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
Good luck Twins. There are 2 Wentz extremes. Practically unhitttable, or batting practice Joey. Batting practice Joey did something with unhittable Joey because he stopped showing up.
Pure hot garbage….but off you go Twins
Wentz hasn’t been particularly good this year, but he wasn’t terrible, either. I’m surprised the Pirates let him go.
I agree.
ThonolansGhost
Agree, Pirates had worse guys they kept but what do you expect from Cherington.
Not if you actually watched him pitched.
When he was with the Tigers he had a lot of control issues. He could pitch hard but no one had a clue where the ball was going. When he was on it was good but most times he would walk a lot of patience batters. He appeared to do a little better with the Pirates and I was surprised they would let him go. The Twins are probably better off with him but be prepared for the wild days.
Great. Now launch Jorge Alcala into the sun, please.
Watch the pirates claim Alcala
The Nats should have put in a claim. Their bullpen is *still* a hot mess, especially lefty Jose Ferrer.
Joey Wentz is not just the best looking pitcher in baseball, he’s the best looking player.
Once Ferguson gets traded they will regret losing Wentz as they had at least one guy that the Pirates could have waived instead of Wentz.
During his senior year at SM East, Wentz did not give up a run all year and led his team to the 6A state title.