Breaking: Twins Calling Up Former First-Round Pick Aaron Sabato

[MeleMouth]

34 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

What leverage does Lewis have to demand a trade? I can’t imagine any other club would give him as much playing time as he has received this season with the Twins. Does he want to see the league bouncing around the waiver wire?

I don't care for Royce, or at least not Twins Royce, but several teams would be interested in him. He could thrive with a mental reset and swing change, which he could accomplish as soon as Royce accepts the humility to make them happen. 

[Whammy]

18 minutes ago, PuckettPond said:

About time. Will he wear #7 as it is the Twins 1st base number. Sabato accepts coaching Lewis does not.

What's it like to be able to say things with such confidence that you have no idea about?

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, IndianaTwin said:

For whom? 

The Bell tolls?

[DJL44]

26 minutes ago, old nurse said:

What leverage does he have to not want to trade him? Third season in a row with less than average results

Trade for what? The waivers fee?

[DJL44]

Maybe we will see Roden at 1B with Sabato getting a spot start vs LHP.

[Patzky]

29 minutes ago, 1985Fan said:

Good to see. Put Lewis on the IL, 60 day to make room and let Sabato play 1B. They need a RH power bat in the lineup. Interesting to hear Lewis shoulder is still a problem. Might explain his slump. 

Try out Sabato-Roden at First? If Josh Bell isn't going to get to 100 RBI sit him a bit at the end with our gratitude. 

[D.C Twins]

Well-deserved reward for amazing perseverance working on his craft.

A feel good story for sure!

[Danchat]

6 games isn't enough to evaluate a guy, feels to me like they want to give Sabato a cup of coffee but he's not in the future plans with the team. If he was, you don't call him up the final week of the season in his age 27 season. Hitting well in these 6 games is too small a sample size to change anything about his outlook, unfortunately. It's a consequence of continuing to play the vets despite the team already falling into irrelevance.

[Saxophone Joe]

12 minutes ago, Patzky said:

If Josh Bell isn't going to get to 100 RBI sit him a bit at the end with our gratitude. 

I noticed the fist pump he gave after getting to 90 RBI yesterday. We definitely got the full Josh Bell experience this year. I think he had two stretches where he went close to a month without a homer. When he's hot, he's hot though. 

Put him with a domed team next season (Texas? Houston?) and he'll put up solid numbers again. 

[D.C Twins]

1 hour ago, rv78 said:

Kind of sounds like he is in a no win situation. If he plays and does fantastic, is he just trade bait? The article points to that direction. If he doesn't then what happens? He gets demoted back to AAA? It's like the Twins are so loaded at 1st base there isn't room for him. That's a laugh. Show us what you got in a week and then we'll decide. Really? If the chosen one, Lewis, would have been treated the same way, he'd have been gone a long time ago. He got to start at SS, that didn't work, then he got to try 3B, that didn't work, then they move him to 1B, that didn't work. Sabato gets to play 1B over Lewis? Hell must have frozen over.

I strongly suspect that Sabato does not see the opportunity to be an MLB player for the first time as a 'no win situation'   

A lifelong goal achieved maybe? yeah... let's probably go with that.

[LastOnePicked]

Hey, this is great. Even if he never gets back, at least he made it.

Maybe he hits 3-5 HR in the last six games and creates a little reputation for himself that he can carry forward.

[DJL44]

36 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Neither player has any leverage. Neither player has a good fit on the team next year.

Or any other team. I don’t know why people assume other teams would want players the Twins don’t want. The Rockies traded for Julien and got -1 WAR. 

[PuckettPond]

30 minutes ago, Whammy said:

What's it like to be able to say things with such confidence that you have no idea about?

Royce Lewis' Quotes Are Half-Right about Baseball’s Contract Structure by 

Peter Labuza

• August 31, 2025 in Twins Daily
• Maybe this will help.

[DJL44]

7 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I noticed the fist pump he gave after getting to 90 RBI yesterday. We definitely got the full Josh Bell experience this year. I think he had two stretches where he went close to a month without a homer. When he's hot, he's hot though. 

Put him with a domed team next season (Texas? Houston?) and he'll put up solid numbers again. 

Bell exceeded expectations and put up his best season since 2022. It is unlikely he performs any better next year. He’s a below average DH at this point in his career and not worth more than $3M on a free agent contract.

[old nurse]

30 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Trade for what? The waivers fee?

Most trades for below average players net a career minor league player. Trading for 50k is a better outcome, although the fans here seem to think a longshot prospect is better. 

[Nashvilletwin]

The Twins tried very hard - very, very hard - to make Royce into the next Buxton; namely the fan favorite cornerstone of the commercial side of the equation.  Sadly, it just didn’t pan out that way.  Whether the Twins ruined Royce by playing him all over the diamond or whatever, the sad truth is that he cannot hit well enough or consistently enough or field extraordinarily enough to make up for the hitting deficiencies to be at least an average major leaguer. Bye Royce - best of luck to you at your new change of scenery.  You need it and the Twins need it.

Now they have multiple alternatives to build into that role - Culpepper, Jenkins, ERod, Keaschall.  And don’t count out Houston or Lackey in the next year or two. 

The Twins may/should be looking at the likely strike shortened ‘27 season as an opportunity to reset out of the old and transition/invest in the new.  As part of that, first base is now wide open for next season. Wide open - as it certainly should be. And Sabato is 100% one of the options. He may not end up winning the job, but he’s in the mix. And for many, he’s ahead of Lewis - as everyone knows he’s not the answer - as a possible solution.

 

[Patzky]

21 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I noticed the fist pump he gave after getting to 90 RBI yesterday. We definitely got the full Josh Bell experience this year. I think he had two stretches where he went close to a month without a homer. When he's hot, he's hot though. 

Put him with a domed team next season (Texas? Houston?) and he'll put up solid numbers again. 

He loves to hit in Texas. 

[Patzky]

10 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Bell exceeded expectations and put up his best season since 2022. It is unlikely he performs any better next year. He’s a below average DH at this point in his career and not worth more than $3M on a free agent contract.

And if he'd sign for 3 million here I'd say certainly.

[DJL44]

If Larnach and Lewis are both injured and have been playing through injuries for a month with awful results, that says something really bad about Shelton for keeping them in the lineup every day.

[killercarewoliva]

2 hours ago, Patzky said:

Too many Xmas presents under the tree! How will we ever be able to open them all...

Christmas

[LA Vikes Fan]

Just now, Nashvilletwin said:

The Twins tried very hard - very, very hard - to make Royce into the next Buxton; namely the fan favorite cornerstone of the commercial side of the equation.  Sadly, it just didn’t pan out that way.  Whether the Twins ruined Royce by playing him all over the diamond or whatever, the sad truth is that he cannot hit well enough or consistently enough or field extraordinarily enough to make up for the hitting deficiencies to be at least an average major leaguer. Bye Royce - best of luck to you at your new change of scenery.  You need it and the Twins need it.

Now they have multiple alternatives to build into that role - Culpepper, Jenkins, ERod, Keaschall.  And don’t count out Houston or Lackey in the next year or two. 

The Twins may/should be looking at the likely strike shortened ‘27 season as on opportunity to reset out of the old and transition/invest in the new.  As part of that, first base is now wide open for next season. Wide open. And Sabato is 100% one of the options. He may not end up winning the job, but he’s in the mix. And for many, he’s ahead of Lewis - as everyone knows he’s not the answer - as a possible solution.

 

I generally agree but I think we all need to remember 1 thing - Lewis has had 2 ACL reconstructions and several other significant soft tissue injuries. He's not the same guy he was in 2023. He is a physically diminished player. Just watch him run some time. He's a baseball player, not an offensive lineman. A major knee injury can be a career killer in baseball. Maybe the injuries have affected his swing, maybe not, but he clearly is not the same player we saw in 2023 and probably will never be that guy again.  

I think he would be a great chang of scenery candidate for a trade. I wonder if there's a deal out there to move him to a team like the Angels for a pitcher with arm talent but control issues like Grayson Rodriguez or a young 2B with a "maybe" bat like Vaugh Grissom. Could be good for both teams, could be good for the players as well. This is something we should explore in the offseason. 

[Riverbrian]

Good

It won't amount to much.

The remaining games won't amount to much sample wise and his presence on the 40 man roster will have to be dealt with in the off-season. 

But... I'm glad for him and hope he can make a positive small sample impression. 

[mickster]

8 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Good

It won't amount to much.

The remaining games won't amount to much sample wise and his presence on the 40 man roster will have to be dealt with in the off-season. 

But... I'm glad for him and hope he can make a positive small sample impression. 

a promotion that leads to a DFA in the offseason

[Palindrome Bob]

Great for him. As a longtime baseball fan, I love to see things like this. Sabato was starting to seem like the John Lindsay of the Twins organization, and now at least he gets the Lindsay cup of coffee, and perhaps more.

I imagine they'll put Buxton on the 60 day to get him on the 40-man. The ML roster is a little trickier, but if Lewis can go on the IL, that'd be the best move for a number of reasons. The only other truly vulnerable spot I can discern is Alex Jackson's, and if they've held onto Jackson this long, they're not going to let him go now, especially given the potential issues with the ML catching corps next year.

Also, let's please quit the calls for Josh Bell's spot. He's been one of the team's best hitters, and even purely as a DH, there was/is clearly no one else in the organization who could do what he did both at the plate and in the clubhouse this year. It'd hurt the team, be tremendously disrespectful, and he wouldn't qualify for another team's playoff roster anyway. That said, would I like some of his ABs to go to Sabato? Sure, but I'd prefer that Lewis and Clemens surrender theirs (in that order).

This callup does seem too brief to be an honest assessment of whether Sabato could replace Bell next year, but to that end, it's better than nothing -- and wonderful to see a guy who'd both paid his dues *and* delivered a promotion-worthy AAA season get the call.









 

[Patzky]

15 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Good

It won't amount to much.

The remaining games won't amount to much sample wise and his presence on the 40 man roster will have to be dealt with in the off-season. 

But... I'm glad for him and hope he can make a positive small sample impression. 

Alex Jackson needs a Checkers mate.

[thelanges5]

Six games left, are they sure they don’t need a third catcher?
 

Bobby N:

Twins make Aaron Sabato’s promotion official. Alex Jackson was designated for assignment.

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Or any other team. I don’t know why people assume other teams would want players the Twins don’t want. The Rockies traded for Julien and got -1 WAR. 

Why don't we simply package together all of our crap and then trade it all for a good player? 

[4twinsJA]

To me, this is Twins saying they will carry Sabato on 40 man over the winter. Would the Twins be worse off with Sabato at 1B compared to Lewis? We have not seen Sabato against MLB pitching, but Lewis does not set the bar very high. 

[Vanimal46]

Zoll has to go. They punted a roster spot for 2 months only to let Alex Jackson go in the final week of the season? Incompetence at its finest. 

[DJL44]

2 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Zoll has to go. They punted a roster spot for 2 months only to let Alex Jackson go in the final week of the season? Incompetence at its finest. 

And apparently did it while giving every day playing time to an injured Larnach and Lewis.