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In the Dallas Hilton Anatole's answer to the midnight tumbleweed across a ghost town's main street, MLB reporter Stephanie Apstein clued us all in early Tuesday morning to a minor-league signing that will satisfy one very niche type of Twins prospect nerd.
This would not be newsworthy, really, except that Huascar Ynoa was the teenage hurler whom the Twins sent to Atlanta in the ill-fated Jaime García trade in 2017. Four years later, for the merest blink of an eye, it looked like he would make the team look foolish, as he pitched 91 strong innings across 18 appearances for Atlanta and won a World Series ring (though he was the furthest thing from an instrumental part of their title run), fanning 100 and walking just 25.
A year later, Ynoa crashed back out of the majors, possibly for good. He underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of 2022, missed all of 2023, and struggled for much of 2024. He didn't pitch for Atlanta at all this year and became a minor-league free agent after the season. However, there's a glimmer of hope for some kind of recovery.
Late in the season, Ynoa's fastball seemed to regain the zip that had been missing since his return. He averaged almost 95 miles per hour with the heater in September, without an attendant rise in velocity on his breaking ball.
At this juncture, Ynoa is unlikely to make a major impact, but his future is most likely in relief. In light of that, even an extra tick—the ability to sit 95 and touch 97, with the good slider—goes a long way. The Twins can bring him to big-league camp without worrying about a roster spot for him right away, and evaluate whatever continued improvement he shows as his fully healed arm continues to progress. He's still only 26 years old, so it's worth at least giving him that extra look.
By way of a refresher, the Twins traded Ynoa for Jaime García and catcher Anthony Recker on Jul. 24, 2017, when they were on the fringes of contention. After just one start, though (and amid a stretch of seven losses in eight games to sag below .500), the team flipped García to the Yankees, picking up Zack Littell in the process. The transaction string worked out fine, really, since Littell would go on to deliver some value for the team in his own run of bullpen success, and the 2017 Twins managed to bravely power through to the playoffs despite the loss of their beloved leader, García. It was so weird, though, that many fans still remember it less than fondly—and for a moment, when Ynoa looked like a potential medium-term contributor for Atlanta, the move was infamous.
Deals like this are functionally free. They cost mostly whatever it took to convince the player in question they have a shot at a real role with the team in question for the coming season. Ynoa will have to show a lot to make the Twins roster before an opt-out date in the contract arrives, but if nothing else, this small move brings an old trade full-circle. It also adds one more intriguing arm to a deep collection of them, come February.
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