Twins Release Lewis Thorpe

The Twins have released left-handed pitcher Lewis Thorpe, per Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic.

A native of Australia, Thorpe was signed by the Twins in 2012 to a $500K signing bonus. He made his professional debut in 2013, at the age of 17. He was quickly considered one of the club’s better prospects, with Baseball America ranking him #7 in the system in 2014. He would stay on that list for another six years, oscillating between #11 and #19 through 2020.

However, Thorpe generally struggled in the upper levels of the minors as well as the majors. In 2019, he threw 96 1/3 innings in Triple-A. Despite strong strikeout and walk rates of 29.5% and 6.2%, his ERA was 4.58, thanks largely to the long ball. He logged 59 1/3 MLB innings over the three seasons from 2019 to 2021, with a 5.76 ERA, 17.6% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate.

As noted by Gleeman, he’s lost a few ticks off his velocity. Last year, various shoulder injuries limited him to just 38 total innings between the majors and the minors. When the club signed Chris Archer at the end of March, Thorpe went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to the minors. He made one Triple-A appearance this year, getting bombed to the tune of eight earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. After a decade in the Twins organization, Thorpe will now look for other opportunities and see if a change of scenery can perhaps get him back on track.