From Rotation Staple to Roster Casualty: What Went Wrong for Simeon Woods Richardson? ​

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of ​© Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

When the Minnesota Twins designated Simeon Woods Richardson for assignment over the weekend, it felt shocking on the surface. Less than a year ago, he looked like a dependable back-end starter with room for more. By the end of May, however, he had become one of baseball’s least effective starting pitchers.

Woods Richardson accumulated a 0-7 record and a 7.74 ERA. Because he was out of minor-league options, Minnesota could not simply send him back to Triple-A. The only way to remove him from the active roster was to expose him to waivers.

The move was surprising because the Twins gave him only a brief look as a reliever before making their decision. Yet, when looking deeper into the numbers, it becomes easier to understand why the organization felt it had run out of alternatives.

This outcome seemed almost impossible to envision just a few months ago. Woods Richardson posted a 4.17 ERA across 134 innings in 2024 and followed it with a 4.04 ERA in 111 innings during 2025. He was never viewed as a frontline starter, but he looked capable of holding down a spot at the back of Minnesota's rotation for years.

The most encouraging development came late last season. In September, Woods Richardson unveiled a splitter that transformed his arsenal. Over his final 27 innings, he posted a 2.33 ERA while striking out 36 hitters. The new pitch generated swings and misses at an elite rate and appeared to give him the out pitch he had been missing throughout his career.

Instead of becoming a launching point for a breakout season, it became the high-water mark of his Twins career.

The season did not begin disastrously. In his first two starts, Woods Richardson combined for 11 2/3 innings while limiting the Royals and Rays to three earned runs on 10 hits. He struck out six and walked three. Unfortunately, that’s where the performance started to unravel. Over his next seven starts, he went 0-5 with a 9.79 ERA, while allowing 38 runs in just 30 1/3 innings.

The underlying numbers were even more concerning. During that stretch, he recorded only 14 strikeouts compared to 17 walks. Opponents hit .361 against him while slugging .623 and launching seven home runs. When pitchers lose the ability to miss bats and simultaneously lose command, success becomes nearly impossible. That is exactly what happened to Woods Richardson.

The splitter was supposed to be the pitch that elevated Woods Richardson to another level. Instead, it became one of the most damaging pitches in baseball. Last September, opponents hit just .077 against his splitter while generating a 37.4% whiff rate. This season, hitters batted .352 against the same pitch, and the whiff rate dropped to 20.4%.

The pitch's run value tells an even more alarming story. His splitter produced a neutral run value in 2025 across 187 pitches. This season, after 228 splitters, the pitch carried a staggering minus-13 run value. Opponents produced a .481 weighted on-base average against it. On a per-pitch basis, Woods Richardson's splitter ranked as the worst pitch in Major League Baseball this season with a -5.7 RV/100.

The pitch that once looked like a weapon suddenly became unusable. One has to wonder why he kept throwing the pitch.

The splitter was not the only offering that regressed. His slider also took a dramatic step backward despite maintaining similar velocity and usage. Last season, opponents hit just .210 against the pitch while it generated a 27.4% whiff rate. This year, hitters posted a .356 batting average against it, and the whiff rate dropped to 17.4%.

The decline was so severe that Woods Richardson produced both the worst pitch in baseball (splitter) by RV/100 and another pitch ranking among the 21 worst (slider). When two of a pitcher's primary swing-and-miss offerings suddenly stop missing bats, survival becomes difficult.

The deterioration of his secondary pitches showed up in every other area. Woods Richardson was never a dominant strikeout pitcher, but he generated enough swings and misses to remain effective. This season, the strikeouts disappeared with an 18.2 Whiff% and a 22.4 Chase%, both ranking near the bottom of the league.

His strikeout rate dropped from 21.5% last season to 11.5% in 2026. At the same time, his control worsened. His walk rate increased by 22%, and he issued 21 walks over his final 32 innings. Too often, he found himself behind in counts and struggling simply to locate pitches in the strike zone.

His 5.80 expected ERA and 6.14 FIP suggest some bad luck compared to his 7.74 ERA. However, the results were not simply bad luck. The quality of his pitching had deteriorated significantly.

Woods Richardson is still only 25 years old, which means his professional story is far from finished. Pitchers have rebuilt careers after losing velocity, command, or effectiveness, as the Twins have seen with Bailey Ober this season. The raw ingredients that once made SWR a highly regarded prospect still exist. A fresh start with a new organization could help him rediscover the splitter that briefly made him look like a breakout candidate.

For the Twins, however, the decision ultimately came down to performance. A year ago, Woods Richardson looked like a controllable rotation piece who had finally found the missing ingredient in his arsenal. Today, he and the Twins are forced to deal with one of the most dramatic year-to-year declines of any pitcher in baseball.

The Twins did not designate him for assignment because of one bad month. They did it because nearly every indicator pointed in the same direction. His fastball became more hittable. His splitter lost its magic. His slider stopped generating whiffs. The strikeouts vanished, and the walks piled up. For a pitcher who seemed poised to take the next step, everything went wrong at once.

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Can Woods Richardson turn it around? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[LewFordLives]

I was never under the illusion that SWR was a front-line starter, but why now, and only after a couple bad months? Ober was terrible almost all of last year? Why was he given a chance to get it together but not SWR?

This move would be more understandable if he was with the Yankees or Dodgers, who have other options and legit World Series asperations. The Twins, on the other hand, are struggling to fill holes in the rotation and bullpen.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I still think there is more to this story, which we may never know.  Like Charlie Rich used to sing:  "No one knows what goes on behind closed doors."

[Dman]

I guess I just don't get that they felt they couldn't keep him on 26 man in a relief role until he found some mojo?  This isn't a likely playoff team.  It's a team in desperate need of a 5th starter.

[bean5302]

Simeon Woods Richardson isn't "only 25 years old." This is his 9th season of professional baseball. He's beyond his minor league control, and beyond all his MLB options. This isn't some college draft pick who had a setback in their first exposure to MLB.

He doesn't miss bats when hitters swing, and hitters only swing when the pitch is in the zone because his stuff rarely fools hitters. That's not terrible for a sinker-baller whose game is to feast on bad contact by generating 50-60% ground ball rates, but Sim is an extreme fly ball pitcher. The profile is not sustainable. On top of that, Sim's velo and fastball started falling over at 70-80 pitches and he was frequently a 4.0 inning starter which isn't a starter at all.

Successful relievers always have a plus pitch. They can narrow down their arsenal to their best 2-3 pitches and reach back for a little more velo maybe. In SWR's case? He doesn't have a single average pitch this year by movement and velo, let alone a plus pitch to get outs. Doesn't have the velo, doesn't have the movement, doesn't have the deception, generates tons of fly balls... that's not a great profile for a reliever, either.