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Scott Blewett

Braves Acquire Scott Blewett

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The Braves acquired right-hander Scott Blewett from the Orioles in a trade for cash considerations, as announced by both teams.  Blewett was designated for assignment by Baltimore yesterday.

This is the second time in less than a week that Blewett has changed teams after being designated for assignment.  Blewett began the season with the Twins and made two appearances before he was DFA’d and then claimed off waivers by the Orioles.  Two more appearances followed in an O’s uniform before Blewett was designated again.

The roster shuffling is nothing new for Blewett, who had been DFA’d and outrighted several times in his career even before this month’s transactions.  His chances of sticking with the Braves are complicated by the fact that he is out of minor league options, so the Twins and Orioles had no choice but to first designate the right-hander before trying to send him down to the farm.

All these moves belie the fact that Blewett has actually pitched pretty well during his relatively brief time in the big leagues.  Over parts of four seasons with the Royals, Twins, and Orioles, Blewett has a 1.93 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate in 37 1/3 career relief innings.  His 2.16 SIERA is only a shade higher than his ERA, and an inflated 85.4% strand rate is countered by a .317 BABIP.

While Blewett isn’t a hard thrower and he gives up a lot of solid contact, there’s enough there that multiple teams keep showing interest in the 29-year-old’s services.  He’ll become the latest new face in a Braves bullpen that has been a bit of a revolving door, as the club brought several veterans to camp on minor league deals in a search for inexpensive relief depth, and both Rafael Montero and Jose Suarez were acquired in trades (from the Astros and Angels respectively) within the last month.

Orioles Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Scott Blewett has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a 26-man roster spot for Brandon Young, whose first promotion to the majors was reported on yesterday.

Blewett was only just claimed off waivers from the Twins earlier this week, and his brief time in the orange-and-black has seen the righty throw 4 1/3 scoreless innings over two relief appearances, striking out six of 19 batters faced.  Despite the impressive small sample, Blewett again finds himself in DFA limbo, likely owing to his lack of remaining minor league options.

It is a familiar story for Blewett, who has a 1.53 ERA in 29 1/3 big league innings with the Twins and Orioles over the last two seasons but is still looking to find a steady foothold for himself in the Show.  His secondary metrics (such as his hard-contact rates) aren’t particularly impressive, and likely hold a greater sway for front offices than Blewett’s strong bottom-line results.  Blewett also hasn’t stood out in the upper minors, posting a 6.93 ERA in 219 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level.

Should Blewett clear waivers, he has the right to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk and opt into free agency, since he has previously been outrighted in his career.  One would imagine another team in need of bullpen help could have interest in claiming Blewett away from Baltimore and giving him a longer look against MLB hitters, just as the O’s plucked him off Minnesota’s roster a few days ago.

Orioles Claim Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Scott Blewett off waivers from the Twins, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. In a corresponding move, Baltimore designated left-hander Luis Gonzalez for assignment. Blewett is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to be plugged right into manager Brandon Hyde’s bullpen.

Blewett, 29, pitched 4 2/3 innings with the Twins before being designated for assignment. He held opponents to a run on four hits and no walks (but one hit batter) with five strikeouts. He also pitched 20 1/3 innings with Minnesota last year, logging a 1.77 ERA but with shakier strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 9.2%, respectively, both of which are worse than league average.

Those two brief stints in Minnesota were the most recent big league work for Blewett since a similarly short look with the Royals in 2020-21. In all, he’s pitched 33 innings in the majors and has a tidy 2.18 ERA to show for it, albeit with a 22% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate. Even while keeping runs off the board, Blewett has been hit fairly hard; the right-hander has surrendered an average exit velocity of 92.6 mph in the majors and seen nearly half (47.9%) of his opponents’ batted balls travel at 95 mph or more.

Blewett pitched well for the Twins’ Triple-A club in 2024, logging a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 innings. That’s the most success he’s had in the upper minors, however. The big 6’6″ righty has pitched in parts of five Triple-A seasons between the Royals, White Sox and Twins systems but been roughed up for a 6.93 ERA in 219 1/3 innings there. In addition to those stints, Blewett had a half-season run with the Braves’ Double-A club in 2023 and also pitched for the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League that year, recording a 3.95 ERA in 41 innings overseas.

Gonzalez, 33, hasn’t pitched in a Triple-A game since April 8. The Orioles placed him on the minor league injured list on April 11 but did not publicly disclose the exact nature of his ailment. It’s not currently clear how long he’ll be sidelined. However, injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, meaning Gonzalez is all but certain to end up being placed on release waivers. The O’s can renegotiate a minor league deal with him at that point if they wish, but he’ll have the chance to talk to the league’s other 29 clubs in that scenario.

Baltimore selected Gonzalez to the 40-man roster last November rather than risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s a true journeyman — a former Phillies signee who has also spent time in the Giants’ system in addition to pitching in Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and even Italy’s top league. Gonzalez spent the 2024 season with the O’s after signing a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason. He pitched 60 innings out of the bullpen in Triple-A Norfolk, working to a pedestrian 4.50 earned run average but showing a far more interesting 28.9% strikeout rate against a similarly intriguing 4.9% walk rate.

Gonzalez can be placed on release waivers or traded at any point in the next five days.

Twins Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Twins announced that right-hander Scott Blewett has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for left-hander Kody Funderburk, who was called up from Triple-A.

Blewett’s minor league deal was selected to Minnesota’s roster earlier this week, and the righty made a good accounting for himself by allowing one run over 4 2/3 relief innings, while striking out five of 19 batters faced and allowing no walks in his two appearances.  Today’s transaction simply seems to be about getting a fresh arm into the Twins pen, since Blewett tossed 36 pitches over 2 1/3 innings in yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the Tigers.

Blewett now has a 1.80 ERA over 25 big league innings for Minnesota over the last two seasons, though the strong bottom-line results haven’t earned him any kind of roster stability.  The Twins twice outrighted him off the 40-man roster in 2024, with Blewett both times clearing waivers and electing free agency, only to resign with the club on a new minors contract.  Assuming Blewett clears waivers again, the same scenario could play out this time around, though a team in need of some swingman help could consider putting in a claim.

The return to the big leagues and then to DFA limbo has made for quite the birthday week for Blewett, who turned 29 on Thursday.  Blewett is out of minor league options, so the Twins had no choice but to pursue the DFA/outright route in order to try and send him to Triple-A.  Blewett has worked only as a reliever over his 33 career MLB innings, but he has a lot of experience as a starter in the minors and during a brief stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2023.

Twins Select Scott Blewett, Designate Darren McCaughan For Assignment

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The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Scott Blewett. To make room for him on both the active and 40-man rosters, fellow righty Darren McCaughan has been designated for assignment.

McCaughan, 29, is a swingman who was selected to the Minnesota roster a week ago. On March 30, starter Bailey Ober only lasted 2 2/3 innings as he pitched through an illness, which led to Randy Dobnak covering 5 1/3 frames in relief. After that yeoman’s work, Dobnak was going to be unavailable for a few days, so the Twins swapped in McCaughan and designated Dobnak for assignment.

This move also seems to be motivated by notable innings going to the bullpen. In this case, it wasn’t just one guy. The Twins lost a heartbreaker yesterday, falling 9-7 to the Astros in ten innings, a game in which they were leading from the bottom of the first to the top of the ninth. Starter Chris Paddack had only gone four innings, so the club used seven relievers the rest of the way, including McCaughan. They also used five relievers on Saturday, leaving the overall group fairly taxed.

That has all led to McCaughan getting bumped off the 40-man. He performed well in his brief stint on the roster, tossing 5 1/3 innings over three appearances. He allowed one earned run while striking out six batters and issuing just one walk.

That’s obviously a small sample and the overall body of work is less impressive. He has a 6.02 ERA in 61 1/3 innings in his big league career. He is out of options, so his grip on a roster spot was likely tenuous even before the Minnesota pitching staff was ground into dust over the weekend. The Twins will now have to trade him or put him on waivers in the coming days. He has a previous career outright, so he will have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through waivers unclaimed.

The Twins don’t have another off-day until the 17th, so keeping the bullpen healthy enough to survive is going to be a challenge. For now, they’ve added one fresh arm in Blewett. A few days from his 29th birthday, Blewett has 28 1/3 innings of major league experience, most of that coming with the Twins last year. His 2.22 ERA looks quite nice in that small sample but his 21.3% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate are both subpar numbers. He’s been helped by an 86.4% strand rate, a very fortunate number, which is likely why his 3.84 FIP and 4.43 SIERA are far higher.

He was outrighted off the Twins’ roster at the end of last year and elected free agency but re-signed on a minor league deal. He had a 2.79 ERA in Spring Training but was sent to Triple-A to start the year. He allowed three earned runs in 2 1/3 innings for the Saints to open the campaign.

Blewett has mostly been working in relief this year but has done plenty of starting and long relief work in his minor league career. Given that he’s out of options and the Twins don’t have another off-day for more than a week, it’s possible they will lean on him for a few innings in what could be a short stay on the roster.

Photo courtesy of Chris Tilley, Imagn Images

Mickey Gasper, DaShawn Keirsey Make Twins’ Roster; Twins Exploring Bullpen Market

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March 25: Castellano has cleared waivers and been returned to the Phillies, per Nightengale.

March 24: The Twins optioned infielder/outfielder Austin Martin to Triple-A St. Paul this morning, per a team announcement. They’ve also informed catcher/infielder Mickey Gasper and outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. that they’ll break camp on the Opening Day roster, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. That sequence likely locks infielder Edouard Julien into the final spot on the position-player side of the roster.

Gasper, 29, came to the Twins in a December trade sending lefty reliever Jovani Moran back to the Red Sox. He has just 18 MLB plate appearances to his credit, but Gasper is a .317/.422/.498 hitter in 70 Triple-A games and a .276/.401/.455 batter in 176 Double-A games. He’s had a big camp, batting .308/.417/.487 with more walks than strikeouts. Gasper’s status was briefly up in the air after an infield collision yesterday resulted in a laceration on his ankle that required six stitches. He’s patched up and been cleared to start the season on a big league roster for the first time in an eight-year professional career.

Like Gasper, the 27-year-old Keirsey is a 2018 draftee who’s making his first Opening Day roster. He hit .275/.375/.375 this spring and is coming off a .300/.368/.476 performance in Triple-A last year. Keirsey is a plus runner and outfield defender who can handle all three slots. He made a brief big league debut last year, getting into six games and going 2-for-13 with a homer in that debut effort.

The pitching side is largely set, but Minnesota does appear to have one bullpen vacancy, at least in the short term. Righty Brock Stewart was already on the mend from arthroscopic shoulder surgery and also suffered a hamstring strain in camp. He’ll start the 2025 season on the injured list alongside Michael Tonkin, who’s dealing with a shoulder strain.

On top of Stewart’s injury, the Twins have already informed Rule 5 pick Eiberson Castellano that he won’t make the club. He’ll presumably be placed on waivers soon if he hasn’t been already. Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune adds that they’ve also told non-roster relievers Scott Blewett and Anthony Misiewicz that they won’t make the club. Both will head to Triple-A.

Both Nightengale and Dan Hayes of The Athletic suggest Minnesota could look to bring in a reliever who’s not currently a part of the organization. There’s space to place a waiver claim or scoop up a veteran who’d been a non-roster invitee with another club but has since opted out. Jalen Beeks, Adam Ottavino, Drew Pomeranz, Ross Stripling and Jake Woodford are among the names who were recently granted their release after triggering opt-out clauses. Righty Tyler Phillips was DFA by the Phillies over the weekend, too.

Twins Re-Sign Scott Blewett, Yunior Severino To Minor League Deals

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The Twins have signed right-hander Scott Blewett and first baseman Yunior Severino to minor league deals, according to the club’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. Both players were just outrighted by the Twins a couple of weeks ago before electing free agency. They’ll rejoin the organization as depth options now.

This is the second straight offseason Blewett, 28, has signed a minor league deal with Minnesota. He pitched well both in Triple-A and in the majors for the Twins last season. He logged a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 frames with the Twins’ Triple-A club St. Paul, fanning 22.7% of his opponents against a tidy 7.1% walk rate. When the Twins summoned the former Royals hurler to the big leagues, he responded with 20 1/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball. Blewett’s strikeout and walk rates were more pedestrian than that sparkling ERA, and metrics like FIP (4.00) and SIERA (4.05) felt he had a fair bit of good fortune, largely coming in the form of a 90.5% strand rate he’s not likely to sustain.

The 25-year-old Severino once ranked among the Twins’ top 10 prospects but has seen his stock drop as pronounced contact issues have persisted. He socked 35 homers between Double-A and Triple-A as recently as 2023 but fanned in nearly a third of his plate appearances that year. He dropped that strikeout rate to a still-alarming 27.8% in Triple-A this year but also saw his power output decline along with his strikeout rate; he hit just 21 homers while his ISO (slugging minus batting average) plummeted from .274 to .180.

In addition to the contact concerns, Severino is also a player without a clear defensive home. The former middle infielder has slid down the defensive spectrum as he’s filled out. He’s now primarily a first baseman and not considered to be a strong defender there. He’s also a below-average runner. Still, there’s clearly impressive raw power in Severino’s bat, and he’ll get another look in Triple-A at a time when the Twins’ first base situation is in flux. Carlos Santana became a free agent at season’s end, and former top prospect Alex Kirilloff surprisingly retired at just 26 years of age following a pair of wrist surgeries, a major shoulder surgery and a back injury that have resulted in him spending more time on the injured list than on active rosters in the past four seasons.

Twins Re-Sign Daniel Duarte To Minor League Deal; Three Others Elect Free Agency

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The Twins quickly re-signed right-hander Daniel Duarte to a minor league contract after passing him through outright waivers, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Three other players who were outrighted elected free agency, including right-hander Scott Blewett and former top prospects Josh Winder and Yunior Severino.

Duarte, 28 next month, bounced from the Rangers to the Reds to the Twins via the DFA circuit last winter but wound up sticking in Minnesota and getting an early-season look after a nice showing in 12 1/3 spring training innings (2.92 ERA, 12 strikeouts, no walks). He made two appearances in the season’s first week, tossing a total of four innings and allowing one run with three strikeouts and a walk, but Duarte hit the injured list with an elbow issue shortly thereafter. A month later, it was announced that he’d require season-ending elbow surgery.

Duarte has pitched 38 1/3 innings in the majors and turned in a 3.99 ERA, albeit with a sub-par 17% strikeout rate and a bleak 14.5% walk rate. Duarte showed considerably better command in his brief look with the Twins, however, walking just one of the 61 batters he faced between spring training and the regular season. He also flashed a heater that averaged 96.1 mph. It’s a small sample, obviously, but if any of the gains in command prove sustainable, Duarte is fairly intriguing as a mid-20s reliever with a strong fastball and a career 47.3% grounder rate. On a minor league flier, he’s a sensible depth add.

Blewett came to the Twins on a minor league deal last offseason and wound up pitching well both in Triple-A and the majors. The former Royal logged a 3.79 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 54 2/3 innings with the Twins’ Triple-A club in St. Paul and added another 20 1/3 MLB frames with a 1.77 ERA. His strikeout and walk rates were both worse than average, however, and he benefited from a 90.5% strand rate that isn’t sustainable over a longer sample. Even with some expected regression, fielding-independent metrics felt he was a solid arm (4.00 FIP, 4.05 SIERA).

Winder, 28, once ranked comfortably within the Twins’ top 10 prospects and even drew some top-100 fanfare back in 2022, placing 78th on FanGraphs’ rankings. The 2018 seventh-rounder raced through the minors with standout showings in 2019 and 2021. However, a series of shoulder injuries has regularly set the 6’5″ hurler back. He’s posted a respectable 4.39 ERA in 110 2/3 MLB frames, fanning a below-average 18% of opponents against a sharp 7% walk rate. He’s also been on the injured list four times since 2022, owing to a shoulder impingement, shoulder strain (twice) and a stress fracture in his shoulder.

Severino, 25, once ranked as highly as tenth among Twins farmhands at Baseball America. He belted 35 homers between Double-A and Triple-A as recently as 2023 but did so with an alarming 32.8% strikeout rate. He cut back a bit in 2024, fanning in 27.6% of his plate appearances, but also saw a downturn in power, with 21 round-trippers on the season. Severino is a .249/.337/.450 hitter in two Triple-A seasons. He clearly has plus raw power but is a below-average defender and runner whose longstanding strikeout issues still remain problematic.

Twins Outright Five Players

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The Twins have outrighted right-handers Scott Blewett, Randy Dobnak, Josh Winder, and Daniel Duarte as well as first baseman Yunior Severino off their 40-man roster, as noted by Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune. While none of the quintet were previously announced as having been designated for assignment, all five has cleared waivers and been sent outright to the minors. The club also triggered a $1.5MM club option for right-hander Jorge Alcalá, per Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic on X.

Today is a big roster churn day, as the 60-day injured list goes away and doesn’t come back until spring training. Since players on the 60-day IL don’t count against a club’s 40-man roster count, this leads to roster crunches around the league. As such, the Twins have removed five players from the roster and passed them through waivers.

Dobnak has been passed through waivers a couple of times before, a reflection of his contract and service time status. Going into 2021, he and the Twins agreed to a five-year, $9.25MM extension but his results failed to live up to that deal. Players need to have at least five years of service to both reject an outright assignment and keep all the remaining money on their contracts. Dobnak was and is well shy of that, meaning he has continually turned down chances to elect free agency, allowing him to keep collecting his paychecks on the deal. That is likely how this will play out. He got back to the big leagues this year for the first time since 2021 but posted a 5.59 earned run average over his five outings, bringing his career ERA up to 4.99.

Blewett, 29 in April, signed a minor league deal with the Twins in the winter and ultimately tossed 20 1/3 innings for them with a 1.77 ERA. However, he wasn’t going to continue stranding 90.5% of baserunners, which is why his FIP was 4.00 and his SIERA was 4.05 for the year. He has been outrighted before in his career so he has the right to elect free agency.

Winder, 28, was drafted by the Twins and has been on the roster since November of 2021. Since then, he has tossed 110 2/3 innings with a 4.39 ERA, 18% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 37.2% ground ball rate.

Duarte, 28 next month, was claimed off waivers in the offseason and made two appearances for the Twins this season before requiring season-ending elbow surgery. His timeline for returning to play is not currently clear. He has a previous career outright and is therefore eligible to elect free agency.

Severino, 25, was added to the club’s 40-man roster a year ago to keep him out of the 2023 Rule 5 draft. He put up a solid line of .254/.342/.434 in Triple-A this year but the offensive environment was strong in the International League this year, leading that to translate to a roughly league average wRC+ of 101.

As for Alcalá, he and the Twins avoided arbitration last year by agreeing to a $790K salary with a $1.5MM club option for 2025 that came with a $55K buyout. He went on to toss 58 1/3 innings for the Twins this year with a 3.24 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. Based on that performance, MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Alcalá to get a raise to $1.7MM through the abr process. The Twins have instead gone for the lower price of the club option to bring him back next year.

Twins Designate Steven Okert, Select Scott Blewett

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The Twins announced that left-hander Steven Okert was designated for assignment.  The move was made to create space on the 26-man and 40-man rosters for right-hander Scott Blewett, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A St. Paul.

Acquired from the Marlins for Nick Gordon back in February, Okert’s first (and potentially only) season in Minnesota has been inconsistent.  He had a 3.20 ERA in his first 25 1/3 innings and 29 appearances, but has since stumbled to a 9.90 ERA over his last 10 frames and 15 games.  The lowlight was a four-run implosion over one-third of an inning pitched in the Twins’ 7-5 loss to the Padres last Tuesday, though Okert did bounce back with two scoreless innings two subsequent appearances.

Okert’s 20.6% strikeout rate is the second-worst of his seven-year MLB career, and his longtime issues with control have continued in the form of a 10% walk rate.  While his hard-hit ball rate is one of the league’s best, his barrel rate is below average, resulting in six home runs allowed.  Okert has long been a fly-ball pitcher, and thus problems have arisen whenever he has been unable to keep the ball in the park.

As The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman recently observed, Okert has been hit hard in high-leverage and even medium-leverage situations this season, leaving the Twins in a tough spot whenever they’ve had to call on Okert in any beyond mop-up duty.  Okert had pretty even career splits heading into 2024, but right-handed batters have torched him for a .984 OPS over 95 plate appearances this season (while lefty swingers have only a .564 OPS in 65 PA).

While the three-batter minimum has ended the days of the true lefty specialist, Okert’s splits could be enough for a reliever-needy team to consider a waiver claim, if this team thinks it can either fix his issues against right-handed batters or simply do a better job of shielding him facing righty swingers.  Okert is in his first season of arbitration eligibility is playing on a $1,062,500 salary, so picking up the last five weeks’ worth of that salary represents a pretty minimal hit to a new clubs’s payroll.

Because Okert has previously been outrighted in his career, he has the right to reject an outright assignment from the Twins if he clears waivers, and then opt into free agency.  Okert is out of minor league options so the Twins had to DFA Okert before attempting to move him to Triple-A, and it could be that the two sides have an agreement in place about Okert accepting an assignment (if he clears waivers) and biding his time in St. Paul until a fresh arm is again needed in the big league bullpen.

Blewett faced a somewhat similar scenario when Minnesota designated him for assignment last week, as Blewett rejected an outright after clearing waivers, but then quickly re-signed with the Twins after first testing free agency.  The right-hander first signed a minor league contract with the Twins back in January, and his time on the big league roster consists of a single game — a scoreless inning on August 12 in the Twins’ 8-3 win over the Royals.  At Triple-A this season, Blewett has a 3.79 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate, with a .340 BABIP inflating his bottom-line numbers to some extent.

Prior to his lone game with the Twins, Blewett’s MLB resume consisted of eight innings over five appearances with Kansas City during the 2020-21 seasons.  During the 2022-23 seasons, Blewett pitched in the minors with the White Sox and Braves, plus he spent time abroad pitching in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.  It could be that this latest call-up will result in just another “cup of coffee” type of cameo for Blewett, but he’ll get some opportunity to show what he can do for a contending Twins club.

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