TRADE: Twins Acquire Left-Handed Reliever Anthony Banda from Dodgers

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins traded international bonus pool allotments to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for left-handed reliever Anthony Banda on Thursday, they announced. Twins Daily's John Bonnes was on site in Ft. Myers for the news.

Banda, 32, has pitched in nine major-league seasons for eight different teams. He has an unimpressive 4.44 career ERA, but since the start of 2024, he's appeared in 119 games and has a 3.14 ERA. He pitched in 17 postseason games for the Dodgers during their back-to-back World Series championship runs. He struck out 23.3% of opposing batters over those two campaigns.

Despite having pitched in each of the last nine big-league seasons, Banda has only amassed a bit over 4 years of major-league service time. The Dodgers agreed to a $1.625-million deal with Banda in early January, to avoid arbitration, but they designated him for assignment a month later. Now, the Twins have a chance to control Banda through 2027, at a low price. They designated right-handed journeyman Jackson Kowar for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Banda.

With a low three-quarter arm slot and a plus sweeper, Banda is tough on fellow lefties. He throws both a sinker and a four-seamer, each around 96 miles per hour, leaning on the former against lefties and the latter against righties. His changeup is nothing to write home about, but as a left-handed middle reliever, you can do much worse than Banda. He joins Taylor Rogers and Kody Funderburk as likely candidates for the lefty side of the Minnesota bullpen this year. Slowly and late in the game, the team is cobbling together a semi-reliable bullpen, although they still lack anyone who feels like a relief ace.

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[bunsen82]

Boom.  Told you guys.   Now we will see how much.   This is a nice addition to the allotment of arms,  and logistically it cost us zero (excess international allotment).  

[Vanimal46]

You know what, this is their best move of the offseason. The bar is pretty low, but at least this guy could be a late innings type of reliever. 

[Rigby]

In my estimation, a club looking to build a sustainable competitive franchise does not trade international bonus monies. Especially to a team with unlimited resources. Excessively poor move...

[dberthia]

Perfect signing for this team: "control" and "low price".

[bunsen82]

3 minutes ago, Rigby said:

In my estimation, a club looking to build a sustainable competitive franchise does not trade international bonus monies. Especially to a team with unlimited resources. Excessively poor move...

The Twins already signed their players Rigby.   If its the 2026 allotment which it should be there is literally zero downside,  unless you miss out on someone late in the year.   You picked up a legit reliever with 2 -3 years of control and only costing $1.6 million.  If we are trying to compete this year,  this trade is a necessity.  If we are tanking then no.   

[sweetmusicviola16]

Whether his success can translate to MN is the question. Yeah probably the best move they've made this off season. 

[farmerguychris]

What a sad state of affairs for MLB when one team's castoffs can become a star on a different team.

[Permanent Twins Fan]

7 minutes ago, dberthia said:

Perfect signing for this team: "control" and "low price".

Louie Varland? Oh wait, never mind.

[Patzky]

7 hours ago, farmerguychris said:

What a sad state of affairs for MLB when one team's castoffs can become a star on a different team.

There's this winning Super Bowl QB who'd like a word

[bunsen82]

2 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

What a sad state of affairs for MLB when one team's castoffs can become a star on a different team.

Granted its self inflicted,  but he goes from being the #4 LH  although 1 of them is purely due to money,  to likely being the #1 left hander  for the Twins.  That pecking order could change.  

[bunsen82]

1 minute ago, Permanent Twins Fan said:

Louie Varland? Oh wait, never mind.

To be fair we got a lot more in return than a little international money.  It appears though that itch hasn't been fully scratched for you yet.  

[Rigby]

2 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

The Twins already signed their players Rigby.   If its the 2026 allotment which it should be there is literally zero downside,  unless you miss out on someone late in the year.  

To be clear, I have zero issue with acquiring Banda. I take issue with giving ground on one of the few areas a mid tier franchise can compete through identification and development. The Twins have performed poorly in the international market - trading opportunity as opposed to cash considerations or a low level prospect is in my opinion ill advised. And for the record we have no indication the monies are from the 2026 pool. Appears the Twins just added Jeferson Abreu as a late sign. Much rather enhance the international scouting and development.

[NYCTK]

Depth is so important in the bullpen and this really helps a lot there. This move is both really good and not a surprise. This leftover, optionless, bullpen arm musical chairs is played every year and is why a lot of teams refuse to invest too heavily into the bullpen. 

Now, this still doesn't make this bullpen formidable, but it does a lot to bring it towards respectable. 

[bunsen82]

2 minutes ago, Rigby said:

To be clear, I have zero issue with acquiring Banda. I take issue with giving ground on one of the few areas a mid tier franchise can compete through identification and development. The Twins have performed poorly in the international market - trading opportunity as opposed to cash considerations or a low level prospect is in my opinion ill advised. And for the record we have no indication the monies are from the 2026 pool. Appears the Twins just added Jeferson Abreu as a late sign. Much rather enhance the international scouting and development.

I understand the theory,  but we didn't use our full allotment.   

[LA Vikes Fan]

This is a good move. I live in LA and Banda has been a good, pretty relievable reliever for the Dodgers the last two years. Not only that, they haven't been afraid to use him in higher leverage situations; he's not just a middle inning guy. The only concern is that his ERA is better than his FIP so he may have benefitted from an above average Dodger defense. The Twins, not so good on defense. Still, good floor raising signing and one that could have a late inning impact. 

[DJL44]

15 minutes ago, Rigby said:

In my estimation, a club looking to build a sustainable competitive franchise does not trade international bonus monies. Especially to a team with unlimited resources. Excessively poor move...

I agree. International bonus money is usually a positive return on investment and shouldn't be traded away by small-market teams. However, what are the odds that the Twins can turn that international bonus money into a useful relief pitcher through signing and developing? 

19 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

You know what, this is their best move of the offseason. The bar is pretty low, but at least this guy could be a late innings type of reliever. 

Banda might be the Twins closer. If he gets a few saves, they might be trading him away at the deadline for something better than international bonus money.

[DJL44]

3 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

The only concern is that his ERA is better than his FIP so he may have benefitted from an above average Dodger defense. The Twins, not so good on defense. 

This should be a concern. He's a lefty groundball pitcher and his SS changed from Mookie Betts to Brooks Lee.

[mikelink45]

The best move so far, but when someone who has been DFA'd is the best move it means we still have a lot of work to do.

[old nurse]

30 minutes ago, Rigby said:

To be clear, I have zero issue with acquiring Banda. I take issue with giving ground on one of the few areas a mid tier franchise can compete through identification and development. The Twins have performed poorly in the international market - trading opportunity as opposed to cash considerations or a low level prospect is in my opinion ill advised. And for the record we have no indication the monies are from the 2026 pool. Appears the Twins just added Jeferson Abreu as a late sign. Much rather enhance the international scouting and development.

 

27 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

I understand the theory,  but we didn't use our full allotment.   

According to Sportrac the Twins still had 1,067,100 left. I would guess the amount of pool money was around the usual 50k when players are traded for cash. The Dodgers don’’t need the cash, they need ways to spend it 

[Parfigliano]

39 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

What a sad state of affairs for MLB when one team's castoffs can become a star on a different team.

 LAD DFA improves TC BP.

[NJM]

I really like this move, really hope it builds some momentum in the FO for maybe more moves during this part of early spring training. 

[DJL44]

10 minutes ago, old nurse said:

According to Sportrac the Twins still had 1,067,100 left. I would guess the amount of pool money was around the usual 50k when players are traded for cash. The Dodgers don’’t need the cash, they need ways to spend it 

International bonus money can be dealt in increments of $250,000

[SF Twins Fan]

When was the last time the Twins made an impactful internation signing?  The 2009 class?

[sweetmusicviola16]

500k of IFA pool money is the cost. I'm neither here nor there on that cost, but I will say I wish the Twins would do a better job with Internationals. And if I had my druthers would have rather seen another significant future prospect picked up when signings were happening than have Banda. Just my opinion. 

[Brett]

And now we don’t have to rush Prielipp to the show if Rogers or Funderburk get hurt or underperform. Worth it.

[amjgt]

10 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

When was the last time the Twins made an impactful internation signing?  The 2009 class?

Maybe Bill Smith sold the Minnesota Twins soul to the devil for that 2009 International signing success.

[Dman]

Using International Bonus money means the Twins gave the Dodgers no real money, just the ability to spend the agreed upon Dollars on international players (cue the cheap Pohlads comments).

As others have mentioned the ability to spend that money on some 16 year old that likely never makes it to MLB versus spending it on a pretty decent lefty reliever sounds like a great investment to me.  Especially since there is no guarantee they will spend ALL of their allotment anyway.

The Dodgers have been really, really good at finding good international players so it makes sense they would want more money in their pool especially with a very full roster as things stand.

I think the Twins got a good deal here and LA gets a chance to recoup some young talent with long odds to turn out.

[Jose Herrera]

Besides the Julien/Ohl trade, I’m pleased with all the signings and trades we have made this offseason. Until we build an international program that yields decent results, we should keep making moves like this. 

 

[CRF]

At least this guy has a pulse.