The Twins announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Darren McCaughan from Triple-A St. Paul and designated fellow right-hander Randy Dobnak for assignment to clear space on the 40-man and active rosters. Dobnak’s DFA was first reported last night.
McCaughan, 29, will give the Twins some length in the bullpen after Dobnak was pressed into 5 1/3 innings yesterday when Bailey Ober lasted just 2 2/3 innings as he pitched through an illness. McCaughan, a former Mariners draftee and longtime farmhand in Seattle, has pitched in parts of three big league seasons previously. He’s logged only 56 MLB frames and carries a 6.43 ERA in that time.
Similar to Dobnak, he’s a soft-tossing righty with good command but below-average strikeout and swinging-strike rates. He’s been a durable starter at the Triple-A level but carries a 5.14 ERA in 546 frames there. McCaughan is also out of minor league options, so it could be a brief stay on the 40-man roster if the Twins opt for another fresh arm at some point in the near future.
The DFA for Dobnak is a bitter pill for the righty to swallow but not exactly unexpected. The right-hander signed a five-year, $9.25MM extension back in March 2021, which hasn’t panned out as the team has hoped. That’s due in part to injury, but Dobnak’s standing on the team has slipped as the Twins have churned out various young arms who’ve surpassed him on the rotation depth chart (e.g. Ober, Joe Ryan, Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, Zebby Matthews).
Since Dobnak has under five years of service, he can’t reject an outright assignment and still retain the entirety of his guarantee. He’s earning $3MM in 2025 and is owed a $1MM buyout on a club option for the 2026 campaign. Because of that guaranteed sum, he’s overwhelmingly likely to both pass through waivers and to subsequently accept an outright assignment to St. Paul. While Dobnak could always pitch his way into a more stable long relief role with more outings like yesterday’s — 5 1/3 innings, two hits, one run, two walks, one strikeout — he could ride this DFA/outright cycle several times this season since all involved parties know the outcome is something of a foregone conclusion that provides the Twins with some roster flexibility.
3 days in and we’re already doing the DFA carousel.
Here we go again
This dude is gonna end up running slowpitch softball tournaments and people are gonna talk to him like he’s a Hall of Famer. Respect to the ones who aren’t the ones but still made the show. ✊🏼
1 appearance and he’s been swapped for a guy with a 6.43 career ERA. Minnesota, please just send this man to the White Sox or something, don’t belittle him like this.
They are not choosing the best arms they have to sit on the furthest end of the bench in April. They are choosing guys that are mature, that don’t need a regular shift to continue their development, and most importantly can get moved through waivers at will. They (and the league) know who Dobnak and McCaughan are and no one is claiming them.
Later in the year when longer term holes need to be filled or young guys have had more time to ripen the team may take a different approach, but a week after they decided who should be up and who needs more reps they aren’t going to change their mind.
This isn’t the same Darren McCaughan that starred in The Night Stalker tv show?
Twins picking up exactly where they left off in 2024.. Ice cold.
The Twins are effectively “renting” McCaughan’s 40-man spot for $740k while retaining Dobnak’s higher-upside potential at no additional roster cost. If McCaughan falters (likely, given his 5.14 Triple-A ERA and lack of options), they can DFA him, lose nothing significant, and recall Dobnak, who’s already incentivized to stay via his $4MM guarantee. This creates a revolving door of near-zero-risk flexibility:
Fellow Long Beach State Dirtbag, Darren. Wishing him the best! Long live the Dirtbags