The Twins have signed right-hander Scott Blewett and first baseman Yunior Severino to minor league deals, according to the club’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. Both players were just outrighted by the Twins a couple of weeks ago before electing free agency. They’ll rejoin the organization as depth options now.
This is the second straight offseason Blewett, 28, has signed a minor league deal with Minnesota. He pitched well both in Triple-A and in the majors for the Twins last season. He logged a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 frames with the Twins’ Triple-A club St. Paul, fanning 22.7% of his opponents against a tidy 7.1% walk rate. When the Twins summoned the former Royals hurler to the big leagues, he responded with 20 1/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball. Blewett’s strikeout and walk rates were more pedestrian than that sparkling ERA, and metrics like FIP (4.00) and SIERA (4.05) felt he had a fair bit of good fortune, largely coming in the form of a 90.5% strand rate he’s not likely to sustain.
The 25-year-old Severino once ranked among the Twins’ top 10 prospects but has seen his stock drop as pronounced contact issues have persisted. He socked 35 homers between Double-A and Triple-A as recently as 2023 but fanned in nearly a third of his plate appearances that year. He dropped that strikeout rate to a still-alarming 27.8% in Triple-A this year but also saw his power output decline along with his strikeout rate; he hit just 21 homers while his ISO (slugging minus batting average) plummeted from .274 to .180.
In addition to the contact concerns, Severino is also a player without a clear defensive home. The former middle infielder has slid down the defensive spectrum as he’s filled out. He’s now primarily a first baseman and not considered to be a strong defender there. He’s also a below-average runner. Still, there’s clearly impressive raw power in Severino’s bat, and he’ll get another look in Triple-A at a time when the Twins’ first base situation is in flux. Carlos Santana became a free agent at season’s end, and former top prospect Alex Kirilloff surprisingly retired at just 26 years of age following a pair of wrist surgeries, a major shoulder surgery and a back injury that have resulted in him spending more time on the injured list than on active rosters in the past four seasons.
“You Blewitt!” – A. Sandler
– R. De Niro
It must be cool having the AAA team so close to the big club. Do a lot of Twins fans catch games at both Target Field and St. Paul ?? Never been to the area but how close are those two stadiums to each other? Here in Seattle we have our AAA team 40 miles south in Tacoma but even in perfect traffic it can take an hour. It also seems like Tacoma Rainiers fans and Mariners fans don’t really co-mingle which is sorta weird to me in a way.
CHS Field and Target Field are about 11 miles apart and connected by the Metro Transit Green Line LRT. I live closer to CHS but have a partial package for the Twins so I go to a fair amount of games at both places, and it is fun to see the minor leaguers there. Never seen a game at both places on one day, but I did once attend a pregame promotion at CHS then head across town for a Twins game.
It’s also a nice quasi-throwback to when the previous incarnation of the Saints and the Minneapolis Millers used to be fierce rivals in the early 20th century, and they used to schedule home-and-home doubleheaders where you would take the streetcar between the parks during the break in play.
How bout Staten Island Yankees
Is that a beer league or the over 65 league?
How would you tell the difference in SI?
The Twins and Saints stadiums are only 11 miles away from eachother! Many Twins fans attend Saints games regularly, though that’s been happening since well before they affiliated with the Twins. Many find Saints games simply more enjoyable due to the fun atmosphere, and fan interaction they create in their ballpark. I personally prefer Saints games over Twins games if anything due to cheaper parking, entry, and less traffic
Agree except that mostly it’s because I’m cheap, plus I like seeing the AAA kids in person after reading about them for so long.
It is about ten miles from one park to the other. But since it is city traffic it can still take around 30 minutes depending on which route you go.
Should’ve signed Randy Lockeditdown instead.
I gave you a chance to be an MLB quality reliever and you blew iiiiiiit!!
– DeNiro
(Although those numbers ain’t bad)
Has there ever been a worse name for a pitcher. Maybe Homer Bailey but that’s about it