Twins Acquire Reliever Trevor Richards from Toronto Blue Jays for Minor Leaguer Jay Harry

[John Bonnes]

The Twins got their left-handed reliever. Only he's not left-handed. 

Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Twins have completed a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for reliever/opener Trevor Richards , per Dan Hayes of The Athletic. 

Richards is a seven-year veteran who is a classic “swing guy”; he started as starter, has moved to the bullpen, and has bounced through four teams as a classic eat-innings reliever, including working as a “opener” this season with the Blue Jays. His career ERA of 4.51 doesn’t inspire, nor does his 4.64 ERA this year. But he’s appealing because the right-hander has “reverse splits,” and has for his entire career. He'll be a free agent at the end of the season.

The Twins bullpen this year has been generally effective, relying on high-leverage arms like Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, and (recently) Jorge Alcalá or (previously) Brock Stewart to secure close games. But all of those pitchers are right-handed, and the three left-handed relievers in the Twins bullpen have been unreliable in close games. Richards is not left-handed, but his combination of pitches plays well versus left-handed hitters, which is who left-handed pitchers would usually face.

Richards is a pure two-pitch pitcher: high-rise fastball, and scroogie-style, fadeaway changeup. The vertical break difference between the two is almost two full feet. It’s akin to Jake Odorizzi, if Odo didn’t have a curveball or that cutter he learned in Minnesota. Richards is vulnerable in various ways, but the change has a whole bunch of spin on it, heavily pronated out of his hand, and it just disappears down and away from a lefty.

It can miss bats against righties, too, but when he misses with it, it gets hit hard. Lefties are .156/.256/.250 against him this year, but righties are .200/.294/.391, and almost 5% of plate appearances by a righty against him end in a homer. 

Jay Harry was a sixth-round draft pick of the Twins in the 2023 draft. The 22-year-old infielder played this year in High-A Cedar Rapids and has posted a .655 OPS in 340 plate appearances. He is not one of Twins Daily's Top 20 Twins Prospects. To make room for Richards, Josh Staumont was designated for assignment, putting an end to one bargain-basement reliever experiment so as to begin another.

 

Injuries and control issues marred Staumont's brief stay in Twins Territory. Richards is only a small upgrade over him, but with the team's lefty relievers scuffling so badly, the matchup value proved to be the tiebreaker.

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[chpettit19]

Reverse splits are not appealing when they lead to an overall bad reliever. I don't see how this move raises the ceiling on the 2024 Twins in any way at all. Feels like a move just to make a move. 

[jud6312]

 "Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thing you do ..."

[LewFordLives]

Who does he replace?  Festa?  I'm not sure he's better than anyone they currently have in the bullpen.

[Road trip]

Huh... 2 pitch guy, despite being a former starter.  Based on the description he really needs a pitch to attack right handers.  Maybe the staff hopes to teach him a slider like they seem to do with all retreads and hope he's a quick learner?

Anyway, we hope for the best.  Welcome Trevor!

[Reptevia]

The final piece!!!

[cmoss84]

Ridiculous. 

Can't believe we gave up Jay Harry.

[LA Vikes Fan]

I think the question here is whether this guy is better than the current back end of the bullpen. In other words, is he better than Okert or Staumont? Frankly, he may be better than both of them and looks to be better than Okert or Funderburk. I would include Theilbar in that last sentence but I have a feeling he's getting better and may be back to something approximating his old self through the stretch.

This guy is probably a small upgrade to the soft underbelly of the bullpen. Better than nothing, but only marginally better.

[DocBauer]

Career OPS vs RH hitters: .757

Career OPS vs LH hitters: .689

Sure is a good thing he can hold LH bats down so low. (sarcasm*)

Really not what I was expecting at all.

[Dman]

It looks like a salary dump for Toronto and the Twins apparently the only ones willing to do a deal. Very underwhelming, but something.

[USAFChief]

There are no reverse splits.

[2wins87]

Very unlikely for this to ever look like a truly bad trade given the low price.

Richards seems like another reliever who walks too many while giving up too many homeruns.  Same problem Okert has.  Obviously neither of those traits are ever good, but I'd say it's especially undesirable in a playoff setting.  

[Colbeh]

I am hoping the Twins see something in him to increase the velocity a bit and get back to his old strikeout numbers.

Could also be a 1 for 1 replacement for Staumont if something is up with him.

[Muppet]

A warm body for a guy who can't hit in High A. A decent move if you don't trust anyone in St. Paul to fill in as needed. Can't be any worse than Okert or Thielbar have been. I'm not going to lose sleep over this one. More excited to see Dobby back actually. 

[Muppet]

And Kepler looks to have survived the last 10 trade deadlines. 

[Guest]

Pfffffffffft.

[Vanimal46]

I appreciate the attempt to find a positive from the nothing burger trade. If we get 15 decent innings out of him I’ll be surprised. 

[MMMordabito]

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Eh,  for what we paid,  can be a useful piece in the bullpen.  Really we didn't have that many holes.  Unless something jumps out this is likely it as I suggested earlier.  The prices were just too high to get much accomplished with a long term goal of competing year in and year out.  

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Still don't think Stewart is healthy and Staumont is regressing. Richards doesn't inspire much confidence but the Twins could very well have an opening or two in the pen. I would actually just prefer Varland to get a look there.

[KirbyDome89]

He's still going to face plenty of RH hitters....

[Whitey333]

Yawn, yawn, yawn, and yawn.

[KirbyDome89]

7 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Very unlikely for this to ever look like a truly bad trade given the low price.

Richards seems like another reliever who walks too many while giving up too many homeruns.  Same problem Okert has.  Obviously neither of those traits are ever good, but I'd say it's especially undesirable in a playoff setting.  

The price is irrelevant if Richards is bleeding runs during the middle innings while this team is trying to chase down a divisional foe. 

[twins_89]

So our only trade deadline acquisition is a questionable right handed reliever who has given up 15 runs over his last 8 appearances?

[saviking]

Jay who?

[USAFChief]

1 minute ago, KirbyDome89 said:

if Richards is bleeding runs during the middle innings 

That IS the price. 

[twinstalker]

9 ER in last 4.2 IP.  Bad last few years.  How and why are the Twins going to use him?  If the Twins already had him, I think we'd be calling for a DFA.  Absolutely the only thing I can think of is that someone somewhere in the org thinks they can fix him in some way.  Giving up zero is fine, but he still costs, and he costs a roster spot.

[Jeff K]

19 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

Who does he replace?  Festa?  I'm not sure he's better than anyone they currently have in the bullpen.

My thoughts EXACTLY.  Piece of crap pick up.  

[nicksaviking]

13 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

There are no reverse splits.

Pretty sure I just watched Simone Biles pull one off.

[Craig Arko]

Corresponding move(s)?