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Twins Have Exercised Rocco Baldelli’s 2026 Option

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Rocco Baldelli is in his seventh season as Minnesota’s manager. It was unclear whether his deal ran beyond this season, but the 43-year-old skipper is apparently signed for another year. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that the Twins have exercised their 2026 club option on Baldelli, though it’s unclear when they did so.

Minnesota did not make any kind of formal announcement at the time. Many teams do not publicly reveal the length of the contracts for their non-playing personnel, so that’s not a huge surprise. Baldelli being under contract for next season doesn’t mean the Twins couldn’t make a change before then. Still, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has been steadfast in his support for his longtime manager throughout their tenures in the Twin Cities.

Falvey again expressed confidence in Baldelli’s leadership today, ruling out the possibility of making a change at the moment. “It’s just making sure no one runs away from the work that is right in front of him, and Rocco is not running away from any of the work. … We’re all side by side with him, as is the staff and as our core players,” Falvey told Hayes. “We’re trying to figure it out together.”

The Twins have made the postseason in three of Baldelli’s six full seasons. They won the AL Central in each of 2019, ’20 and ’23 but only won one playoff series in that time. They’re 3-8 in the postseason since Baldelli was hired. They looked on track for another playoff berth late last season, peaking at 17 games above .500 in the middle of August. They collapsed to a 12-27 finish over the final six weeks, ultimately landing at 82-80 and on the outside looking in.

That dreadful run carried into this April, as the Twins won only seven of their first 22 games. They picked things up in the second half of the month and ripped off a 13-game win streak — which remains easily the longest by any team this year — in the middle of May. They climbed as high as seven games over .500 earlier this month, but June has been a disaster.

Injuries to Pablo López and Zebby Matthews have dealt a huge hit to the rotation, and none of their starters have pitched well in recent weeks. The bullpen has been even worse, allowing more than seven earned runs per nine innings this month. They entered play tonight with an MLB-worst 6.59 ERA overall in June. That’ll climb even more after Bailey Ober and Joey Wentz were torched for 11 runs by the Mariners tonight. They just wrapped up a defeat that drops them to 37-41 on the season. They have lost 14 of their last 18 games.

Twins Claim Connor Gillispie

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The Twins have claimed right-hander Connor Gillispie off waivers from the Marlins, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He’s been optioned to Triple-A St. Paul. Miami had designated Gillispie for assignment last week.

Gillispie, 27, was an offseason waiver claim by the Marlins (from the Braves, who’d signed him to a big league deal) back in January. He parlayed a strong spring showing into a spot in Miami’s rotation to open the season. He made six starts, the first three of which went fairly well (3.86 ERA in 14 innings), before being pummeled for 19 runs over his next dozen innings. The Marlins optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville at that point, and he hasn’t pitched in the majors since, leaving Gillispie with a bleak 8.65 ERA in 26 MLB frames this season.

Things have gone better in the minors. Gillispie has pitched 33 2/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA. His 15.7% strikeout rate is a well shy of league average average, however, and his 11.4% walk rate is quite high. The right-hander’s average 90.9 mph average fastball this year is down from the 91.5 mph he posted last year with the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate.

That 2024 season in Cleveland’s system was solid. Gillispie pitched 113 1/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, a 25% strikeout rate and a 10.1% walk rate. That led to a brief big league debut with the Guardians, wherein Gillispie tossed eight innings of relief and held opponents to two runs with an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio.

Gillispie is in the second of three minor league option years. He’ll give the Twins some depth either at the back end of the rotation or as a long reliever for a reeling pitching staff. The Twins were among the league leaders in most pitching categories for the better part of six weeks before injuries to Pablo Lopez and Zebby Matthews thinned their rotation.

The Twins have since endured a series of short starts, even from some of their more established arms, that has led to a heavily worked bullpen and prompted them to lean heavily on waiver claim Joey Wentz and utilityman Jonah Bride for mop-up work in several blowout games. Minnesota has dropped nine of its past ten games, falling below .500 and sliding considerably down the playoff standings in the American League.

Richard Lovelady Opts Out Of Twins Deal

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Left-hander Richard Lovelady has opted out of his minor league deal with the Twins, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The southpaw is now a free agent and available to sign with any club in the league.

Lovelady, 29, started the season with the Blue Jays but was designated for assignment after just two appearances. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers for Triple-A Saint Paul. He has thrown 20 2/3 innings for the Saints with a 1.31 earned run average. His 8.4% walk rate is right around average while his 26.5% strikeout rate and 60.4% ground ball rate are both strong numbers.

Despite that performance, the Twins have decided not to call him up. They have Danny Coulombe and Joey Wentz as their lefty relievers at the moment. Neither of those two can be optioned to the minors and Lovelady himself is out of options, so perhaps they didn’t want to have three lefties with no roster flexibility.

Unsurprisingly, Lovelady has decided to canvass the league for other opportunities. With several clubs around baseball battling numerous injuries and the trade deadline still over a month away, he should find some interest.

In addition to that strong Triple-A work of late, he has some major league success on his track record. He missed 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery but posted solid numbers around that. He logged a combined 44 innings in the 2021 and 2023 seasons with a 4.09 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 51.8% ground ball rate.

His 2024 was mixed. He had a 7.94 ERA through 5 2/3 innings with the Cubs when he was traded to the Rays. With Tampa, he had a 3.77 ERA in 28 2/3 innings but with a diminished 16.8% strikeout rate. The Rays non-tendered him at the end of the year. He landed a minor league deal with the Jays coming into this year and made the Opening Day roster but held onto that spot for just a few days.

Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images

Twins Place Royce Lewis On 10-Day Injured List

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TODAY: The Twins have officially announced Lewis’ IL placement, with a retroactive June 14 date.  Outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

JUNE 14, 5:14pm: The Twins are planning to place Lewis on the IL, as relayed by Miller. He goes on to note that the Twins are labeling Lewis’s strain as “mild.” That’s an encouraging framing for the injury, although it must be emphasized that due to Lewis’s long history of lower half issues even a mild strain could leave him out of commission for some time.

2:52pm: Twins third baseman Royce Lewis suffered a left hamstring strain in Friday’s 10-3 loss to the Astros that forced Lewis out of the game.  The injury occurred in the ninth inning, as Lewis hit a line drive into the left field corner that resulted in only a single, as Lewis came up limping heading into first base.  According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Phil Miller and other beat writers, Lewis will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the damage.

An earlier strain to that same left hamstring sidelined Lewis during Spring Training and delayed his season debut until May 5.  The missed time clearly seemed to be having an impact on Lewis’ bat, as he has hit only .202/.282/.303 over 110 plate appearances.  With a 1.056 OPS over his last 33 PA, however, Lewis seemed like he was getting into form just before his balky hamstring may again force him to the injured list.

Injuries have hampered Lewis’ entire pro career, limiting the former first overall pick to 546 games (182 in the majors, 364 in the minors) since he was selected in the 2017 draft.  Two right ACL tears were the most devastating of Lewis’ multiple health issues, and he has also missed time on the Twins’ injured list due to a quad strain, an adductor strain, and a less-serious left hamstring strain late in the 2023 season that Lewis was able to overcome in time to return for a dominant playoff performance.

If the MRI doesn’t reveal anything too serious, Minnesota could opt to give Lewis a few days of rest in lieu of an IL stint, since the Twins don’t play on Monday anyway.  A backdated IL placement would still “begin” today anyway if the Twins ended up sending Lewis to the 10-day injured list on Tuesday, though such a decision may also hinge if the club is willing to play a man short over a big weekend series against the Astros.

Brooks Lee is the likeliest candidate to get the bulk of third base time if Lewis does wind up on the IL, with such versatile options as Willi Castro, Kody Clemens, or Jonah Bride also available to rotate into the hot corner.  Several other infielders are on the 40-man roster and could be summoned from Triple-A, yet naturally there’s not much substitute for the upside that a healthy and productive Lewis can bring to the Twins’ lineup.

Michael Tonkin Accepts Outright Assignment With Twins

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Right-hander Michael Tonkin has cleared outright waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul. He was on the 60-day injured list and pitching on a rehab assignment but it seems the Twins decided not to reinstate him to the roster. He had the right to reject the assignment and elect free agency but has decided to forgo that right. Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to relay the information.

Tonkin, 35, has been posting good numbers over the past few years but is out of options. That’s led to plenty of bouncing around the league. He signed with the Mets going into 2024 but ended up going to the Twins, back to the Mets, the Yankees and Twins again throughout the season via waiver claims or small trades. He and the Twins avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1MM salary for the 2025 campaign.

Unfortunately, he’s been on the shelf for all of this year so far. He was diagnosed with a right rotator cuff strain in March and started the season on the 15-day IL. He was on a rehab assignment from mid-April to mid-May but was pulled off that rehab due to biceps tendinitis. He was transferred to the 60-day IL shortly thereafter. He restarted the rehab assignment about a week ago.

As mentioned, Tonkin is out of options, meaning the Twins would have had to plug him onto the active roster in order to reinstate him from the IL. They went the waiver route instead. Players with more than three years of major league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, players with less than five years of service have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.

Tonkin came into this year with his service clock at four years and 74 days, putting him 98 days shy of the five-year mark. By my count, 78 days have elapsed in the 2025 season so far, putting Tonkin 20 days shy of that line. That means he would have to walk away from what remains to be paid out of his salary in order to head to free agency, making it fairly unsurprising that he has accepted.

That means the Twins get to hang onto an experienced pitcher without him taking up a roster spot. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Tonkin tossed 159 1/3 innings for various clubs with a 3.95 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. He’ll keep pitching for the Saints and try to stay ready for his next major league call. If he’s not added back to the roster by season’s end, he would be able to elect free agency, like all players with three-plus years of service who have been outrighted during the season.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Red Sox Acquire Jorge Alcala

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June 12: The trade is now official, with both teams formally announcing the move late last night.

June 11: The Red Sox are acquiring right-hander Jorge Alcala from the Twins, as first reported by Phil Miller of the Star Tribune. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that infield/outfield prospect Andy Lugo is headed to Minnesota in return for Alcala’s services. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reports that no cash is being sent from the Twins to Boston in the deal. Both teams subsequently announced the deal officially, and Boston designated right-hander Brian Van Belle for assignment to create room for Alcala on the 40-man roster.

According to The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman, the Twins were planning to designate Alcala for assignment in the coming days, and after the club claimed southpaw Joey Wentz off waivers earlier today it’s fairly easy to surmise that the decision to part with Alcala was motivated by a desire to make room for Wentz on the active roster. By trading for Alcala preemptively, the Red Sox were able to bypass the waiver process in order and add the right-hander to their bullpen more directly. Even if the Twins were planning to part ways with Alcala prior to this trade, it’s clear that the Red Sox were very interested in the 29-year-old righty given that they gave up a low-level prospect to acquire him and took on the remainder of Alcala’s $1.5MM salary for this year despite the fact that most trades of DFA candidates wind up being cash deals.

Looking just at Alcala’s surface-level numbers, it may be hard to see why the Red Sox would be enamored with him. Across 22 appearances with Minnesota this year, he’s pitched to an 8.88 ERA with a 5.42 FIP and an elevated 13.2% walk rate. Those numbers are certainly concerning, but Alcala’s 24.6% strikeout rate has remained quite good even in this down season and he entered the year with a career 3.64 ERA and 4.33 FIP. His 2024 campaign was even better, as he posted a 3.24 ERA and 4.14 FIP in 58 1/3 innings of work during a season where his walk rate sat at a much more manageable 8.5%. Alcala’s .369 BABIP allowed and 52.6% strand rate are both certain to improve over a larger sample size, and if the Red Sox can help restore his command it’s not at all difficult to see them making him into a viable option for the middle innings of even a setup role.

That would be a fantastic development for Boston if it were to come to fruition, as they’re without Justin Slaten and Liam Hendriks while both are on the injured list. That’s left them a bit weak from the right side, with Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert forced to step into high leverage roles. Zack Kelly is currently in the club’s bullpen despite a 6.61 ERA, and the club has zero full-time relievers who throw from the right-hand side on the 40-man roster in the minors at the moment. The depth Alcala could provide to the bullpen if he manages to get right is considerable, and it was enough of an upgrade that the Red Sox opted to DFA Van Belle just one day after adding him to the roster. The Red Sox will have one week to either trade Van Belle, who has still not yet made his big league debut despite his brief call-up, or put him through waivers.

Heading to Minnesota in return for Alcala’s services is Lugo. The 21-year-old has been in the Red Sox organization since 2022 and is currently hitting .265/.327/.430 across 44 games at the High-A level. He’s split time between first base, third base, and left field throughout his pro career to this point, but is unranked on MLB.com’s Top 30 Red Sox Prospects list. That’s not necessarily a shock given his age and the fact that he’s not yet reached to the Double-A level, but it’s not impossible to imagine him getting called up to Double-A by the end of the year now that he’s in the Twins organization, so long as he can continue hitting fairly well in his new organization.

Twins Claim Joey Wentz

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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

Twins Place Zebby Matthews On 15-Day IL, Reinstate Danny Coulombe

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2:21PM: Matthews has been feeling some shoulder soreness for a couple of weeks, and some increased discomfort after the start on Wednesday led to the team’s decision to put him on the injured list.  “It’s not something we’re too concerned with,” Matthews told the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Bobby Nightengale and other reporters.  “It seems to be something we can respond to, hopefully, pretty quick….It’s mainly during the last part of the throw is when I feel it.  Everything else, it feels pretty good. We’re just trying to get it to loosen up and get back to feeling normal.”

9:18AM: The Twins announced that right-hander Zebby Matthews has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to June 5) due to a strain in Matthews’ throwing shoulder.  In the corresponding move, Minnesota activated left-hander Danny Coulombe from the 15-day IL.

The unwelcome news on Matthews come out of nowhere, as there wasn’t any indication that the 25-year-old was hurting coming off his best start of the season.  Matthews limited the A’s to one run on four hits and three walks over five innings in the Twins’ 6-1 victory on June 4.  Even that solid outing lowered Matthews’ ERA to only 5.21 over 19 total innings this season, though advanced metrics (such as a 3.31 SIERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, and a .375 BABIP) indicate that Matthews has deserved better than his inflated ERA.

It looked like Matthews had performed well enough to keep his spot in the Twins’ rotation, though Pablo Lopez’s extended absence might have gotten Matthews more starts out of sheer necessity.  With Matthews himself now out of action, the Twins will have to dig deeper into their depth chart to cover two rotation spots.  David Festa had been installed into Lopez’s place, and Simeon Woods Richardson will likely be recalled from Triple-A to take over for Matthews.

Neither Festa or Woods Richardson have pitched well this season, so there will be even more pressure on Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and Chris Paddack to continue carrying the rotation.  It is fair to wonder if Minnesota might look to the waiver wire or try to swing a low-level trade to add some veteran depth to the pitching mix, though adding a more prominent arm on the trade market isn’t likely to become a reality until closer to the deadline.  The severity of Matthews’ shoulder strain is also naturally a factor, as the urgency for pitching depth would diminish if Matthews is able to return before the end of the month.

The bullpen will at least get a boost with the return of Coulombe, who last pitched on May 14 before an extensor strain in his left forearm sent the veteran reliever to the IL.  Coulombe has yet to allow an earned run over 16 2/3 innings and 19 appearances for Minnesota this season, and he has an outstanding 3.3% walk rate and 31.7% strikeout rate to go along with that spotless ERA.  The Twins had been operating without a left-hander in their bullpen prior to Coulombe’s activation, as Kody Funderburk was optioned to Triple-A on Friday.

In other Twins bullpen news, Michael Tonkin restarted his minor league rehab assignment and tossed a scoreless inning for Triple-A Saint Paul last night.  Tonkin has yet to pitch in the majors this season due to a mild rotator cuff strain suffered during Spring Training, and his previous rehab assignment was halted a month ago due to biceps tendinitis.

Twins Recall Travis Adams For MLB Debut

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11:10am: The Twins announced that Adams has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul. Southpaw Kody Funderburk was optioned to St. Paul in his place.

9:07am: The Twins are calling up right-hander Travis Adams for what will be his major league debut, as first announced by Adams’ agent, Lonnie Murray of Sports Management Partners, on Instagram. He’ll likely slot into the bullpen to provide some length after the A’s snapped a nine-game losing streak by putting 14 runs on the board against Minnesota yesterday. Adams is already on the 40-man roster and was optioned to Triple-A in spring training (hence it being a “recall” despite never having pitched in the majors). As such, the Twins will only need a corresponding 26-man move to bring him up.

Adams, 25, was the Twins’ sixth-round pick back in 2021. Minnesota already added him to the 40-man roster in November in order to protect him from being selected in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft. Given that Adams was coming off a season in which he posted 127 innings with a 3.90 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 43.8% ground-ball rate between Double-A and Triple-A, it stands to reason that a few clubs might have indeed had interest in plucking him from the upper levels of the Twins’ farm were he left unprotected.

So far in 2025, Adams has pitched well. He’s made two abbreviated starts and 11 long relief appearances, totaling 42 innings with a 3.43 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 43.4% ground-ball rate. He hasn’t pitched more than 4 1/3 innings in any game this season, but he’s averaged 58 pitches per outing in his past five turns — including 66 pitches in his most recent appearance — so he ought to be stretched out for whatever role the Twins envision.

Baseball America ranks Adams 22nd among Twins farmhands, while MLB.com lists him 21st. He doesn’t have one standout plus pitch but offers a wide array of average pitches and solid command. Each of BA, MLB.com and FanGraphs give Adams credit solid-average 50 grades on his fastball and a 55 (above-average) grade either on one other pitch or his command (his cutter at BA, his slider at FG, his command at MLB.com). Generally speaking, the 6’1″ righty is considered a back-of-the-rotation arm or potential multi-inning reliever.

It’s possible the Twins will consider Adams for some starts down the road. Fellow prospect David Festa was touted among the sport’s top 100 minor leaguers prior to exhausting his rookie status and was solid through three turns earlier this season, but he’s been slowed by some biceps/shoulder inflammation recently and was torched for eight runs in 3 2/3 innings in that blowout against the A’s yesterday. Festa got the first look in the rotation in place of the injured Pablo López — who’ll be out several months due to a teres major strain — but it’s not clear after yesterday’s rough outing whether he’ll get another look.

For now, the Twins have four starters locked in. Veterans Joe Ryan (2.91 ERA), Bailey Ober (3.48 ERA) and Chris Paddack (3.58 ERA) have all pitched well this season. Rookie right-hander Zebby Matthews, another top-100 arm, had a rocky first outing in the majors this season but has turned in a 3.94 ERA with a 20-to-5 K/BB ratio in 16 innings over his past three turns. That quartet seems set for the time being, with Festa, Adams and righty Simeon Woods Richardson (who was optioned last month but has looked better in Triple-A) among the options for the fifth spot on the staff.

Pablo Lopez To Miss Multiple Months With Teres Major Strain

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June 5: The Twins formally placed Lopez on the injured list and recalled Festa today, per a club announcement.

June 4: The Twins announced that Pablo López suffered a Grade 2 strain of the teres major in his throwing shoulder. He’s expected to miss eight to 12 weeks. He’ll be shut down from throwing entirely for at least a month before he goes for reevaluation.

López left last night’s start against the A’s after five innings. He reported shoulder discomfort while throwing his warm-up pitches in advance of the sixth. The Twins immediately acknowledged that an injured list stint was inevitable. They were awaiting the results of today’s imaging before making that move. It’s unfortunately significant enough that it’ll cost him the majority of the remaining schedule.

This is the same injury and degree of strain which rotation mate Joe Ryan sustained last August. Ryan went down early in the month and missed the remainder of the season. It didn’t carry into the offseason, and he has returned as strong as ever this year. That’s a source of long-term optimism for López, but it doesn’t change the significant hit to the rotation over the next few months.

It’s the righty’s second, and far more notable, IL stint this year. López had a minimal absence in April due to a hamstring strain. The injuries have interrupted a characteristically strong performance. He sports a 2.82 earned run average across 60 2/3 frames. It would have been his first career sub-3.00 showing if he maintained it all year. He has fanned nearly a quarter of opponents while allowing two or fewer runs in nine of his 11 appearances.

Minnesota has one of the top rotations in the league. They’re fifth in MLB with a 3.43 ERA while ranking eighth with a 23.2% strikeout rate. López, Ryan, Bailey Ober and Chris Paddack have all performed well. The final spot has been the only weak point. Simeon Woods Richardson was optioned out after allowing more than five earned runs per nine. Zebby Matthews replaced him in the rotation last month. He made his fourth start of the season tonight and carries a 5.21 ERA over 19 innings. He’s missing plenty of bats, though, so he’s a more exciting fifth starter than Woods Richardson has been.

David Festa will get the first crack at plugging López’s rotation spot. He was scratched from a start at Triple-A St. Paul this evening, as first noted by Declan Goff of SKOR North. Festa traveled to Sacramento to meet the big league team. Dan Hayes of The Athletic writes that he will likely go in tomorrow’s series finale to give the rest of the starters an extra day of rest.

The 25-year-old Festa ranked as one of the sport’s better pitching prospects when he was promoted last summer. He allowed a 4.90 ERA over his first 14 MLB appearances. He made a trio of starts early in the season while López was sidelined by the hamstring. Festa managed an impressive 15:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing only three runs through 13 innings. He has pitched well through six Triple-A starts, turning in a 2.83 mark with a near-31% strikeout rate. Hayes notes that he was sidelined for much of May by biceps inflammation, but he has looked sharp in two appearances since returning. He fired five scoreless frames with five strikeouts in his most recent start.

Festa is a high-upside injury replacement. Woods Richardson remains on optional assignment as a depth arm. The rotation depth is a silver lining, but it’s fair to wonder how this impacts the team’s deadline approach. López won’t be back at least into August and could be shelved into September. The Twins are in the thick of a congested AL Wild Card race and six games behind the Tigers in the division.

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