Gerrit Cole To Start For Yankees On Friday
Yankees manager Aaron Boone informed reporters, including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, that right-hander Gerrit Cole will be activated from the 15-day injured list to start for the club on Friday. That will be his first start in the big leagues since 2024, as he spent 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Cole’s track record is well known at this point, as he has been one of the most consistent performers for most of his career. He has a 3.18 earned run average in almost 2,000 big league innings. In 12 seasons, he has only once finished with an ERA higher than 3.88.
Injury absences had been rare for him. From 2013 to 2023, he logged at least 116 innings in each full season and hit the 200-inning mark six times. Elbow issues became a talking point in 2024. Fresh off his Cy Young win in 2023, he experienced some elbow discomfort early the next year. He began the 2024 season on the IL but ultimately returned and posted a 3.41 ERA over 95 innings. He then put up a 2.17 ERA in five postseason starts as the Yanks charged to the World Series, ultimately falling to the Dodgers.
Then in spring training 2025, elbow discomfort returned. This time, it was more serious, as Cole had to go under the knife in March. He sat out the 2025 season and the Yanks did fairly well without him. They had signed Max Fried, who stepped into the ace role. Fried gave the Yanks a 2.86 ERA over 32 starts last year as the Yanks went 94-68. They couldn’t go as far in the playoffs as the year prior, dropping an ALDS matchup with the Blue Jays.
Now, coincidentally, Fried and Cole are effectively swapping places again. Fried recently hit the IL due to a bone bruise in his left elbow. It’s unclear how long that issue will keep Fried on the shelf, but it continues the stretch of the two pitchers technically being on the same team without ever being on the active roster together.
Cole has been rehabbing for a few weeks and was slated to make one more rehab start. The Yanks initially said that Fried’s injury wouldn’t prompt them to speed up Cole’s timeline but it seems they have pivoted from that. Cole is undoubtedly stretched out, having gone at least 4 1/3 innings in all six of his rehab outings. His 4.66 ERA doesn’t look especially impressive but he only allowed three earned runs combined over his two most recent games, tossing 10 1/3 innings in those.
Fried’s injury temporarily delays a tough decision for the Yankees. The club has been getting good results from Fried, Will Warren, Cam Schlittler and Ryan Weathers, with all four of those guys having ERAs under 3.60. Carlos Rodón has a 5.63 ERA but it only two starts, as he also began the season on the IL recovering from elbow surgery. As Cole was rehabbing, it looked like someone was going to get an undeserved demotion to the minors or the bullpen.
For now, Cole takes Fried’s spot and everyone else in that group can stay. If Fried is able to return relatively quickly, then perhaps an awkward decision will be required at that time, though it’s also possible another injury pops up in the interim. It’s also possible that Clarke Schmidt could enter the picture later in the season, as he is recovering a Tommy John surgery performed in July.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Cubs Designate Ty Blach For Assignment
The Cubs have designated left-hander Ty Blach for assignment, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. His spot on the roster goes to fellow southpaw Caleb Thielbar, who has been reinstated from the injured list.
Blach signed a minor league deal with the Cubs last month and was selected to the big league roster Sunday. That marked his first time on a big league roster since 2024. The 35-year-old handled himself well, tossing three shutout innings yesterday against the Brewers. Blach allowed only one hit, didn’t walk anyone, and punched out two of the nine batters he faced. In addition to his three sharp big league innings, Blach has pitched well in four of his five appearances with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines. He has a 5.23 ERA overall in 20 2/3 innings there, though most of the damage against him came in one start that saw him tagged for six runs in 3 2/3 innings.
With yesterday’s Cubs appearance, Blach has now pitched in parts of eight big league seasons with four different teams. The majority of that experience came with the Giants, who drafted him out of Creighton with their fifth-round pick back in 2012. Blach tossed 299 1/3 frames of 4.36 ERA ball with San Francisco from 2016-18. He then made five starts for the 2019 Orioles and spent the 2022-24 seasons with the Rockies.
Since that solid Bay Area run back in ’16-’18, Blach has been hit hard, yielding a 6.76 ERA in 223 2/3 innings. Part of that stems from calling Coors Field his home for several years, of course, but Blach is also a soft-tossing lefty who’s never missed many bats and has to rely on weak contact and precise command. There’s not much margin for error with a pitch-to-contact lefty who’s sitting 89.8 mph with his sinker and pitching half his games at altitude. That said, Blach did average 91.1 mph on that sinker in yesterday’s appearance — right in line with his velocity from his early days with the Giants.
The Cubs have five days to trade Blach, place him on outright waivers or release him. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to accept an outright assignment with Chicago, though he also has the right to reject an outright in favor of free agency if he prefers that route.
Thielbar has missed nearly a month with a hamstring strain. The 39-year-old lefty had a terrific season with the Cubs in his age-38 campaign last year (2.64 ERA, 58 innings) and re-signed on a one-year, $4.5MM contract in free agency. He allowed three earned runs on six hits (two of them homers) and five walks with 11 strikeouts in 8 2/3 frames before hitting the injured list.
Pirates Recall Jhostynxon García
May 19: The Pirates announced that García has indeed been recalled from Triple-A. He’s in line to make his team debut as soon as tonight.
May 18, 9:52am: While García is expected to be promoted, Hiles adds in a follow-up report, the Pirates have been considering one other player as well. A decision has not yet been finalized.
8:55am: The Pirates are set to recall outfielder Jhostynxon García from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Bucs are off today, so the move won’t be official until tomorrow’s road date with the division-rival Cardinals in St. Louis. The Pirates already optioned infielder/outfielder Nick Yorke to Indianapolis following yesterday’s game.
García, 23, was acquired from the Red Sox in the offseason trade sending Johan Oviedo to Boston. “The Password” ranked on various top-100 prospect list during the 2025 season but has slipped a bit; he’s still a generally well-regarded outfield prospect who’s bounced back from an awful start to his 2026 season to catch fire.
Despite an eye-popping spring with the Pirates in which he batted .405/.463/.595 in 41 plate appearances, García opened the season in the minors. The Pirates had Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Ryan O’Hearn locked into outfield spots and Marcell Ozuna at designated hitter. The Bucs understandably wanted García getting everyday reps rather than sparse playing time on the bench when he’s still in his formative, developmental years. The situation is a bit different now, with O’Hearn hitting the injured list over the weekend and Ozuna having struggled through an awful 39-game stretch to begin his season (.182/.271/.311).
García himself opened the season mired in a 1-for-27 slump through his first 29 trips to the batter’s box. He broke out with a three-hit game on April 5 and hit safely in six of seven games before landing on the minor league injured list due to a back injury. García rehabbed with the Pirates’ Class-A club for a few days in early May, then erupted with a 5-for-5, three-homer outburst in his return to the Triple-A lineup last month. Overall, since that three-hit game in early April, he’s slashed .324/.365/.632. It’s only 68 total plate appearances — a handful of them in A-ball — but it’s clear that García has broken out of that early-season slump.
For the Pirates, the inverse is true. Pittsburgh was swept by their intrastate rivals over the weekend, dropping three straight to Philadelphia by scores of 11-9, 6-0 and 6-0. The Pirates were 16-11 back on April 25 and have gone 8-12 since. They’re still a game over .500, at 24-23, but they’ve five games back of the Cubs for the NL Central lead and 3.5 games out in the NL Wild Card hunt.
García should jump into the mix and get everyday at-bats, likely in right field in place of O’Hearn. Jake Mangum can float between all three outfield spots as needed. If García is hitting well when O’Hearn is ready to return from the injured list, that could put some pressure on Ozuna — at least as long as the rest of the roster is healthy. Reynolds, Cruz and O’Hearn have been key cogs in a Pirates lineup that ranks sixth in the majors in runs scored (229), sixth in batting average (.248), fourth in on-base percentage (.332) and is tied for 13th in slugging percentage (.388). They’re not going to be displaced. O’Hearn can also play first base, but Spencer Horwitz is slashing .273/.383/.414, so he’s not going anywhere either.
García made his major league debut with the Red Sox last year, but he received only nine plate appearances and accrued just nine days of major league service time. There isn’t enough time left on the calendar for him to reach a full year of service in 2026, so he’ll be controllable all the way through 2032 in Pittsburgh. Future optional assignments could change that trajectory, of course. He’s in his second minor league option year and will have one remaining beyond the current season.
White Sox Release Osvaldo Bido To Pursue Opportunity In Japan
The White Sox have released right-hander Osvaldo Bido, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty is pursuing an opportunity in Japan, per Brooke Fletcher of Chicago Sports Network.
Several clubs have been trying to pass Bido through waivers over the past year. He burned his final option season with the Athletics in 2025, which led to him riding the transaction carousel all winter and into the 2026 campaign. His first offseason waiver claim took him to Atlanta, followed by claims taking him to the Rays, Marlins, Angels, Yankees, and then back to Atlanta. A few weeks into the season, another waiver claim took him to the White Sox.
All those teams seemingly valued Bido enough to claim him but also hoped they had a chance to keep him in a non-roster capacity. The Sox have now finally succeeded in getting him through waivers but won’t be keeping Bido in the system. Teams generally don’t stand in the way of their players pursuing overseas opportunities, unless they have a better opportunity to provide.
Bido flashed some potential with the A’s in 2024, tossing 63 1/3 innings in a swing role with a 3.41 earned run average. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 24.3% of batters faced. He also had a bit of help from the spacious ballpark in Oakland, as only 3.8% of his fly balls left the yard.
Moving to the hitter-friendly environment in West Sacramento didn’t help him. 14.7% of his fly balls cleared the fence in 2025, pushing his ERA to 5.87. That got him sent to the minors, burning his final option. Between Atlanta and Chicago this year, he couldn’t get back on track, with a 6.27 ERA.
Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball has been fairly pitcher-friendly in recent years, so perhaps a stint there is a good landing spot for Bido. If he gets back on track and puts up some good numbers, he can try to return to North American ball in the future.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Nationals Option Brady House
May 19th: The Nats made their full moves official today. They optioned House and outfielder Joey Wiemer in order to recall Crews and first baseman Andres Chaparro.
May 18th: The Nationals announced they’ve optioned third baseman Brady House to Triple-A Rochester. That creates an active roster opening, which they’ll reportedly fill tomorrow by recalling former #2 overall pick Dylan Crews.
It’s a surprise demotion, as House has started 38 of Washington’s 48 games this year. He was in the lineup for tonight’s extra-inning loss to the Mets and still hitting third in Blake Butera‘s lineup. Despite continuing to hit him in the middle of the order, the Nats now decide to send House down for his first work against Triple-A pitching since he made his MLB debut last June.
House, the #11 overall pick in the 2022 draft, limped to a .234/.252/.322 line over 73 games as a rookie. This year’s numbers are better but still middling. House carries a .227/.282/.399 mark across 177 trips to the plate. He’s drawing walks at a modest 7.3% clip against a 28% strikeout rate. He’s in the bottom 15 among hitters (minimum 150 plate appearances) in contact rate.
The plate discipline remains a work in progress, but House’s seven home runs tied him with Daylen Lile for third on the team behind James Wood and CJ Abrams. He’d connected on three of those homers this month, albeit with a .224 average and .264 on-base percentage entering tonight’s game. House has graded poorly defensively, tying Junior Caminero for the lead among third basemen with eight errors. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have him bottom five at the position.
Washington’s infield defense probably won’t improve much with a combination of Jorbit Vivas and José Tena covering third base. Curtis Mead has hit well off the bench and could get a look there too, though the Nationals seemingly prefer him as a first baseman. That’ll open some at-bats at designated hitter for Wood and Lile, as Crews will surely be in the lineup on an everyday basis. Jacob Young is the team’s best defensive outfielder; he’s day-to-day after taking a fastball to the ribs this evening, though Butera said postgame that x-rays were negative (via Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal).
House entered this season with 105 days of MLB service. He needs to be on the big league roster for 67 days this year to cross the one-year threshold before the end of the season. He’s a little less than two weeks short of that right now, but there’s ample time for him to play his way back onto the active roster during the summer.
Mets Select Anderson Severino
The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Anderson Severino. He has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, so he will stick with that club, but he is now on the 40-man and will be a candidate to be recalled to the active roster going forward. Pitchers have to wait 15 days after being optioned before they can be recalled, though exceptions are made when someone else hits the injured list or a club needs a 27th man for a doubleheader. Right-hander Clay Holmes was transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move 40-man move. Holmes recently suffered a fibula fracture and is expected to be out of action until August.
The announcement from the Mets said that Severino was optioned after last night’s game, so the Severino/Holmes moves seemingly happened yesterday. The Mets also officially announced today’s earlier-reported outfield moves, with Austin Slater designated for assignment and Nick Morabito recalled. Those moves drop the 40-man count to 39, so the club has an opening for Zach Thornton, who is going to be selected on Wednesday. Thornton will fill the 40-man tomorrow but the Mets will need to make a corresponding active roster move for him.
Severino, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. It’s possible that the pact contained some kind of opt-out or assignment clause. That usually explains why a club would add a player to its 40-man roster and then immediately option him. Giving him a spot prevents him from opting out or getting sent elsewhere, but also doesn’t require the club to immediately call the player up, which would then require a corresponding move. There have also been a few cases where a player has been given a roster spot to prevent him from pursuing an opportunity overseas.
Whatever the reasoning, it’s understandable that the Mets don’t want Severino to get away, as he is out to a hot start. He has thrown 17 1/3 Triple-A innings so far this year, allowing just 1.04 earned runs per nine. His 12.1% walk rate is quite high but he has punched out 27.3% of batters faced and induced grounders on 52.6% of balls in play. His ERA has gotten some help from a .231 batting average on balls in play and 83.3% strand rate but Severino’s 3.00 FIP suggests he would be getting good results even with more neutral luck. His fastball is averaging just over 96 miles per hour and he’s throwing a mid-80s slider almost a third of the time, along with a rarely-used curve.
It’s not the first time Severino has posted good numbers in the minors but he has only received a brief look the majors. His big league track record currently consists of just 7 1/3 innings tossed for the White Sox in 2022.
He is not quite back to the majors just yet but he is now in a good position to return to the show for the first time in four years. The Mets have two lefties in their bullpen at the moment but one of them is long man Sean Manaea, meaning that Brooks Raley is effectively the only proper southpaw reliever. If they want to add another lefty or just need a fresh arm at some point in the future, Severino is now on the 40-man and could get the call.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Michael Stefanic Elects Free Agency
Infielder Michael Stefanic has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Athletics outrighted him to Triple-A yesterday. Since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject further such assignments. He has exercised that right and heads to the open market.
Stefanic, 30, is a journeyman depth infielder. He can bounce around the infield and has torched Triple-A pitching in his career. That has led to a few big league opportunities that he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. In 294 major league plate appearances, he has a .231/.315/.269 batting line. The A’s just added him to their roster when Jacob Wilson got hurt, but they designated Stefanic for assignment a few days later when they acquired Alika Williams.
As mentioned, Stefanic has huge Triple-A numbers, with a .326/.422/.447 line at that level over the years. He generally has a contact-based approach, not hitting for too much power but rarely striking out. He provides defensive versatility, with experience at all four infield spots and the outfield corners in his minor league career. In the big leagues, he has mostly played second base, with brief appearances at third and shortstop.
Stefanic is out of options, which makes it hard for him to hold a roster spot for a lengthy period of time. The A’s added him when they had a need but quickly pivoted and bumped him off the roster.
In these situations, it’s common for the player to return to his previous club on a new minor league deal, but Stefanic can at least explore the market to see if there’s a better opportunity somewhere else. The A’s would probably be happy to get him back with both Wilson and Max Muncy on the IL right now, leaving them a bit shorthanded on the dirt.
Photo courtesy of Ed Szczepanski, 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.
Orioles Select Albert Suarez, Designate Maverick Handley
The Orioles on Tuesday selected the contract of righty Albert Suarez from Triple-A Norfolk and designated catcher Maverick Handley for assignment, per a team announcement. Handley’s DFA opens a 40-man spot for Suarez. Baltimore optioned righty Cameron Foster to Norfolk to make room on the active roster.
Suarez, 36, has been a heavily used swingman for the Orioles since making a 2024 return from the Korea Baseball Organization. He started 24 games and made another eight relief outings in ’24 and has appeared in 11 games over the past two seasons, mostly out of the ‘pen, while also missing time with injuries.
Overall, since Suarez joined the Orioles on a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason, he’s given them 161 innings of 3.58 ERA ball split between 25 starts and 18 relief outings. This will be his second big league stint of the season. The O’s already passed him through waivers once. He’s made two starts in Norfolk, totaling nine innings and allowing four runs with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio.
An ugly start from Trevor Rogers yesterday led to both Foster and Dietrich Enns throwing 35-plus pitches. Suarez will give the bullpen a fresh arm in the event that the O’s need some more length in today’s game. Since he’s been starting in Norfolk, he’s stretched out for multiple innings if need be.
The 28-year-old Handley has been up-and-down between Norfolk and Baltimore and on-and-off the Orioles’ 40-man roster over the past calendar year. He’s totaled only 48 major league plate appearances and gone 3-for-42 with a trio of singles and a 39.6% strikeout rate. Handley posted decent numbers in Triple-A last year (.258/.373/.367) and has steadily posted big walk rates throughout his time in the minors. He’s a glove-first backup who can work counts but has a sub-par hit tool and well below-average power.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Handley or place him on waivers. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the option to reject an outright assignment and become a free agent, which hasn’t been available to him in the past. However, he’s spent his whole career in the Orioles organization since being selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft, so he may opt to stick with the only club he’s known.
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.