Twins Rumors

Michael A. Taylor Announces Retirement

By Darragh McDonald | September 28, 2025 at 1:20pm CDT

White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor announced his retirement to members of the media today, ahead of the Sox facing the Nationals in Washington, a place he played for many years. “To be able to play my last games of my career here in this ballpark in front of these fans, it’s just the icing on the cake,” Taylor said, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He is in the lineup for the Sox today, playing center field and batting ninth, in what will be his final game.

Taylor, now 34, was a sixth-round pick of the Nationals back in 2009. He was a shortstop at that time, considered to be raw but in possession of some elite tools. He was moved to the outfield and quickly showed the potential to be a strong defender. He also showed more pop with the bat as he climbed the ladder, hitting 23 homers in the minors in 2014.

Going into 2015, he was considered to be one of the top 100 prospects in the game. Baseball America gave him the #32 spot, MLB Pipeline had him at #42, Baseball Prospectus at #57 and ESPN at #71. FanGraphs was a bit more bearish, putting him at #133 on their top 200 list.

Taylor had already made a brief major league debut in 2014 but got more properly established in 2015. He got into 138 games for the Nats, popping 14 homers and stealing 16 bags, but his overall value was held back by subpar walk and strikeout rates of 6.8% and 30.9%. Over his career, he would have his ups and downs, but his contributions mostly took that shape. He could put the ball over the fence, track it down with his glove and swipe some bags, but the plate discipline was never good.

Despite his flaws, he was a useful player for the Nats during their best stretch in Washington. The club finished above .500 in each season from 2012 to 2019, making the playoffs in five of those eight seasons. Those clubs featured stars like Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Anthony Rendon and others, but Taylor often played a solid supporting role.

In 2019, Taylor spent a decent chunk of the year in the minors, only getting into 53 big league games with one home run. But he took on a more prominent role at just the right time. As the Nats made a miracle charge through the postseason, Taylor got into eight of the club’s playoff contests. He clinched Game Five of the NLDS over the Dodgers with a diving catch, as seen in this video from MLB.com. He also slashed .333/.391/.619 in his 23 plate appearances as the Nats eventually went on to win the World Series.

More to come.

Luke Keaschall Weighing Thumb Surgery

By Anthony Franco | September 24, 2025 at 9:55pm CDT

Twins rookie infielder Luke Keaschall is weighing surgery to address a left thumb injury, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Dan Hayes of The Athletic and Matthew Leach of MLB.com). That decision will be made after Keaschall visits a specialist next week.

Keaschall jammed his thumb diving into second base on a steal during last night’s win in Texas. He exited the game and went for imaging this morning. The Twins haven’t officially placed him on the injured list, but there’s no reason to have him playing through pain for their final few games against the Rangers and Phillies. Ryan Fitzgerald drew into the lineup at second base tonight.

The 23-year-old Keaschall is one of Minnesota’s most promising players. A second-round pick in 2023, Keaschall hit at every minor league stop. The Twins called him up in the middle of April. He got out to a strong start to his MLB career when a Kyle Hendricks pitch broke his right arm in his seventh game. Keaschall was out of action until early August, at which point the team had fallen out of contention and sold off much of the roster.

Keaschall picked up where he left off once he returned from the forearm injury. He slashed .294/.359/.436 with four homers and 11 doubles over his final 181 plate appearances. The righty hitter struck out in fewer than 15% of his trips, continuing the plus contact ability he’d shown against minor league pitching. Keaschall didn’t post huge exit velocities, but he has shown an impressive understanding of the strike zone for any hitter, especially a rookie.

That should be enough to have a hold on the Opening Day second base job. The Twins will presumably provide more specifics on his recovery timeline and offseason plan once he makes the official decision on whether to undergo surgery. Keaschall’s promotion came a little too late in the season for him to get a full service year. Minnesota controls him for six seasons after this one.

Twins Place Pablo Lopez On 15-Day Injured List

By Nick Deeds | September 20, 2025 at 8:00pm CDT

The Twins placed right-hander Pablo Lopez on the 15-day injured list today due to a right forearm strain. Right-hander Mick Abel was recalled to replace Lopez on the active roster. With just over a week left in the 2025 campaign and Minnesota completely out of the playoff picture, the move to the injured list ends Lopez’s season.

Lopez, 29, finishes the year having been limited to just 14 starts by injuries. After a short stint on the shelf due to a hamstring strain in April, Lopez went on to miss three months over the summer due to a shoulder strain before this forearm strain brought his season to a close. When healthy enough to take the field, Lopez was effective as ever with a 2.74 ERA and 3.20 FIP across his 75 2/3 innings of work. His strikeout rate of 23.4% was a little bit lower than recent years but still only a tick below his career norms, and a 6.4% walk rate is a near perfect match for his career 6.3% rate.

That Lopez has looked more or less the same in terms of production despite all of those injuries should be reassuring for the Twins as they enter an uncertain offseason following a massive sell-off that seemingly plunged them into what could be a protracted rebuild. With two years and $43.5MM left on Lopez’s contract, he would surely be an attractive trade chip to market over the offseason if the Twins want to further focus on loading up with young talent for the future. If he had pitched poorly when on the mound this year, getting much value for Lopez might not on the table for this winter, and they’d have to either sell low on him or hold him into the 2026 season.

Of course, it’s still entirely possible they hold onto Lopez for the time being. It’s not impossible to imagine some teams balking at paying a premium for Lopez’s services with so many injury woes on his resume this season, and today’s news of a forearm strain won’t help those concerns. If teams are wary of Lopez’s health, perhaps Minnesota will decide to hold onto him and hope for better health in 2026. With that being said, the strain appears to be rather mild. Dan Hayes of The Athletic relays that there is “no concern” regarding Lopez’s elbow or UCL, and that the strain is mild enough that he would’ve likely avoided the IL entirely had the Twins still been in the race for the postseason. That description of the injury sounds minor enough that it likely shouldn’t change a team’s evaluation of Lopez significantly, which is good news for the Twins if they hope to make the right-hander available this offseason.

Of course, if the Twins decide to pivot away from what looks like it could be the start of a rebuild and instead try to augment the club with an eye towards contention in 2026, Lopez will be a key piece of that team alongside other core pieces like Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan. While that trio is some of the only certainty that Twins have at this point, they have very little money on the books after dumping Carlos Correa’s contract to Houston and could have some considerable upside if young players like Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee manage to step into larger roles next year.

AL Central Notes: Tigers, Morton, Lugo, Bergert, Wallner

By Mark Polishuk | September 20, 2025 at 8:55am CDT

A year after reaching the playoffs due to a late-season surge, the Tigers are now facing an opposite scenario in 2025. The scorching-hot Guardians are on an eight-game winning streak and have won 13 of their last 14 games, while Detroit has lost seven of its last eight games — including a three-game sweep at home against the Guards. The Tigers’ AL Central lead shrunk to just 2.5 games after a 10-1 loss to the Braves on Friday, as starter Charlie Morton was torched for six runs in just 1 1/3 innings.

Acquired from the Orioles at the trade deadline, Morton has an 11.65 ERA over his last five starts, and a 7.09 overall ERA across his 39 1/3 innings in a Detroit uniform. Speaking with the Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold and other reporters yesterday, Morton was at a loss to explain his sudden inability to throw strikes, and said “I’m personally really disappointed in myself.” Given these struggles, Morton is “not expecting anything” in terms of another turn in the rotation, and manager A.J. Hinch was also non-committal on the subject.

The problem with removing Morton from the rotation is that the Tigers don’t have a ready-made replacement. Chris Paddack was already moved to the bullpen due to his own struggles, Jose Uriquidy is pitching in relief after his long injury layoff, Troy Melton or Tyler Holton are more long men than true starters, and Sawyer Gipson-Long is on the 15-day injured list. The Tigers could use some combination of all the healthy pitchers in this season’s version of their “Pitching Chaos” tactic, yet there are no easy answers in what has suddenly become a very tense pennant race.

Twins Make Cuts To Scouting Department

By Darragh McDonald | September 18, 2025 at 5:15pm CDT

The Twins have eliminated four of the five jobs on their pro scouting staff, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Ken Compton, John Manuel, Keith Stohr and Jose Marzan will not have their contracts renewed at the end of the current season. That will leave Wesley Wright as the club’s lone remaining pro scout.

As Hayes mentions in the article, cutting down on pro scouts is a league-wide trend. He uses the Cubs as an example, linking to a November 2024 article from Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic detailing that club’s move to more analytics and less reliance on traditional scouting. Hayes writes that the Twins, like the Cubs, have been relying more on video in recent years with far less travel for in-person scouting.

However, even in that example, the Cubs dropped their pro scouting department to seven employees. That’s more than the five the Twins had this year, before dropping down to just one individual going forward.

The decision to rely more on analytics and less on scouting is one that is often debated in baseball circles, going back at least to the Moneyball days and surely even beyond that. However, Hayes says the Twins scaling back the department is about cutting costs, which is potentially ominous for the club’s future.

Money has been hovering around the Twins in many ways recently. The club’s regional sports network deal with Diamond Sports Group, now known as Main Street Sports, was not renewed after 2024. That left Major League Baseball in charge of the club’s broadcasting in 2025. Those league-run arrangements are believed to give clubs less revenue than a healthy RSN agreement.

Regardless, the club came into 2025 hoping to contend and they did so for a while. The Twins were in the playoff race for the early months of the current season but fell out of the race as the trade deadline approached. Many expected that the club would trade impending free agents with the goal of contending again in 2026 but the sell-off ended up being more notable than anticipated. In addition to the impending free agents, they also sold controllable players like Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax.

From a financial point of view, the most notable trade was the one sending Carlos Correa to the Astros. Though the Twins ate some money in the swap, they moved the majority of his contract off the long-term books. He was owed approximately $103.4MM through 2028 at the time of that trade, with the Twins staying on the hook for $33MM of that. There were more marginal financial notes as well. For instance, the Twins included Randy Dobnak in the deal sending Chris Paddack to the Tigers, which was seemingly to save them the roughly $2MM still owed to Dobnak.

A couple of weeks after the deadline was another notable development. The Pohlad family, which had been pursuing a sale of the franchise, decided to take the club off the market. They were looking for about $1.7 billion, though reportedly were carrying over $425MM in debt. They didn’t seem to find anyone willing to meet their asking price and instead sold minority stakes to a pair of new parties. The infusion of cash from selling those stakes to the new partners will reportedly help pay down the debt somewhat, though it’s unclear to what degree. Hayes notes that the new owners haven’t yet been officially approved by Major League Baseball.

Going into the winter, it’s not confirmed which direction the club will go for the 2026 season. They did target a lot of MLB-ready talent at the deadline, including players like James Outman, Alan Roden, Mick Abel and Taj Bradley. That arguably points to the club hoping to remain relevant next year but the continued penny pinching doesn’t bode well.

If further cost-cutting is a priority, that presumably increases the chances of players like Pablo López or Joe Ryan being made available this winter. López is making $21.5MM annually through 2027. Trading him could be big savings for the Twins but would still have plenty of appeal for other clubs. Ryan is even more of a bargain as he’s still in his arbitration years. He is making just $3MM this year and will be owed a raise in the two coming campaigns before he’s slated to reach free agency after 2027.

Players like Ryan Jeffers, Bailey Ober, Trevor Larnach and Royce Lewis are also in their arb years and could be candidates for cost-cutting moves if that’s the road the Twins go down. Byron Buxton is the club’s other significant salary commitment, next to López, though he has a no-trade clause and has said he would like to remain a Twin for life.

Photo courtesy of Brad Rempel, Imagn Images

Twins Outright Brooks Kriske

By Darragh McDonald | September 12, 2025 at 6:50pm CDT

Right-hander Brooks Kriske has been sent outright to Triple-A St. Paul, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week. Since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to elect free agency, though the log doesn’t indicate he will exercise that right.

Kriske, 31, was claimed off waivers from the Cubs in early August. The Twins had just traded away Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe at the deadline and needed some extra arms.

Between that claim and being designated for assignment, Kriske threw 12 innings for the Twins, allowing 15 earned runs. He has a 7.50 earned run average on the year, between his time with the Cubs and Twins. That makes it fairly unsurprising that no one claimed him this time.

Though he made his major league debut back in 2020, his big league track record is still fairly small, with a 9.53 ERA in 39 2/3 innings. He had some decent results in Japan in 2022 and 2023, tossing 35 innings with a 2.31 ERA. He has also generally had decent results in Triple-A, with a 3.81 ERA, 36.3% strikeout rate and 12.1% walk rate in 148 2/3 innings dating back to 2021.

If he accepts the assignment, he can make a few more Triple-A appearances before the winter and then could elect free agency at season’s end. Though he could also exercise his right to elect free agency now and start the offseason early if he so chooses.

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images

David Festa Dealing With Compressed Nerve Injury

By Darragh McDonald | September 12, 2025 at 4:05pm CDT

September 12th: Festa tells Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune that his issue is related to a compressed nerve and not typical thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms. He expects to be fine for spring training.

September 10th: Twins right-hander David Festa has been on the injured list since late July due to shoulder inflammation. Head trainer Nick Paparesta tells Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that noted surgeon Dr. Keith Meister believes Festa has neurological thoracic outlet syndrome. Festa is going to see another doctor and a formal plan will be mapped out after that.

It’s a potentially ominous diagnosis as thoracic outlet syndrome can significantly alter the course of a pitcher’s career. Back in 2023, Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post did a thorough examination of the condition, noting that there are two distinct varieties.

One type is known as venous or vascular TOS. While this is a serious medical condition often involving life-threatening blood clots, it seems to have less long-term impacts in terms of throwing a baseball. Merrill Kelly is the poster boy for recovering from this type of TOS surgery. Kelly went under the knife in 2020 but has since made 132 starts with a 3.59 earned run average. Zack Wheeler of the Phillies recently had a blood clot removed and was recommended for venous TOS surgery.

The second type of TOS is neurogenic, which seems to have a larger impact on throwing ability. Paparesta used the word “neurological” to describe Festa’s TOS, but it’s possible he meant neurogenic. Stephen Strasburg, Chris Archer and Matt Harvey are some of the most famous example of pitchers who were diagnosed with neurogenic TOS and never really seemed to be the same.

Strasburg was one of the best pitchers over the previous decade. He capped things off with an excellent 2019 season. He gave the Nationals 209 innings that year with a 3.32 ERA. He then added another 36 1/3 innings in the postseason with a 1.98 ERA, leading the Nats to a World Series title, winning himself World Series MVP in the process. But nerve issues popped up after that. He underwent TOS surgery in 2021. His repeated attempts to get back on the mound didn’t work. He only made eight appearances after the 2019 season and eventually retired.

Archer tossed 882 1/3 innings over the 2015 to 2019 seasons with a 4.05 ERA and 27.8% strikeout rate. He underwent TOS surgery in 2020. After that, he logged 122 innings with a 4.57 ERA and 20.2% strikeout rate. Harvey had a 2.53 ERA and 26.6% strikeout rate through his first 427 innings but then had TOS surgery in 2016. In the final 446 2/3 innings of his career, he had a 6.15 ERA and 17% strikeout rate.

Festa entered 2024 as one of the top prospects in the league. He made his major league debut last year, tossing 64 1/3 innings for the Twins. His 4.90 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but he struck out 27.8% of batters faced with an 8.3% walk rate.

This year, he has been shuttled back and forth between the majors and minors. He missed much of May, while on optional assignment, due to biceps inflammation. He was placed on the major league IL in July due to shoulder inflammation. Around those transactions and injuries, he has made 11 big league appearances with a 5.40 ERA but decent strikeout and walk rates of 23.1% and 8.3% respectively. He also posted a 2.59 ERA in seven Triple-A starts.

It was reported earlier this month that Festa had a setback and would not be returning this year, with the next step being a visit to Dr. Meister. Further information on Festa’s status will undoubtedly be coming out in the future. He has not yet been moved to the 60-day IL as the Twins only have 37 guys on their 40-man roster. If they fill those spots in the remainder of the season, Festa could eventually be moved to the 60-day IL to open another.

The Minnesota rotation has changed shape in recent months. The club fell in the standings and pivoted to sell mode. They sent out impending free agent Chris Paddack but also brought in young, controllable guys like Taj Bradley and Mick Abel, as well as prospect Kendry Rojas. Some have speculated that they will continue selling this winter, including making guys like Pablo López or Joe Ryan available. Time will tell whether that’s a realistic possibility or not. For now, the 2026 rotation mix includes those guys as well as Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson and Zebby Matthews.

Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images

Twins Select Cody Laweryson

By Darragh McDonald | September 12, 2025 at 2:45pm CDT

The Twins announced that right-hander Justin Topa has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left oblique strain, retroactive to September 9th. Fellow righty Cody Laweryson has been selected to take Topa’s place on the roster. The Twins had just 37 men on their 40-man, so no other corresponding move is required as this brings their count up to 38.

It’s unclear how serious Topa’s injury is but this presumably ends his season. Even with the backdating of the move, he could only come back for the final few days of the schedule. With the Twins buried in the standings, there’s not much motivation for him to rush back. Assuming he’s done, he finishes the year with a 3.90 earned run average in 60 innings. His 18.3% strikeout rate was subpar but his 6.7% walk rate and 47.7% ground ball rate were good figures.

The Twins will have to decide whether or not to trigger a $2MM club option for 2026 or go for a $225K buyout. Even if they go for the buyout, they could still keep Topa for next year via arbitration. Assuming they want Topa back next year, the decision would simply come down to which path they expect to be cheaper.

His injury allows Laweryson to get up to the majors for the first time. Now 27, Laweryson was drafted with a 14th-round pick back in 2019. He worked both as a starter and a reliever as he climbed the minor league ladder but has been working exclusively out of the bullpen in recent years.

On the most recent FanGraphs list of top prospects in the system, Laweryson got an honorable mention, with the report noting that his deception helps him get better results than one would expect from his middling stuff. He has thrown 44 innings this year between Double-A and Triple-A with a 2.86 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 46.3% ground ball rate. Laweryson will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. Since this is his first time cracking a big league roster, he has a full slate of options.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Twins Place Ryan Jeffers On 7-Day IL, Designate Brooks Kriske

By Mark Polishuk | September 7, 2025 at 8:55am CDT

The Twins announced that catcher Ryan Jeffers has been placed (retroactive to September 5) on the seven-day injured list for concussion-related injuries. Right-hander Brooks Kriske was designated for assignment in another move, and the two open roster spots will be filled by Triple-A call-ups Pierson Ohl and Carson McCusker.

Jeffers hasn’t played since he left Thursday’s game after taking a foul ball off his mask. The move to the seven-day IL will allow him at least a full week to recover from any lingering symptoms, and gives the Twins a bit of roster flexibility so they aren’t short-handed behind the plate. Jhonny Pereda was already called up from Triple-A on Friday, and Pereda and Mickey Gasper will assume catching duties while Jeffers is sidelined.

One of the few experienced Twins players that wasn’t dealt at the trade deadline, Jeffers has hit .262/.353/.394 with nine home runs over 442 plate appearances this season. This translates to a 111 wRC+, which ranks Jeffers sixth of the 10 catchers who have played enough in 2025 to count as qualified hitters. Jeffers’ power has dropped rather sharply over the last two seasons, yet the 2025 campaign has seen the backstop post career bests in both strikeout and walk rates.

It was just over a month ago that Kriske was claimed off the Cubs’ waiver wire, as Minnesota was looking to add some arms to a bullpen depleted by the team’s many deadline moves. Unfortunately, Kriske’s brief time in the Twin Cities didn’t yield many positive results, as he was pounded to the tune of an 11.25 ERA over 12 innings, with almost as many walks (14) as strikeouts (15). The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman notes that Kriske posted the second-highest ERA of any Twins pitcher in franchise history with at least 10 innings pitched.

Kriske probably won’t get a chance to improve on his standing, if he is released after clearing waivers. Because teams are always in need of pitching depth, there’s a chance he could be claimed off waivers again, though Kriske’s recent results may not drum up much interest. He also has a 9.56 ERA over 37 2/3 career innings in the majors, but the right-hander posted far better numbers during his minor league career and during a two-season stint in Japan in 2022-23. Since Kriske has been outrighted before, he has the right to reject another outright assignment if he clears waivers, and instead opt for free agency.

Twins Outright Noah Davis

By Steve Adams | September 5, 2025 at 11:34am CDT

The Twins announced Friday that they’ve passed right-hander Noah Davis through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A St. Paul. That’ll be the corresponding roster move for Pablo Lopez’s previously reported reinstatement from the 60-day injured list, which is now official.

Davis landed in Minnesota back in July, coming over from the Dodgers in a cash swap after he’d been designated for assignment. The 2018 eleventh-rounder made four short relief appearances for the Twins and allowed multiple runs in all of them. He’s been tagged for 22 runs in 11 innings between Minnesota and L.A. this season, further inflating the already unsightly 7.71 ERA he logged in parts of three seasons with the Rockies (51 1/3 innings).

Though Davis has been hit exceptionally hard in the majors, he has a more encouraging track record in the upper minors. He’s pitched 176 2/3 innings in Triple-A, logging a 4.79 ERA despite most of his time being spent in an exorbitantly hitter-friendly setting (Colorado’s Albuquerque club in the Pacific Coast League). Davis has pitched 43 1/3 innings between the Triple-A clubs for the Dodgers and Twins this year and turned in a solid 3.95 ERA with a strong 26.1% strikeout rate.

This is the second career outright for Davis — the Rockies outrighted him last September — which gives him the right to reject the assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, should he prefer to seek a change of scenery.

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