Minnesota Twins Acquire Relief Pitcher Eric Orze in Trade with Tampa Bay Rays

[Peter Labuza]

Image courtesy of © Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

In what is sure to be the blockbuster move of the winter season (just kidding… maybe?), the Twins and Tampa Bay Rays made a trade Tuesday, swapping major league-ready hurler Eric Orze for minor-leaguer Jacob Kisting.

The 6-foot-4 Orze made his debut with the Mets during the 2024 season, before the team dealt him to the Rays for Jose Siri. He ranked 51st on Tampa’s seemingly endless prospect chart.

Orze did not make the Opening Day roster, but he appeared only two weeks into the season, and eventually posted a 3.02 ERA over 41 2/3 innings. The underlying stuff offers cause for some concern, including a 4.65 xFIP and a 10.7% walk rate. Tampa optioned Orze back to Triple A in July, but the decision allowed some tinkering that pushed his game forward. Though trading with the Rays can be a dangerous game, the team often ends up with a roster crunch that pushes good players through their cracks; ask Joe Ryan.

Orze transferred from Northwest Florida State College to the University of New Orleans, before he discovered that he had testicular cancer in 2018. When he was ready to return to the mound, the pandemic pushed him back to the sidelines. Despite the short track record, the Mets drafted him in the fifth round, as the 150th overall pick. 

He relies on a splitter with lots of depth, which plays off a four-seamer and a slider. The splitter shows signs of wildness, hovering around 84mph and often dropping out of the zone to induce swings and misses—but without much luck getting strikes if hitters don't chase. In that case, he pushes a fastball that comes in around 94 mph, from a true three-quarter arm lot. His slider has a fine spin rate, but hitters demolished for a .404 AVG and an .844 SLG last year. Prospect analyst Eric Lonenhiggen suggested last year that Orze could comp to Trevor Richards, if he could manage more strikes. (But, like the good Trevor Richards. Not the Twins version.)

Sent off in the trade is Jacob Kisting, drafted out of Bradley University in the 14th round in 2024. Kisting pitched mostly in relief for the Low- and High-A Twins affiliates in 2025, leaning on a high strikeout rate for an overall 3.79 ERA over 73 2/3 innings, and getting at least a couple votes from the Twins Daily staff for minor-league reliever of the year. 

Like most prospects at this level, it’s hard to know exactly how he might develop, though never discount the Rays when it comes to developing monsters from anonymous relief arms.

Expect Orze on the Opening Day roster. If the stuff is there, he could manage his way up the relatively open pecking order into a 7th- or 8th-inning role. The Rays generally left him as a one-inning guy, but called upon him a few times to go a second. If his stuff is less than stellar, he might do the same for the Twins.

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[IndianaTwin]

Hey, Siri -- go to New York in exchange for Orze.

[sweetmusicviola16]

These are the kind of moves I expect all off season. Nothing wrong with it. But this is what you will have to do over and over again as the result of the mass destruction made upon your organization.

[thelanges5]

The first block in the bullpen rebuild. Let’s go Twins.

[IndyTwinsFan]

Our first entrant in this off-season's dumpster diving "war".  Yippee!

I agree there's a good likelihood he ends up on the opening day roster.  Hopefully, he can amount to something that's even semi-useful.  But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. 

[CRF]

Oh boy. 

[Fatbat]

Interesting deal. Gonna be 3 years til this deal swap plays out…

[DocBauer]

I kinda Ike this move even though it looks low wattage on the excitement meter. He's got good size and I like his pitch mix.

He averaged over 12K per 9 in the minors, so I think there's at least something for the Twins to work with here. The Twins seem pretty adept on helping develop sliders and it seems they've been leaning in to splitters more lately.

Not exciting, but possibly a smart add. 

[sweetmusicviola16]

6 minutes ago, IndyTwinsFan said:

Our first entrant in this off-season's dumpster diving "war".  Yippee!

I agree there's a good likelihood he ends up on the opening day roster.  Hopefully, he can amount to something that's even semi-useful.  But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. 

As mentioned in the article the underlying stuff isn't cause for high hopes. This is very much along the lines of the numerous August pickups. But it is what it is and you never know. I'm sure lots more mud will get thrown at the wall in the next 3 months hoping a dab sticks here and there. 

[Riverbrian]

29 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

These are the kind of moves I expect all off season. Nothing wrong with it. But this is what you will have to do over and over again as the result of the mass destruction made upon your organization.

One way or another. 26 men will head North out of Ft. Myers. 

Who Knows... New players all over the place. 

This might be fun! 

[DJL44]

Nice job turning a 14th round pick into a pitcher who should get some innings this season.

[Mike Sixel]

8 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Nice job turning a 14th round pick into a pitcher who should get some innings this season.

This. 

[Permanent Twins Fan]

Not a exciting move, but I like it nonetheless. If Ozre can give them 30 innings in a middle of the bullpen role, than that is a win. It's a good story with Ozre, and hopefully he can turn into something for the Twins. There are still a lot of uncertainty around the bullpen, but he should be on the Opening Day roster.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Nothing wrong with this trade. They need to start somewhere with the bullpen rebuild.

[ashbury]

With Eric Orze's name already being consistently misspelled in this and other threads, I'd like to suggest we go ahead and call him what my anagram generator came up with after several gigawatts of computation: Rice Zero.  It will save us all a lot of trouble remembering.

[IndyTwinsFan]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

One way or another. 26 men will head North out of Ft. Myers. 

Who Knows... New players all over the place. 

This might be fun! 

Time will tell. 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

One way or another. 265 men will head North 

I imagine New York Mets fans were saying something similar in the winter of 1961-1962.

[Bodie]

2 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I kinda Ike this move even though it looks low wattage on the excitement meter. He's got good size and I like his pitch mix.

He averaged over 12K per 9 in the minors, so I think there's at least something for the Twins to work with here. The Twins seem pretty adept on helping develop sliders and it seems they've been leaning in to splitters more lately.

Not exciting, but possibly a smart add. 

Add in the "funky" delivery and he could be a piece.  

Hopefully,  a piece of the bullpen!

[IndianaTwin]

It’s a work in progress that will change many times between now and spring, but among the 19 pitchers on the 40 man roster, the current eight relievers appear to be: 

• Sands, Topa, Funderburk and now Orze with more than 40 or so innings in the majors in their career.
• Adams and Ohl, who got cups of coffee.
• Prielipp and Raya as two that Falvey has specifically named as potential transitions to the bullpen.

To go along with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, SWR, Festa, Matthews, Abel, Bradley, Morris, Rojas and Klein on the starter depth chart in some order.

And that fills the 40-man roster, so future acquisitions will start DFAing guys. Let’s start with Coulombe for, say, Kreidler.  
 

[Dave Borton]

Oh man, oh man.

Definitely going to need a spring guide come February.

 

[Riverbrian]

7 hours ago, ashbury said:

I imagine New York Mets fans were saying something similar in the winter of 1961-1962.

[rv78]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Or you could say............ My team IS the floor.

[UK Twin]

Seems a reasonable enough move. Bullpen needs arms, this guy is probably more a middle relief pitcher than pitching in high leverage situations but that's fine. If he can keep his ERA around 3.50 it will be a solid addition.

[rdehring]

No nothing about either the guy coming from Tampa Bay or the guy leaving the organization.  What I like is that their first move is for a bullpen arm.  Expect there will be many more trades for bullpen arms over the coming months.  Hopefully, at least one is for someone capable of pitching the 8th or 9th innings.

Should they make four or five trades like this, hopefully, one will be a pleasant surprise and another will be a solid middle innings guy.  Bullpen needs a lot of work.  This is step one.

[TheLeviathan]

/offseason

What a barnburner!  Glad we're all set!

[Hubie29]

10 hours ago, Bodie said:

Add in the "funky" delivery and he could be a piece.  

Hopefully,  a piece of the bullpen!

I'm sure he will be a "piece". Question is a piece of what?

[The Great Hambino]

23 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

I'm sure he will be a "piece". Question is a piece of what?

Funny how calling someone a piece of shizz is basically the same as calling someone shizz, but calling them a piece of azz is completely different from calling them azz

How anyone ever learns English as an adult is completely beyond me

[LambchoP]

Good start, keep the moves coming please!

[Dave Borton]

43 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

Funny how calling someone a piece of shizz is basically the same as calling someone shizz, but calling them a piece of azz is completely different from calling them azz

How anyone ever learns Engilish as an adult is completely beyond me

I often am as baffled watching Britbox and trying to figure out both the idioms and slang they use.

[Blyleven2011]

58 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

Good start, keep the moves coming please!

A good start , could be ...

He pitched mostly in low leverage situations but had success there ...

He pitched against the twins twice , he didn't pitch against Pittsburgh so shelton has no influence on this trade , its completely a falvey move ... 

Making the lineup out of spring training would be a good start , a depth piece in AAA  , he has options ...