BREAKING: Twins Designate Simeon Woods Richardson for Assignment

1 hour ago, just-a-fan said:

The talent is there when it comes to SWR as a big league pitcher.  I doubt we will ever know the real reason for the DFA but given the sudden decision I lean toward a mutual parting of the ways.  Twins will be fine.  TBD for SWR.

1 hour ago, just-a-fan said:

The talent is there when it comes to SWR as a big league pitcher.  I doubt we will ever know the real reason for the DFA but given the sudden decision I lean toward a mutual parting of the ways.  Twins will be fine.  TBD for SWR.

What is one pitch he has that is even average, let alone above average?  This is a huge nothingburger

4 hours ago, ashbury said:

Uffda.  Even if he passes through waivers and maybe makes a rebound with the Twins, this seriously degrades the rearview mirror grade on the Berrios trade.

Well, yeah; but Berrios hasn't exactly been a world beater with the Jays since the trade. Maybe slightly better than OK, and now he's seriously breaking down. (His best WAR years were with the Twins, I just checked) If Martin proves to be legit long term, then the trade was acceptable, imo

4 hours ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

While I would normally agree with you, who is that? Adams has already been optioned and the rest of the guys like Morris, Orze, and Gomez are part of the future bullpen hopefully. You could DFA Taylor Rogers I guess but I don’t see a lot of other candidates. Funderburk just came up and Banda has actually been good lately. I don’t think losing SWR is going to turn out to be a big loss. In fact, I would not be surprised if he is not claimed on waivers since he has no options left. I could also see him being claimed by a team desperate for starting pitching, pitching lousy there, and getting waived again. Hopefully he won’t get claimed and we wind up trying to work out his issues in Saint Paul.

TB literally just gave those guys away but they're part of the future for MN? Yeesh....

So......the Twins starting pitching is thin, the bullpen is weak, yet, some other team will certainly make room for SWR?

5 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

Berrios bWAR in the 1.5 seasons of control the Blue Jays received: 0.8. 

SWR bWAR, even with the debacle of this year: 2.5; Martin bWAR so far: 0.7 and counting. 

Yeah, if we want to pretend like Berrios ceased to exist post 2022 because an extension conveniently nullifies post production then sure, things look a lot better for the Twins.

Berrios put up 2.5 WAR in 2023 and hit that number again in 2024. He threw nearly 200 innings each season as well. He threw basically 2/3 of SWR's entire career IPs with MN in one season. Berrios was/is in a different class. 

Austin Martin has .7 career WAR in nearly 200 games played. I mean....

4 hours ago, IndyTwinsFan said:

With 2 open spots on the 40 man, that would cover a Jenkins call up, if they want to go that route.  Not needed for Roden, as he's already on the 40 man.

That would leave at least one 40 man spot available, without taking into account other potential roster moves that may be coming.  Who else might it be for?

Other roster fallout would likely also occur as well.  Outman and Bell are two names that fans have been tossing around.  Then, how would all those spots be filled?

Lots of potential questions with no clear answers, as it now looks to me.

Fedko and Sabato, two simple answers

This HAD to happen.  SWR has been horrible.  You just can't keep giving guys chance after chance and get the same way below average result.  I can't believe Chris Paddack is still pitching.  Why is Outman still on the MLB roster much less the 40-man? 

There is no upside to SWR if he is exclusively a SP.  The fact that our BP is in the sorry state it is and the Twins don't even consider him an option is telling.

As to the 2 "open spots" on the 40-man roster.  The Twins don't seem to be in a hurry to fill them.  Maybe some future trades may require a couple additional spots on the 40 man.   

41 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

As to the 2 "open spots" on the 40-man roster.  The Twins don't seem to be in a hurry to fill them.  Maybe some future trades may require a couple additional spots on the 40 man.

There has to be a couple of late 20's, early 30's utility guys about to be DFA'd that we can trade for to fill those spots.  We do value versatility.

10 hours ago, Nshore said:

SWR hasn't been injured, so he's like a foreign substance that had to be expelled!

Maybe they're clearing space for a big trade soon to come.  Who knows.

Oh Boy,  DREAM ON.

I have no prob losing SWR. Too bad but that was a bad trade and it’s now in the rear view mirror.  I am happy to see the Twins holding players accountable.  Sure, more to come.  

What this really shows is how thin the Twins team really is! We only have 3-4 dependable pitchers on the team-and some are injured.  We have 3-4 excellent fielders.  The rest, not so much.

I do hope they now call up the young new outfielders.  The Outman experiment is over.  Let’s see if some of this upcoming talent can fill some holes.  We need to know so we can fill them next season (if there is a next season). 

This is something that has to happen.  One thing I have pointed out many times with rebuilding teams is that not every prospect you bring up is going to be successful.   You have to give them their time, and if they fail move on.  Going back to the World Series team development, the initial SS for that group was Lenny Faedo not Greg Gagne.   The original CF was Jim Eisenreich, not Kirby Puckett

You have to weed out the failures (I will categorize that Jimmy Eisenreich was not a failure on the field) quickly.   And to make the rebuild work you need to "glut" your prospects together (Hrbek, Laudner, Gaetti, Brunsansky, Puckett, Bush, Viola) weed out the ones that do not, find better prospects that work, and then fill in the holes with guys like Jeff Reardon and Dan Gladden.  

The problem with the Twins is that they are refuse to "rush" their prospects and prefer to play replacement level players in the lineup who will never be part of a core group of a rebuild.

Specifically with Woods-Richardson the reason why he was DFA was he no longer had upside.   I get he wasn't given much of a chance working from the bullpen, but as a failed starter the writing was on the wall.  As a reliever he simply did not have enough upside to stick with the team.  

Of course, that only makes sense if the Twins utilize his spot on the MLB roster with a pitcher they are trying to develop in that rebuild, rather than bringing in another 31 year old waiver wire pickup special, their preferred type of guy.

I wanted to make a note about Josh Bell.  While I think signing over the hill players (but cheap) players is a stupid strategy for this team, I am very surprised how bad he is hitting.  Josh Bell was a 110 OPS+ player last season. 100 OPS+ the year before.  He has had only one season with a OPS+ under 100, that was 2020, an injury year after his All Star year in 2019.  He is a career 112 OPS+ hitter.    He is hitting 40 points below his career batting average, 63 points below his career OBP, and 106 points below his career slugging average.  

The reason why they will keep Bell is they are paying him what is for the Twins a huge contract of $7 million.  There isn't any reason to dump him now and they can hope that he starts to hit better so they can dump him at the trade deadline for a team looking for a veteran switch hitting bat.  

I would expect to see a trade here with this.  It. Will. Not. Be. Much.

18 hours ago, strumdatjag said:

I thought he had a chance in the bullpen.   But his stats were awful this year and the Twins see him on off-days.  I trust the team on this one and won’t be fretting over SWR.  Another player gets a chance to prove himself.  

Yeah, as shocking as this move was, I would still put some trust in the front office and the manager and coaches, who are better equipped to make these decisions. I also thought he would be given a chance in the bullpen for a while, All in all, a very puzzling move, but as you noted, another player, such as Klein, will have the chance to show he belongs. Keep bringing up more prospects. 

7 hours ago, LyleCole said:

The reason why they will keep Bell is they are paying him what is for the Twins a huge contract of $7 million.  There isn't any reason to dump him now and they can hope that he starts to hit better so they can dump him at the trade deadline for a team looking for a veteran switch hitting bat.  

The problem is there will be no market for Bell at the trade deadline just like last year.  The Nationals could not find any takers for him at last year's deadline and as you noted his performance has declined even more this year.  So if they aren't willing to eat those dollars we will be stuck with him for the whole season.  And he is absolutely unplayable at 1B and doesn't hit well enough to be a full time DH.

I would just add that the reason I don't think the Twins had much interest in SWR in the BP is that he doesn't have anything dominating in his pitch arsenal.  Most BP pitchers throw mid to upper 90's or have a tremendous spin rate on a breaking pitch.  Everything in SWR's arsenal was pretty mediocre.  

22 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I am amazed - you need a wow emoji.

But I am actually quite pleased to see the organization take bold moves with SWR, Lewis, Wallner.  In the past we just hung on to poor performances.  Now the team is saying produce or move on.  I like. 

What will be next?

A true meritocracy. If you’re not performing it’s the next man up regardless. Yeah you don’t want to blow up your 40 man but there’s a line in the sand. Mediocrity will only be tolerated for so long. This should’ve been started last august.

Looking around the league SP are dropping like flies. He will get claimed by Monday afternoon. Maybe his new team will be able to get something out of him. His biggest problem is and has been walking himself into trouble. Watching him pitch this year has been hard. His splitter that was his out pitch was noncompetitive and he needed to to get away from using it. This team has far bigger problems than if SWR is on this weak roster. The last week should have told the fans just how bad this team really is. By next weekend you can put 5 more losses on their record.

2 hours ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

Yeah, as shocking as this move was, I would still put some trust in the front office and the manager and coaches, who are better equipped to make these decisions. I also thought he would be given a chance in the bullpen for a while, All in all, a very puzzling move, but as you noted, another player, such as Klein, will have the chance to show he belongs. Keep bringing up more prospects. 

Yes, it’s surprising but if you can’t send him down and he hasn’t figured it out in 50 innings and his peak was what we seen the last few years what else are you supposed to do? At some point you need to cut bait and so far this regime seems to be quicker than the last. That’s a good thing to keep this team in a wildcard race that they’re surprisingly still in and for the good of the team long term.

5 hours ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

Yeah, as shocking as this move was, I would still put some trust in the front office and the manager and coaches, who are better equipped to make these decisions. I also thought he would be given a chance in the bullpen for a while, All in all, a very puzzling move, but as you noted, another player, such as Klein, will have the chance to show he belongs. Keep bringing up more prospects. 

And it wasn’t like SWR was fueling much hope with his performance this year.  
this wasn’t an unjustified salary dump. 

On 5/30/2026 at 6:19 PM, KirbyDome89 said:

Yeah, if we want to pretend like Berrios ceased to exist post 2022 because an extension conveniently nullifies post production then sure, things look a lot better for the Twins.

Berrios put up 2.5 WAR in 2023 and hit that number again in 2024. He threw nearly 200 innings each season as well. He threw basically 2/3 of SWR's entire career IPs with MN in one season. Berrios was/is in a different class. 

Austin Martin has .7 career WAR in nearly 200 games played. I mean....

Berrios didn’t cease to exist but the Twins contractual control ceased after the 1.33 years from the trade.  WHat he did after that control ceased has zero relevance in the context of evaluating the trade.  None.  The Twins gave up 1.33 years of control and the Blue Jays received 1.33 years of control.  The Twins gained SIM and Martin and the Jays lost whatever those players produce.

The Twins made a decision not to pay him $131M.  If you want to pretend the Twins would have or should have paid him $131M.  Then, the appropriate analysis would be what they got in trade AND what they could have produced for $131M spent on another or other free agents.  Right now, that decision to not pay him $131M is looking pretty good.