was on pace to be the top available catcher and one of the top available bats regardless of position. That could still end up being the case but he’ll now have to deal with this lengthy absence and then try to get back on track after. The timeline with a hamate surgery isn’t massive in the grand scheme of things but players often struggle with a lack of power when they return.
As for Rodriguez, it’s also not a shocking development, as this thumb issue put him on the IL a couple of weeks ago. Though his timeline is still to be determined, the timing stings, as he is on the 40-man roster and could have been up in the big leagues right now if he were healthy.
The Twins have sent outfielder Matt Wallner and third baseman Royce Lewis to the minors this month, opening up some big league at-bats. Rodriguez wasn’t going to play third base but the demotion of Lewis could lead to other guys getting moved around. The Jeffers injury could also indirectly open up some designated hitter at-bats, as Caratini and Josh Bell have been splitting first base and DH. If Caratini is going to be behind the plate more regularly, there are extra DH at-bats available.
Though Rodriguez is very talented, injuries are becoming an annoying recurrence, perhaps giving Twins fans some déjà vu after years of watching Lewis and Byron Buxton. In the minors, Rodriguez has dealt with knee, abdominal, right thumb, left thumb and hip injuries. Due to all those ailments, he hasn’t topped 99 games in a season, which was back in 2023. He was capped at 45 games in 2024 and 65 last year. Now he is once again hurt and facing a notable absence.
When on the field, the talent is there and is also unique. Rodriguez has one of the most extreme approaches of any player. In his minor league career, he has a huge 30.2% strikeout rate but also a massive 21.6% walk rate. He has big power, speed and is considered a good defender. The strikeouts may become a problem but he also offsets those with the free passes.
Rodriguez has been on the Minnesota 40-man roster since November of 2023, getting added to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. That means he has already burned two option seasons and is currently burning the third. That could put him out of options going into 2027, unless he can qualify for a fourth option, though that may not be possible.
A player is eligible for a fourth option if he hasn’t played five “full” professional seasons, where a full season is defined as one in which the player is active for 90 days, or is active for at least 30 with a 90-day total of active/IL time. This is basically to discount short-season rookie ball campaigns or seasons totally lost to injury. Despite all his issues, Rodriguez has been in full-season ball since getting promoted to Low-A at the start of 2022. He played 40-plus games from 2022 to 2025, so that would seemingly hit the 30-day/90-day threshold in each and count as four full seasons. Here in 2026, he has only played 26 games thus far but was active from late March to early May, getting to at least 30 days again.
Photo courtesy of Matt Blewett, Imagn Images
Ryan Jeffers Diagnosed With Hamate Fracture
11:47am: The Twins have now announced the full slate of moves. Righty Garrett Acton has been moved to the 60-day IL to open roster space for Jackson. Acton has been out since late April due to a shoulder strain, and he’ll now be sidelined into late June at the earliest.
11:20am: It’s shaping up to be quite a day for the Twins — and not in a good way. Not only are the Twins optioning former No. 1 pick and top prospect Royce Lewis to Triple-A, they’ll also lose their starting catcher for an extended period. Ryan Jeffers has been diagnosed with a fractured hamate in his left wrist, Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Jeffers broke his bat on a foul ball in the eighth inning last night and motioned for trainers a couple pitches later. He exited mid-at-bat. The Twins will select the contract of journeyman catcher Alex Jackson to replace Jeffers, per Aaron Gleeman. Victor Caratini will presumably shoulder the starting workload behind the plate.
It’s a brutal injury for Jeffers, a free agent at season’s end, and for the Twins. Jeffers has been not only one of the Twins’ best hitters in 2026 but one of the most productive players in the game. He’s hitting .295/.408/.541 with seven homers and as many walks as strikeouts (15.6% apiece). Jeffers’ 165 wRC+ (indicating he’s been 65% better than a league-average hitter) ranks seventh among the 186 major league players who’ve logged at least 140 plate appearances in 2026.
Jeffers, 29 next month, has somewhat quietly been one of baseball’s best-hitting catchers for several seasons now. Dating back to 2023, he sports a .258/.346/.445 batting line with 51 homers and 70 doubles in 1411 plate appearances. Strikeouts were once an issue for him, but he’s dropped his rate of punchouts in three straight seasons. Jeffers had an uncharacteristic power outage last year, hitting just nine homers, but he slugged 35 homers in 800 trips to the plate from 2023-24 and was on pace for 20-plus again in 2026. This year’s .246 ISO (slugging minus batting average) is a career-high and would be his third ISO of .200+ in the past four seasons.
The Twins haven’t provided a timetable, but hamate fractures tend to sideline players for around four to five weeks. They typically require a small surgical procedure to remove the “hook” at the end of the bone. It bears emphasizing, however, that a four-week timetable is far from certain. Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor and Andrew Vaughn all took about that long (give or take a few days) to return from their own hamate fractures this season, but Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday suffered a hamate fracture in mid-February and only just returned yesterday after multiple setbacks. A best-case scenario would see Jeffers return in mid-June, but that’ll hinge on how the surgery and the first few weeks of rehab play out.
In his place, Caratini will likely slide into the regular catcher’s role. The former Cubs, Brewers and Astros backstop signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the Twins as a free agent this winter. That contract positioned Caratini to serve as Jeffers’ backup while also mixing in at first base and designated hitter. He was coming off a nice three-year run between Milwaukee (2023) and Houston (2024-25), wherein he slashed a combined .262/.328/.400. That’s about five percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and about 17% better than the average catcher.
Things haven’t gone to plan for the switch-hitting Caratini so far in Minnesota. He’s appeared in 34 games and taken 127 plate appearances but posted a bleak .192/.299/.231 batting line. Perhaps more consistent playing time at one position will help his bat perk up.
Caratini is walking at an 8.7% clip with an 18.9% strikeout rate that’s nearly four points lower than league average, so it’s not as though his approach at the plate has completely evaporated. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone is a superlative 95.7%. His 36.5% hard-hit rate is a career-low, but his 88.8 mph average exit velocity is right in line with last year’s 88.7% mark. Caratini, despite a sharp 22.4% line-drive rate, is hitting just .226 on balls in play. Statcast feels he’s been one of the game’s unluckiest hitters, pegging his “expected” batting average at .247 and his “expected” slugging percentage at .363.
Jackson, 30, is having a typical season for himself over in St. Paul. For him, that means good defense and power with poor on-base marks and far too many strikeouts. He’s batting .239/.295/.511 with seven homers in 95 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s struck out nearly 33% of the time he’s set foot in the batter’s box.
The Twins acquired Jackson in an offseason deal with the Orioles, sending minor league utilityman Payton Eeles the other way in the deal. At the time, Jackson was viewed as the backup to Jeffers. The Twins were going through some ownership uncertainty and didn’t know what kind of resources — if any — they’d have to spend in free agency. Once they announced three new minority stakeholders and received the green light for some modest free agent spending, Caratini was brought in on his two-year deal. Jackson was passed through waivers in spring training and stuck around as a depth piece. He’s being paid $1.35MM this year and will now find himself in the backup role he initially envisioned — just behind a different starting catcher.
Acton, 27, was acquired from the Marlins in an April trade sending minor league righty Logan Whitaker back to Miami. He’d previously been designated for assignment by the Fish. Acton tossed 6 2/3 solid innings for Minnesota before hitting the injured list. He still only has 13 1/3 major league innings to his credit, but Acton has big strikeout numbers in his minor league career and enjoyed a strong season with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate last year in his return from a yearlong injury absence: 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate in 58 2/3 innings.
The Twins haven’t specified how long they expect Acton to be sidelined. Assuming his injury isn’t season-ending in nature, there should be plenty of opportunity for him in a patchwork bullpen that’s been one of the worst in Major League Baseball through the season’s first eight weeks.
Twins Option Royce Lewis, Select Orlando Arcia, Designate Justin Topa
11:02am: Right-hander Justin Topa is being designated for assignment to make room for Arcia on the 40-man roster, per MLB.com’s Matthew Leach. It sounds as though there’ll be additional roster juggling for the Twins at some point today, as this sequence leaves them at 25 players and short one arm in the ‘pen.
10:58am: Minnesota is selecting the contract of veteran infielder Orlando Arcia to take Lewis’ spot on the big league roster, Hayes further reports. They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to get Arcia onto the roster.
10:52am: The Twins have optioned third baseman Royce Lewis to Triple-A St. Paul following a dismal start to his 2026 season, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports. It’s the first time since 2022 that the former No. 1 overall pick has been optioned, and it’s the second member of Minnesota’s Opening Day lineup to be sent down in the past week. The Twins also sent struggling right fielder Matt Wallner out last Thursday — his first time being optioned in two years.
Now 26 years old, Lewis looked bound for stardom when he debuted in 2022-23 with a .307/.364/.549 slash and 17 homers in his first 70 MLB games (280 plate appearances). On top of that performance, he went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. Injuries have taken their toll and derailed the promising slugger’s trajectory. Lewis has twice torn the ACL in his right knee. He’s also had three strains/partial tears of his left hamstring, a quad strain in his right leg and (earlier this year) a mild sprain in his left knee.
In 31 games and 119 plate appearances this season, Lewis is hitting just .163/.261/.279. Strikeouts have never been a prominent issue for him in the past — he posted a 21% strikeout rate from 2022-25 — but he’s fanned in 31.1% of his plate appearances this season. Lewis’ 32.8% chase rate on balls off the plate isn’t egregiously higher than his 31.4% career mark, but it’s way north of the 28.2% mark he showed during that 2022-23 flash of potential stardom. Meanwhile, his contact rate on pitches within the zone has dropped from 83.7% entering the year to just 78.3%. His contact rate when he does chase off the plate has cratered, falling from 59.1% in 2022-25 to only 44% this season.
Because it’s been so long since he was sent down, Lewis is still in the second of three minor league option years. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter, and he’s already crossed the four-year threshold in service time this season, so a minor league assignment doesn’t change his potential timeline to free agency. Getting to six years of service and free agency isn’t a guarantee at this point, however. He’ll need to get back on track in the minors or else risk being non-tendered following the season.
With Lewis headed across the Mississippi River for the time being, third base seems likely to be handled by a combination of Arcia and utilityman Ryan Kreidler. Left fielder Austin Martin and shortstop Brooks Lee both have experience at third base, but Martin is enjoying a breakout in the outfield while the Twins are trying to give Lee a long leash to see if he can handle shortstop in the long run. Neither seems all that likely to change positions — at least for now. (Top prospect Kaelen Culpepper could potentially push Lee off shortstop at some point this summer.)
Arcia, the younger brother of former Twins top prospect and outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, has an inconsistent big league track record but has been on a tear in St. Paul this season. Once ranked as one of the sport’s 10 best prospects, the younger Arcia never found his footing with his original organization, the Brewers. Milwaukee wound up trading him to Atlanta in 2021, and Arcia went on a nice two-year run with the Braves, hitting .258/.319/.419 in 767 plate appearances from 2022-23. The same struggles he experienced with the Brewers resurfaced in 2024, however, as Arcia batted just .214/.263/.337 in 816 plate appearances between the Braves and Rockies from 2024-25. Overall, he’s a .239/.292/.369 hitter in 3537 big league plate appearances.
Arcia will get a chance to bounce back with the Twins after hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers, 10 doubles, a triple, three steals, an 8.5% walk rate and an 18.8% strikeout rate in 39 games (165 plate appearances) with the Saints to begin the year. He’s accrued well beyond eight years of big league service time, so even if Arcia does put together a rebound effort, he’ll be a free agent at season’s end.
Topa, 35, has spent parts of three seasons with the Twins after coming over from the Mariners alongside prospect Gabriel Gonzalez in the Jorge Polanco trade. He missed nearly all of the 2024 season following a spring knee injury but was a solid middle-relief presence in 2025, tossing 60 innings with a 3.90 ERA, an 18.3% strikeout rate, a 6.7% walk rate and a 47.7% ground-ball rate.
The 2026 season hasn’t been kind to Topa. He’s pitched 19 innings and served up 18 runs (17 earned) on 27 hits and 11 walks. He’s yielded four home runs, struck out only 13% of his opponents and walked 12% of them.
Earlier in his career, Topa was frequently injured but showed premium stuff when healthy, leading to plenty of “what if” speculation about a potentially high-end reliever who simply couldn’t stay healthy. He broke out with the 2023 Mariners, logging a 2.61 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 56.7% grounder rate in what’s still a career-high 69 innings. The power sinker that Topa showed that season is down from an average of 95 mph to 93.2 mph in 2026, however. Topa isn’t missing bats anywhere close to a league-average level, and his command has worsened.
The Twins are paying Topa $1.225MM this season. Between that salary and his struggles, it’s likely that he’ll either clear outright waivers or be released, though the Twins can spend up to five days looking for a trade partner before going the waiver route.
Twins Notes: Woods Richardson, Rojas, Lewis
The Twins are moving struggling starter Simeon Woods Richardson to the bullpen for at least this turn through the rotation, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. Left-hander Kendry Rojas, a well-regarded prospect whom Minnesota acquired in last year’s Louis Varland trade with the Jays, will take his place and start tonight against the Astros.
It’s not necessarily a full-fledged rotation change. Rojas is taking the ball in what’ll amount to a bullpen game. Woods Richardson may even factor into the contest in some sort of bulk relief role. However, the 25-year-old has struggled immensely as a member of Minnesota’s starting staff this year. Woods Richardson has started nine games but been tagged for a grisly 7.71 ERA. He’s been done in by extreme susceptibility to home runs (1.93 HR/9) and the lowest strikeout rate of any pitcher who’s thrown at least 20 innings this year (10.1%).
Woods Richardson is a former second-round pick and touted prospect who came to Minnesota alongside breakout left fielder Austin Martin back in the 2021 José Berríos trade with the Blue Jays. From 2024-25, he was a solid back-end starter, taking the ball 51 times (all but one of them starts) and recording a 4.11 ERA with a 21.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
Woods Richardson hasn’t seen a massive drop-off in velocity, but his heater is down more than half a mile per hour, from last year’s 93.2 mph to a 92.6 mph average this season. He’s moved away from a curveball that was never all that effective and shifted from a traditional changeup to a harder splitfinger change that hasn’t produced the type of results for which he or the team hoped.
If the Twins were able, they’d likely have optioned Woods Richardson by now in hopes of getting him on track. He’s out of minor league options, though, so the solution isn’t so straightforward. Minnesota surely doesn’t want to completely jettison a formerly well-regarded prospect who gave them 50 mostly decent starts from 2024-25 and who still has four additional seasons of club control remaining.
Whether this is a full-on role change or just a temporary break to get him some bulk work in lower-leverage spots, a move to the ‘pen has seemed like an inevitability for some time now. It’s hard not to wonder what Woods Richardson’s arsenal might look like in shorter relief, however, especially since the Twins’ bullpen has been an unmitigated nightmare. Most pitchers see their velocity tick up when abandoning starting pitching and moving into one-inning, max-effort outings. Woods Richardson sat 93.2 mph last year and got strong results on his slider in both 2024 (opponents hit .214 and slugged .313) and 2025 (.214, .378). Bumping that velo into the mid-90s and focusing more heavily on that slider could produce better results.
Whatever shape it takes in the short term, Rojas figures to have a clear path to audition for a rotation spot in the long term. The Twins reluctantly parted with a homegrown (and hometown) Varland last year in large part because they were so enamored of Rojas’ potential in the rotation. The 6’2″, 190-pound southpaw has a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 minor league frames this season and has allowed two runs in his first 7 1/3 MLB frames out of the bullpen. Rojas has walked as many batters as he’s struck out (eight), which isn’t particularly encouraging, but he’s a 23-year-old in his first taste of major league action. Rojas walked 5.3% of his opponents in the minors and has generally been between 9-10% in most other seasons, so there’s no reason to expect command woes of this nature over a larger sample.
Rojas has sat 96 mph with his four-seamer in the majors and 97 mph in Triple-A this year. He’ll mix in an occasional sinker, but his go-to secondary offerings are a slider and changeup both thrown in the upper 80s. He’s a consensus top-10 prospect in an above-average Twins system that got stronger because of last summer’s fire sale and will get another boost this summer with the No. 3 overall draft pick. Rojas joins Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, Connor Prielipp, Zebby Matthews and top-100 prospect Dasan Hill in a collection of young arms around which the Twins hope to build the next core of their rotation.
While Woods Richardson struggles on the mound, Minnesota is facing a similar inflection point with struggling third baseman Royce Lewis. The 2017 No. 1 overall pick looked bound for stardom when he debuted in 2022-23 with a .307/.364/.549 slash and 17 homers in his first 70 MLB games (280 plate appearances). On top of that performance, Lewis went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. The sky looked to be the limit.
Injuries, however, have taken their toll. Lewis has twice torn the ACL in his right knee. He’s also had three strains/partial tears of his left hamstring, a quad strain in his right leg and (earlier this year) a mild sprain in his left knee. That’s practically a career’s worth of lower-half injuries, but Lewis incurred them all before even turning 27 years old (which he’ll do on June 5).
In 31 games and 119 plate appearances this season, Lewis is hitting just .163/.261/.279. Strikeouts have never been a prominent issue for him in the past — he posted a 21% strikeout rate from 2022-25 — but he’s fanned in 31.1% of his plate appearances this season. Lewis’ 32.8% chase rate on balls off the plate isn’t egregiously higher than his 31.4% career mark, but it’s way north of the 28.2% mark he showed during that 2022-23 flash of potential stardom. Meanwhile, his contact rate on pitches within the zone has dropped from 83.7% entering the year to just 78.3%. His contact rate when he does chase off the plate has cratered, falling from 59.1% in 2022-25 to only 44% this season.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic spoke to Twins skipper Derek Shelton, who voiced praise for Lewis’ work ethic and the amount of effort he’s put in to climb out of this rut. That only goes so far, however, and sooner than later the Twins will need to see tangible gains or else consider a demotion similar to Matt Wallner, who was optioned to Triple-A last week after two-plus years on the big league roster. Hayes lists journeyman Orlando Arcia and top-100 prospect Kaelen Culpepper as potential options to swap out for Lewis. Both would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Culpepper is a shortstop but could play third base in the majors or perhaps push Brooks Lee to the hot corner. Arcia doesn’t have a big track record but is hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers over in St. Paul.
Lewis is controllable through the 2028 season. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining.
Gio Urshela Announces Retirement
Infielder Gio Urshela has announced his retirement as a player in a post on his Instagram page. In the post, he thanks the people who contributed to his career, including his family, friends, fans, baseball organizations, coaches, the people of Colombia and more.
Urshela, now 34, was signed by Cleveland back in 2008. An international amateur out of Colombia, he secured a signing bonus of $300K. He quickly developed a reputation as a plus defender at third base while also dabbling at the other infield positions. His bat was a bit more questionable. He didn’t strike out much in the minors but also didn’t draw many walks and it wasn’t clear how much thump he could produce with his contact approach.
He cracked the majors in 2015. His initial big league opportunities matched his profile. He could pick the ball at third and didn’t strike out a lot but also didn’t produce offensively. He was eventually designated for assignment in 2018 and flipped to the Blue Jays in a cash deal. The Jays put him on waivers later that year and the 29 other clubs all declined a chance to claim him. At that time, he had 499 major league plate appearances and a .225/.274/.315 line.
The Jays traded Urshela to the Yankees for cash late in 2018. He began the following season as non-roster depth for Miguel Andujar, who had just finished a solid rookie campaign, finishing second in American League Rookie of the Year voting behind Shohei Ohtani. Early in the 2019 campaign, Andujar suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder, an injury that would eventually require season-ending surgery. Though that was unfortunate for Andujar, it turned out to be the opportunity for Urshela to break out.
Urshela took over the third base job in the Bronx that year with a big step forward offensively. He hit 21 home runs and slashed .314/.355/.534 for a 132 wRC+. FanGraphs credited him with 3.1 wins above replacement. He may have hit his personal zenith that year with some help from external forces. His .349 batting average on balls in play was well above average. That was also the juiced-ball year, with home run records set all around the league.
Regardless, Urshela still proved to be a viable major league hitter in subsequent seasons. Over the shortened 2020 season and the 2021 campaign, he hit 20 homers in 159 games and slashed .275/.320/.438 for a 108 wRC+. He was credited with 2.4 fWAR for that span.
Going into 2022, Urshela was part of a big trade. He and catcher Gary Sánchez were flipped to the Twins for third baseman Josh Donaldson, infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Rortvedt. Urshela had a solid campaign in Minnesota, hitting 13 home runs and putting up a .285/.338/.429 line, translating to a 118 wRC+. FanGraphs put another 2.6 WAR on his ledger that year.
Ahead of the 2023 season, Urshela was traded to the Angels for pitching prospect Alejandro Hidalgo. That was unfortunately just before things started to turn sour for Urshela. He hit a respectable .299/.329/.374 for the Halos but went on the injured list in June due to a pelvic fracture. He didn’t require surgery but he missed the second half of that season and was never really able to get back on track after that.
He became a free agent and signed a $1.5MM deal with the Tigers going into 2024. He got into 92 games for Detroit but hit .243/.286/.333 for a wRC+ of 74. He was designated for assignment and released that August. He latched on with Atlanta and finished on a slightly higher note, slashing .265/.287/.424 in 36 games.
That strong finish was enough to get him a $2.15MM deal with the Athletics for 2025. He hit .238/.287/.326 in 59 games for the A’s before getting designated for assignment and released in August. He returned to the Twins on a minor league deal this past offseason. He hit .192/.250/.231 in spring training and was released at the end of camp.
Urshela finishes his career having played in 851 games with 3,028 plate appearances. He only walked in 5.9% of those but also limited his strikeouts to an 18.3% pace. He collected 759 hits, including 147 doubles, nine triples and 73 home runs. He scored 312 times, drove in 352 runs and stole seven bases. His career slash line finishes at .270/.314/.407. That leads to a subpar 97 wRC+ but is dragged down by his slow start and soft finish. From 2019 to 2022, he hit .290/.336/.463 for a 118 wRC+. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference credit him with about eight wins above replacement, mostly from that four-year peak. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings over $25MM.
We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Urshela on a fine career and wish him the best for his post-playing days.
Photos courtesy of David Butler II, Jesse Johnson, Nick Wosika, Imagn Images
Twins’ John Brebbia Expected To Trigger Opt-Out Clause
Right-hander John Brebbia is exercising the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Twins, reports Darren Wolfson of KSTP. Minnesota has until Wednesday to add Brebbia to the big-league club. If the team declines, the veteran reliever will head to free agency. Brebbia joins Triple-A St. Paul teammate Matt Bowman in triggering an opt-out on Sunday.
Brebbia was in camp with the Rockies, but was cut shortly before Opening Day. He latched on with the Twins a couple of days into the regular season. The 35-year-old righty split the 2025 campaign between the Tigers and Braves. He posted an identical 7.71 ERA with both teams. The well-traveled Brebbia has pitched for five MLB squads in his eight-year career.
While Bowman is pitching well with the Saints, Brebbia is off to a difficult start. He’s posted a 6.20 ERA across 20 1/3 innings this season. The reliever has a solid 28.3% strikeout rate, but a double-digit walk rate. Free passes haven’t typically been an issue for Brebbia, though those numbers have ticked up in recent years.
The Twins don’t have any available slots on the 40-man roster, which makes a Brebbia promotion tricky. There’s a chance he lands back with the club on a new minor league deal if Minnesota declines to call him up.
Brebbia posted a few respectable seasons in the Cardinals’ bullpen after debuting in 2017. He then signed with the Giants and delivered more of the same. The veteran tested free agency at the end of 2023. Brebbia earned a decent $5.5MM commitment from the White Sox heading into 2024, but was released in August. He bounced to the Braves, then the Tigers, and finally back to Atlanta to finish up last season.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Twins’ Matt Bowman Exercises Opt-Out Clause
Right-hander Matt Bowman has triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league contract with the Twins, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. Bowman can become a free agent if Minnesota doesn’t add him to the 26-man roster by Wednesday. Earlier this week, Darren Wolfson of KSTP and SKOR North reported on the opt-out clauses held by both Bowman and John Brebbia, and there isn’t yet any word on Brebbia’s decision.
This is the second time in two months that Bowman has used an opt-out clause, as he also opted out of his previous minors contract with Minnesota at the end of Spring Training. The Twins granted Bowman his release rather than a spot on the Opening Day roster, but Bowman returned to the organization on a new minor league deal shortly thereafter.
It is possible this scenario may repeat itself if the Twins again decide against selecting Bowman’s contract. Minnesota has a full 40-man roster, so the team would likely have to make multiple moves to accommodate Bowman on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters.
Working in Bowman’s favor this time around are a set of impressive Triple-A numbers — a 1.69 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate over 21 1/3 innings in St. Paul. The 34-year-old is obviously pitching against much younger and less experienced batters in the minors, and Bowman has a 5.46 ERA in 59 1/3 innings in the majors over the 2023-25 seasons. That said, an argument can be made that the Twins might as well give Bowman a look considering that Minnesota’s bullpen has been one of the least-effective units in baseball.
Twins Option Matt Wallner
The Twins on Thursday optioned outfielder Matt Wallner and righty Travis Adams to Triple-A St. Paul. Utilityman Ryan Kreidler and right-hander Zebby Matthews were recalled in their place.
It’s the first time in more than two years that Wallner has been optioned. He’s been Minnesota’s Opening Day right fielder in each of the past two seasons and has handled the lion’s share of the playing time at the position along the way (though he’s frequently been platooned). Wallner has 70-grade power from the left side of the plate but strikes out far too frequently to take full advantage of it.
That hasn’t stopped him from being productive in the past. From 2023-25, Wallner turned in a hearty .231/.345/.493 batting line with 49 homers in 907 plate appearances. He walked at a 10.8% clip but struck out in 31.9% of his plate appearances. The Minnesota native (Forest Lake) averaged just under 92 mph off the bat with a hard-hit rate just over 48%. He’s not a very good defender, but the slug-heavy approach was potent enough to make him worth about five wins above replacement in 255 games, per both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.
The 2026 season has been a disaster, however. Wallner has appeared in 33 games and posted a .167/.259/.292 slash. His already-high strikeout rate has exploded to 39.3%. His walk rate has dropped to a career-low 7.4%.
Over the past month, Wallner has just seven hits in 67 trips to the plate (58 official at-bats), and he hasn’t impacted the ball when he does manage to make contact. He’s averaging just 88.4 mph off the bat this season, and over the past 30 days that number is all the way down to 85.4 mph. His 28.6% hard-hit rate in that span ranks 221st among the 250 players who’ve taken at least 60 plate appearances — not exactly what a team wants from a slugging, power-over-hit corner outfielder who needs plenty of extra-base hits to offset substandard glovework.
If Wallner spends at least 20 days in St. Paul, he’ll burn the final of his three minor league option years. That’s particularly notable with Wallner also set to reach arbitration for the first time this winter. If he continues at a rate this poor or has merely an average-ish finish to his season whenever he returns, the Twins will have a decision to make. Wallner won’t break the bank in his first trip through the arb process, but he’s hit for enough power in his pre-arb platform to make a couple million dollars or so. Given that he’d be out of minor league options in an organization with several high-end corner outfield prospects on the horizon, Wallner’s standing within his hometown organization appears to be very much on the line.
The Twins have 2023 No. 5 overall pick Walker Jenkins on the cusp of the majors. Jenkins currently ranks as the No. 4 prospect in the entire sport, per Baseball America. He’s not hitting for power in Triple-A this year but is slashing .256/.396/.389 with 19 walks to 18 strikeouts. There’s reason to think more power is on tap, too. Jenkins is averaging 91.5 mph off the bat and has maxed out at 112 mph. Many of his games have been played in frosty Midwest weather thus far, but temperatures are beginning to rise as summer approaches. Jenkins has been down since May 3 with a shoulder sprain suffered on a collision with the outfield wall, but there’s yet to be any indication he’ll be sidelined for a significant period.
Minnesota also has 23-year-old Emmanuel Rodríguez over in St. Paul. He’s not quite as touted as Wallner but sits 38th on BA’s latest top-100 refresh. Were Rodríguez healthy, he may have even gotten the call to replace Wallner. He’s currently out with a muscle strain in his left hand but was slashing .247/.417/.506 with a colossal 21.3% walk rate in 108 plate appearances. That’s not just some early, small-sample weirdness either. Rodríguez has walked in a staggering 21.6% of his professional appearances, including 21.4% of his 350 total plate appearances in Triple-A. He’s also incredibly strikeout-prone (career 30%) with plus raw power and speed as well as good outfield defense. He could be a three-true-outcomes poster boy while also providing value on the bases and with the glove.
Even beyond that pair of touted prospects, the Twins are flush in corner outfield options. Trevor Larnach is having a decent bounceback season, though he’s somewhat similar to Wallner in many ways. He’s a former top draft pick and well-regarded prospect with a power-over-hit track record who isn’t making hard contact at all in 2026. Austin Martin has stepped up as a regular in the outfield and is hitting .300/.405/.385 with a pair of homers, 17 steals and nearly as many walks as strikeouts in 306 plate appearances dating back to last season.
Minnesota also added now-26-year-old Alan Roden from the Jays in last year’s Louis Varland trade. He’s out with a shoulder injury in St. Paul but has consistently thrashed Triple-A pitching and could get a real look if he’s able to return this summer. Prospect Gabriel Gonzalez had a down year in 2024, bounced back with a huge 2025 and was added to the 40-man roster, and has now struggled again to begin the 2026 season. He just turned 22 in January, however, so some struggles in his first full season at Triple-A aren’t shocking. They just promoted Hendry Mendez (acquired in last year’s Harrison Bader trade) to Triple-A after a big start in Double-A. He’s hitting .306/.400/.486 overall.
Suffice it to say, the Twins are deep in candidates to flank Byron Buxton in the corners. That depth makes Wallner’s poor performance all the more problematic for the 28-year-old slugger. The Twins will try to get him back on track in St. Paul for now, but there are plenty of younger options breathing down his neck.
Matthews’ return is of some note here as well. He’s a former top-100 prospect who’s been hot in Triple-A of late (2.67 ERA, 28-to-7 K/BB ratio in his past five starts/27 innings) who’ll get another chance in the rotation due to injuries. Minnesota lost Pablo López (UCL surgery) and David Festa (shoulder impingement) before the season started. Mick Abel (elbow/triceps inflammation) and breakout righty Taj Bradley (pectoral inflammation) are currently on the 15-day IL. Matthews hasn’t found success in parts of two prior big league seasons, but he’s still 25 and now has another chance to show he can stick in the majors with a good impression. Simeon Woods Richardson has struggled badly, so even if Bradley and Abel get healthy, there could be a spot for Matthews moving forward.