The Twins have acquired first baseman Eric Wagaman from the Marlins in exchange for minor league pitcher Kade Bragg, as confirmed by both teams this afternoon. Wagaman was designated for assignment earlier this week. To make room for Wagaman on their 40-man roster, the Twins DFA’d infielder Ryan Fitzgerald.
Wagaman, 28, spent several years in the Yankees’ minor league system before he was taken by the Angels in the minor league portion of the 2023 Rule 5 draft. He debuted for L.A. the following September, but he didn’t hit well enough to stave off a DFA at the end of the season. After electing free agency, he signed with the Marlins, and in 2025, he played his first full campaign in the bigs. Over 140 games, he slashed .250/.296/.378 for a .674 OPS and an 85 wRC+. He hit nine home runs, stole four bases on five attempts, and grounded into 11 double plays. On defense, Wagaman mostly played first base, though he also appeared in a handful of games in the corner outfield spots and stepped in at third base on a few occasions. Considering his well-below-average offense at a position where teams typically look for well-above-average offense, it was hardly surprising to see Wagaman DFA’d when the Marlins needed to make room on the roster for trade acquisition Esteury Ruiz. Evidently, the Twins must see a little more to like in his bat.
Bragg, 24, signed with the Twins in 2023 after they selected him in the 17th round of the draft. He made his professional debut in 2024 but landed on the injured list in late April and missed the rest of the season. Healthy again in 2025, the left-hander impressed in his first full season, rising from Single-A to High-A to Double-A. All told, he pitched to a 2.94 ERA and 3.73 FIP in 67 1/3 innings of relief, striking out 82 and giving up just six home runs. Walks were an issue, and clearly, the Twins don’t value Bragg all that highly. Neither do the prospect evaluators at sources like Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, or FanGraphs; he wasn’t ranked on any of their most recent Twins prospect lists. Still, based on his successful performance in his first full season, the Marlins’ development team has an interesting new project to work on.
Fitzgerald, 31, finally earned his call to the show in 2025. He started his career in independent ball, where he impressed the Red Sox enough to earn a minor league contract in 2018. Five years later, the Royals selected him in the minor league phase of the 2023 Rule 5 draft – the same draft that saw Wagaman join the Angels. However, Fitzgerald wasn’t able to make the majors with his new team, and he elected free agency after the 2024 campaign. He then latched on with Minnesota on a minor league contract, and finally, a month before his 31st birthday, he made his MLB debut. While his first stint with the Twins lasted less than a week, he earned another call-up in August following the team’s trade deadline sell-off and stuck around for the rest of the season. Altogether, he hit for an .837 OPS and a 119 wRC+ in 59 games at Triple-A and a .758 OPS and 110 wRC+ in 24 games in the majors. Unfortunately for Fitzgerald, his plus hitting and defensive versatility (he played all four infield positions) weren’t enough to keep him in Minnesota’s plans for 2026. At some point over the next five days, the Twins will either trade him or place him on waivers. If he were to clear waivers, the Twins could send him outright to the minor leagues and keep him in their organization.
Twins having a sneaky good offseason. If there’s team health, they should be right there fighting for the division title
I think they have a better shot than the White Sox, but I still have doubts… especially with how chaotic Cleveland and Detroit are.
“I think they have a better shot than the White Sox”.
Not exactly how the chaos of Detroit and Cleveland gives them a better shot than the Sox, but since it’s time for resolutions, being better than the White Sox may be one of easiest to keep.
At this point I might be better than the white sox and I got cut from a rep softball team that didn’t have enough players
I think the White Sox have a better shot. Cleveland and Detroit have some fixing to do.
Agreed, hence the Chaos between those cities.
This pickup doesn’t scream “sneaky good” or “fighting for a division title.” Wagaman is a AAAA player, at best.
“Sneaky good”? Their only move has been Josh Bell for $6m.
Well if Josh Bell somehow ends up being good, then that move was sneaky.
Josh Bell stinks. He’s a terrible defensive player and his hitting is mediocre at best. The Twins still haven’t done much of anything to address their decimated bullpen. And this is coming from a long time Twins fan.
That bullpen – or lack of one – still seems a big problem.
Cue the “relievers are fungible” and “it’s easy to build the pen from table scraps” myths
It all comes down to health for this team. Can Buxton, Lee and Lewis stay healthy and what kind of impact will all those young bats like Jenkins, Gonzalez, and Culpepper provide when they all get called up. They also need Abel to live up to the hype and a bounce back year from Bradley.
A LOT of talent on this team they just need players to step up this year and they’ll be good.
There are very much open questions about whether Lewis and Lee are good, too.
Another delusional poster. Thinking skenes in 2027. Never gonna happen my friend
The back of their rotation has some questions, mainly Bailey Ober.
Taj Bradley should in the opening day rotation as their 3, Zebby as a 4 and Ober / Woods Richardson as a 5/6. That could be a less than mediocre group all together from 3-6.
They have a jam up in the OF with five or six prospects ready for the bigs. It will be interesting to see how they manage their OF group. A Buxton trade for a starting pitcher makes the most sense but he has a no-trade clause.
Bullpen is a complete rebuild. Connor Prielip is slotted in at FanGraphs. Matt Canterino could get healthy and potentially be in the bullpen too. That could be good.
I liked Clemens last season, thought he had a small breakout. He could play some 1B. Josh Bell is less inspiring.
Its a big season for the underwhelming Lewis and Lee show with Correa out of the mix. The Wallner and Larnach show has been equally unimpressive. If all four continue to be mediocre, Twins will be far from the division title.
White Sox will get them down the stretch for fourth this season. Twins will be in the cellar by the end of the year.
Luke Keaschell looks to be a generational player, could be an all-star this season. Keaschell reminds me a lot of a young Mike Trout.
I agree with most of this, but I’d rather see Julien on the roster than Clemens. Julien had a higher average, higher OBP. Fielding wise they’re pretty comparable at 1st and 2nd. I think his ceiling is somewhere between his 2023 season and last season, like .250 15-20 hr’s. Clemens is a few yrs older and has had one season hitting .220 or better.
I think getting out of that Correa contract was absolutely the right move but yes, for this squad to work you need production from Lewis and Lee. OF is interesting you could ideally trade out Wallner or Larnach for more pitching prospects and that clears room to let Jenkins, Gonzalez, and Rodriguez compete for the COF spots. Honestly if these guys stay relatively healthy this could be one of the more dangerous lineups in the AL.
I’d like to believe that as a Twins fan but Falvey and the Twins are reluctant to give prospects a shot and typically clog rosters up with rentals until their prospects burn out in the minors. They desperately need to patch together the bullpen before the season starts but it doesn’t look like it so far and they need to find a decent 1st baseman at some point and a future catcher.
My A’s have done this in past. Bringing in Matt Joyce via free agency instead of giving Max Muncy his shot will never not be painful. Kendall Graveman, Kyle Finnegan, Grant Holmes, Jared Koenig… Hopefully Falvey gives the youngsters a chance to prove themselves I really like what he has assembled up there. I think it’s a nice mix of veterans (Buxton, Lewis, Ryan, Lopez) and upside(Keasch, Lee, Jenkins, Abel, Gonzalez , etc.). Of course the whole thing could implode with injuries but the Twins are one of my sleeper teams for 2026.
Written sarcasm is hard for me…
I would have way rather held on to Fitzgerald personally I liked his journey to the bigs and he had some great moments last year.
31 year old “prospects” might be feel good stories, but real twins fans have had enough of them. anyone can hit meaningless home runs in September. remember Brian Dozie
Yeah we’re tired of the stories but wagaman is a 28 year old no hit corner player. Rather have the homegrown player capable of filling in at SS
Fitzgerald wasn’t homegrown…he was signed last off-season. No point in having a 31 year old that hits .196. I’m not saying Wagaman is the key to this season or even a good trade but Fitz isn’t a MLB player even.
wjf – How about Ron Washington, first full season at age 30. He eventually broke up a no-hitter against the Brewers with one out in the 9th, he won the league MVP award (SPBA) and made the HOF (New Orleans Sports)..
The wreck of the Ryan Fitzgerald.
Gitchegumy
Would rather have Barry Bonds in his prime tbh.
the fact that we got something for Wagabum is insane. Bendix you absolute psychotic mastermind i love you
Got more for him than either the Yankees or Angels..
very shocking honestly. this makes me more happy than signing a star
Wagaman likely platoons with Clemens at First Base and maybe as a backup to Lewis at 3B. Twins have a better lineup than the Marlins did last season so Wagaman won’t be looked to to be a key contributor
They gave up on Jose Miranda to replace his role with this dude? Not that Miranda was doing anything to keep his spot but wagaman isn’t worth a roster spot for anyone imo
Pretty nice snag by Miami.
Wagaman was below replacement level last year and has an even 0.0 WAR per bbref.
Jonah Bride 2.0
Not really. Jonah actually did some good things for us until the league figured him out completely.
Yes, I had hoped for his sake that Bride would turn things back around as a Twin but the league had figured him out.
Wagaman probably has even less of a ceiling…
Yeah, Wagaman seems to have a lower ceiling and lower floor than Bride.
Too bad gardy isnt coach. Won’t get to hear about “Waggy” “battling” to a sub .200 average.
James Outman loses his twin.
I’m sure that he’d at least “get after it.”
These are the “relentless” moves Tom Pohlad was talking about!
I mean, clearly, Falvey was very concerned another team would claim Wagaman instead of just putting in the only waiver claim which would have been made. Maybe it was to save $50k, lol. Man, Tom Pohlad definitely going all in.
Whoah! Someone actually gave us something for Wagaman?
How did Bendix get two different teams give us something for guys that we expected to be non-tendered – Dane Myers and Eric Wagaman?
Bendix must know Jedi Mind Tricks.
Don’t like this choice by the Twins at all
Check his spits: .283/.321/.462 against LHP. Can play 1B and corner OF and the Twins have had issues against LHP. Nothing wrong with this move.
Correction: He can stand and 1B and corner OF.
“Play” is a strong word for Wagaman.
If you look at DRS, he is actually an improvement over Julian and Gasper whom he will likely be replacing. I foresee lots of DH/PH in his future as well. The Twins have no righties to DH against LHPs and that was a problem.
I know when I look at what I saw in him playing for us this past season, he sucks.
This has to be a move before a move because who backs up SS? Fitzgerald represented the only other player on the 40-man that could cover SS and he was at AAA. Now what?
I think this bodes well for Culpepper. Meanwhile Austin Martin or Royle Lewis will be the backups in case of an emergency. Still plenty of time and there are spots to clean up on the 40-man roster (Julien, Gasper and a few more.) .
Is Lewis even a consideration for SS? He’s kinda the linchpin to our entire season, the upside there is massive, we have to keep him healthy. As for Martin, he hasn’t played a single inning of SS at any level since 2022. I like Culpepper but he only just got to AA and fizzled out a little bit at the end of last season. Still a lot of time to find a bench SS and I’m expecting it to have to come from outside the organization.
Lewis has the raw talent he appears to have issues with the mental side of the game as was evident by his comments during last season. Scott Boras has also been stroking his ego too much and he definitely thinks he’s better than he is.
I guess Arcia’s little brother is the answer 🙂
If that kid Bragg ends up being any type of low leverage reliever in the majors, that would make a huge return for Wags. Well done, Pedro Benditex.
Not trying to play the devil’s advocate, and recognising that Wagaman was a bad player for the Marlins, I think the Fish didn’t used him in an optimal way. Maybe 100 ABs less vs. RHP would have done him a favour, and those PAs should have been taken by Troy Johnston.
I hope both Troy and Wags have good seasons this year.
Is Kepler on the plane back to MSP yet?
I expect Ryan Fitzgerald to be claimed by someone on waivers. That could be Detroit. The Tigers love players that can play multiple players. They also love value players. Look at Ryan’s stats. Four Homer’s in 46 ab. That is 40 Homer’s in 460 ab. 7 walks in 46ab that is 70 walks in 460ab. 8 strikeouts in 46ab is 80 in 460 ab. Numbers don’t lie there is a lot of positives to having Ryan on your roster.